The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 300 points and erased its gains for the year as investors grew more concerned about economic weakness in the U.S. and Europe.
Category: Stocks
Why Are Gold Stocks Falling?
Gold stocks normally amplify the gains from gold. If gold goes up 10%, then a good gold stock should go up 20%. So traders look for this ‘leverage’ to the gold price in gold stocks.
That was until ETFs became such a big force on the market.
Now traders can invest directly in gold ETFs with borrowed money to get the same effect. It saves having to do all that annoying research into a gold company.
So with all that money heading for the ETFs – instead of the stocks – the gold price and gold stocks are diverging.
Social Networking Sites have Uncertain Profit Potential
When career-networking site LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) started its first day of trading May 19, its shares zoomed 109% from its initial public offering (IPO) price of $45 a share to close at $94.25, and reached a market value of $9 billion – fueling rumors that we’re in the middle of a new tech bubble. And many investors are eagerly awaiting another batch of Internet IPOs. Social networking sites Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. and gaming site Zynga Game Network Inc. are all thought to be hitting the market this year.
Some analysts say these companies have uncertain profit potential….
Start investing with just $100
Start investing with just $100!! I’ll let you in on a little secret about investing: Start investing: How new investors can begin with $100 © MedioImages/Corbis
Extra3/5/2010 4:00 PM ET
Start investing with just $100
Faced with a dizzying array of investment options, deciding where to put your money can be daunting. But starting small doesn’t mean it won’t pay off big.
It’s not nearly as hard as you think.
However, the fact that most people do it badly might lead a reasonable person to believe the opposite.
How badly? A study by Dalbar, a Boston investment research firm, found that from 1988 to 2008, when the S&P 500 Index ($INX) grew at an average annual rate of 11.8%, individual investors in equity mutual funds saw average returns of 4.5% a year, before taxes.
Japan crisis puts world financial markets on edge
NEW YORK -Fears over the escalating nuclear crisis in Japan overtook financial markets around the globe Tuesday, pushing stocks and other investments lower. The Japanese stock market lost 10 percent of its value, and Wall Street dropped steeply before bouncing back.