stock prices

AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. $66 (New York symbol AXP, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $72.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 1.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.- americanexpress.com) has passed the Federal Reserve’s latest “stress test,” which measures how well banks and other financial firms would cope with a sharp jump in unemployment, falling stock prices and other unfavourable economic conditions.

As a result, the company raised its quarterly dividend by 15.0%, to $0.23 a share from $0.20. The new annual rate of $0.92 yields 1.4%. Amex also announced that it would buy back $4.0 billion worth of its shares in 2013, and $1 billion more in the first quarter of 2014.

American Express is a buy.
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If you lost interest in the market last year and haven’t paid much attention to it since, you might think of today as a “pinch-me” moment—in other words, “Am I dreaming?” A lot of investors are in that position. In the past year or two, many have come to take it for granted that stock prices face years of stagnation or decline. This was quite different from our view—almost the opposite. The stock market hit bottom in 2009. Since then, we have felt the long-term outlook was for rising prices. In the meantime, stocks were providing dividend yields that beat bank or bond interest. Stocks presented an attractive buying opportunity, even if they often moved erratically in the past few years....

Investors who are looking for a stock market trading strategy are certain to come across the basic ways to make investment decisions: bottom-up and top-down. With the bottom-up approach, you focus on understanding what’s going on, rather than trying to predict what happens next. You could call this descriptive finance. You delve into earnings, dividends, sales, balance sheet structure, competitive advantages and so on....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you stock advice and other tips on successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away....

Most stock markets have risen lately. But as always, they remain subject to unexpected downturns. Even so, we feel the long-term outlook is for higher stock prices. One way to profit from rising markets is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock indexes to your portfolio. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You must pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs, but their low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

Most stock markets have risen lately. But as always, they remain subject to unexpected downturns. Even so, the long-term outlook is for higher stock prices.

One way to profit from rising markets is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock indexes to your portfolio.

ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks....

As we have consistently pointed out to our subscribers and wealth management clients, investing can never be an exact science. Experience and judgment are just as essential as fundamental analysis in successful investing.

That’s also why a balanced temperament is so important. It can keep you on a steady course and help you avoid losses. It can also help you avoid investing strategies that narrow your chances of success.

One way to judge your own temperament for investing is to take a quick survey of investment approaches to see what works best for you.

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One of the keys to successful investing is to avoid costly mistakes that can take months or even years to recover from—that is, to win by not losing. And the best way to avoid investment mistakes is to adopt the habits of successful investors. You can begin very profitably by cultivating these three personal mental strengths:...

This is a good time for me to say “Thanks!” to all my Inner Circle members. It’s a pleasure to receive the many compliments and expressions of gratitude you send with your questions. That’s especially true when I recognize a member’s name from decades ago, whether from the early days after the 1994 startup of The Successful Investor, or from the two previous decades that I spent at The Investment Reporter. It’s also great to see that our Successful Investor philosophy and practice seem to strike a chord with many younger investors. I wish you all a great year-end holiday and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++...

In this space last week, I said the Dow Jones Industrial Average could fall another 1,000 points, beyond the 300 points it had already dropped in response to President Obama’s re-election. The next day, it dropped 120 points more. Since then it has flattened out. Note that this wasn’t a prediction. I was setting a limit on how far I felt the market could drop. However, although the market has gone sideways for the past three days, the “fiscal cliff” deadline is the end of the year. (This newly coined term refers to the higher taxes and federal spending cuts that are set to go into force automatically, if the U.S. fails to take action on its federal spending deficit and debt.) The two U.S. political parties have until then to bluster and posture and generally demonstrate to their supporters (particularly their donors) how they are defending their interests. This could make for some scary moments for short-term traders who pay close attention to every 100-point lunge in the Dow. I think now would be a bad time to sell. Investors on the whole are already highly pessimistic, because they don’t like the Obama approach to taxes and business, they are worried about Europe’s debt problems, they think slow economic growth will stifle corporate profits, and so on. However, these problems are old news; investors have had plenty of time to adjust to them. More important, stock prices are attractive right now on an historical basis—that is, in relation to earnings. They are even cheaper in light of today’s low interest rates. Note that with Obama re-elected, interest rates are likely to stay low at least until 2015....