Water utilities are largely insulated from potential disruption. Read More

It’s been a tense time for the stock market, which is richly valued and so vulnerable to any sort of bad news.But today, good news arrived to send us into the weekend feeling a bit more relaxed.(I’m not even going to comment on last night’s National(s) tragedy. There’s always next year.)First,… Read More

Over the past three months shares of Best Buy (BBY) gained 25% while the S&P 500 Index declined by nearly 2%. The biggest part of that jump occurred on Aug. 23, the day after Best Buy announced better-than-expected quarterly earnings. And over the past three days it has tacked on… Read More

Over the past three months shares of Best Buy (BBY) gained 25% while the S&P 500 Index declined by nearly 2%. The biggest part of that jump occurred on Aug. 23, the day after Best Buy announced better-than-expected quarterly earnings. And over the past three days it has tacked on… Read More

A new PBS documentary traces ethanol’s effects on public policy and the environment. As a contributor, I can tell you the picture often isn’t pretty. Read More

Big day in my household.First: Game Five tonight in the National League Division Series … Go Nats!Second: Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Go Bob! (I’m a big fan.)The thing is, Dylan doesn’t care much about awards. In that sense, he reminds me of Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch… Read More

I shouldn’t have been surprised when I read the news yesterday that Toys R Us was selling FAO Schwarz. Toys R Us bought FAO in 2009 as part of a strategy to take market share during the economic downturn and to raise its profile. Founded in 1862, FAO Schwarz was… Read More

Baseball, football, politics – I understand there are some serious distractions this week.On the financial front, just this afternoon the Fed released minutes of the September Federal Open Market Committee meeting at which three members dissented from the decision not to raise rates. The minutes revealed that “several members” supported… Read More

Natural gas prices have more than doubled from the springtime lows and will need a cold winter to keep running. Read More

Alcoa, the aluminum giant, kicked off the third-quarter earnings season this morning by laying an egg: revenue and earnings were lower than expected.A bellwether company for the industrial sector, Alcoa (NYSE: AA) was down about 10% in early afternoon after posting earnings of 32 cents per share, vs. analysts’ consensus… Read More