The three major US stock indexes opened a bit higher this morning, and after some volatility have managed to get to the final half hour of trading with a modest gain. Some…
This week should be the last waves of the normalized quarterly earnings reports for companies with December 31 quarter-end dates. We are also starting to get a few of the first waves…
It is rare for one of America’s largest companies to lose a third or more of its sales in a brief time. When it happens, it is usually either because of market…
It was not that long ago that Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) was removed from our 2012 Model Dividend Portfolio. Our take was that the metrics of the domestic tobacco industry were…
The continued rise in tobacco stocks is certainly cheered by tobacco stock investors who own the stocks for the high dividends. The problem is that there seems to be a phantom premium now…
24/7 Wall St. has just released its 2012 Model Dividend Portfolio for investors. While we have many names we have featured as buys in our income and defensive stock sectors, this is…
Stocks opened lower this morning and trailed mostly lower throughout the day. Today’s wholesale inventory reported showed a gain of 1.6% and the initial jobless claims were substantially lower than expectations of…
Jon OggThese are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Thursday morning. Brightpoint Inc. (NASDAQ: CELL) Reiterate as Buy with a $14 price…
Some of the highest dividend yields from any sector come from tobacco stocks. That’s why a relatively weak report from one of the cigarette makers gives pause to investors looking for a…
The market sure didn’t feel too great through much of the warning, but the day turned out a lot better than it was looking. Weekly jobless claims remained stubbornly above the 400,000…
We have already seen waves and waves of earnings reports this week, yet we have many more Dow Jones Industrial Average companies reporting earnings and several other key companies that investors and…
Europe posted anemic GDP growth in the second quarter of 2011, but the continent can still avoid a double-dip recession if European governments could solve a few problems. First is high unemployment…
Jon OggThese are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Wednesday morning. Bankrate Inc. (NYSE: RATE) Started as Buy at Citigroup; Started as…
Battles with the US government hurt several stocks. Raymond James will pay $300 million for disputes over auction rate securities. Monsanto is under investigation for potential illegal payments to customers. HealthSouth was…
If you have seen the graphic images that will go on cigarette packages late in 2011, you might think that the tobacco companies have finally met their match. The graphic images are…
Jon C. Ogg 
