Market Commentary

Public Perception Fuels Economic Trends

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The following is a guest post. If you’d like to guest post on the Dividend Ninja, be sure to check out our Guest Posting Guidelines. Economic analysts use a number of metrics to determine the health of financial markets. Depending upon the area investigated, the data includes spending trends, outstanding debt, import/export balance and a host of variables specific to various economic sectors. While each of the measurements furnishes insight into financial health, consumer confidence is one of the most accessible indicators, providing a broad understanding of public perception. The way people feel about money and their financial futures influences …

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The Shift to Late Expansion Sectors

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Written by Donald Dony, author of the www.technicalspeculator.com. If you’d like to guest post on the Dividend Ninja, be sure to check out our Guest Posting Guidelines. As a new bull market progresses, there is a normal sequence of economic development. This progression favours certain industry groups at different times. In the late contraction stage of the economy, the financial and consumer discretionaries sectors are favoured. These two groups are usually the leaders. As the economy begins to expand and recover, the technology, services and construction sectors show greater performance. In the middle expansion phase, industry and basic materials are favoured. …

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Is the Stock Market in a Bubble?

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Written by Ben Carlson Investors seem to carry emotional scars from the dotcom bubble in 2000, and the debt bubble of the 2008 to 2009 Financial Crisis. Both bubbles caused massive losses for investors. Hindsight bias causes us to look at past events and assume they were much more predictable than they actually were at the time.  It’s the “I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.” Since those crashes are so fresh in our memories, we are now subject to knee jerk reactions. Any time an investment rises in substantially in price we hear a chorus of bubble calls. Morgan Housel of the Motley Fool …

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Are U.S. Dividend Stocks Overpriced?

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Written by Ben Carlson US dividend stocks have had a great run.  They outperformed during the 2000-2002 bear market.  They held their own in the ensuing bull market of 2003-2007. They have also made great investments since the 2008 downturn and subsequent recovery. Since 2008, as measured by the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY), US dividend stocks are outperforming the S&P 500 by nearly 25% through the end of October. This is quite a nice run for an investment that is generally considered to be stable and long-term in nature.  Dividend stocks have also outperformed with much lower volatility than …

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