Advice for Today's Market? Diversify Wisely (BusinessWeek) and Harley-Davidson Slips on Subprime Consumers (BusinessWeek)

Share: 

City of Industry, CA --(www.USEquityNews.com)-- 10/17/2008 - Investing Ideas industry alert provided by U.S. Equity News. As of Oct. 7 retirement plans had lost as much as $2 trillion over 15 months, or some 20% of their value, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That has many workers wondering how they'll be able to retire and whether everything they thought they knew about investing has been turned on its head. Diversification across sectors and countries, for example, was supposed to protect investments, but few areas of the market have been spared. [Read the full article]


Not long ago, a national marketing campaign from motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG - News) addressed the sputtering economy with a heavy dollop of devil-may-care attitude. The tag line: "Screw It. Let's Ride.
Harley seems to have applied the same logic to its loan portfolio. In a pattern eerily similar to the housing bust, the $5.7 billion Milwaukee company used its in-house finance unit to chase after subprime borrowers, making it easy for them to buy $20,000 hogs with no money down. [Read the full article]

After the first few hours of trading on an options expiration Friday, stocks are flat to slightly lower.Most of the time in our PowerRatings Chartology column, we focus on how high Short Term PowerRatigns help traders spot quality pullback opportunities in stocks trading above their 200-day moving averages.
Of late, I have been pointing out how low Short Term PowerRatings can be used with the same stocks that are trading above their 200-day moving averages to help trader anticipate potential pullbacks before they happen. [Read the full article]

Yield spreads in various areas of the bond market are at nonsensical levels. I'm not talking about financial corporates or junk bonds, which may look cheap, but do have significant risk; I'm talking about state-backed municipal bonds, government-guaranteed student loans, agency mortgage-backed securities, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac senior debt, among others. These have little or no credit risk, the chance of investors recouping their principal over time has not materially changed, and yet spreads on all these bond types is at or very near all-time wides. [Read the full article]

About U.S. Equity News

U.S. Equity News provides information, resources and news services for investors of small-cap, micro-cap and emerging companies. U.S. Equity News distributes RSS news feeds and a free subscription-based newsletter available through its website at www.usequitynews.com.

U.S. Equity News is a financial news distribution service by Equity Solutions, Inc. (www.equityirsolutions.com) that provides a platform for public companies to disseminate important news to key Wall Street interest such as shareholders and new investors. Equity Solutions, Inc. can assist by providing an effective increase in the awareness of a public company's news, development and corporate story through its proprietary network and its financial portal. U.S. Equity News and its affiliates charge each client cash for news distribution and may take an equity position in the companies mentioned herein, please visit the disclaimer at www.USEquityNews.com.

Contact Information:
U.S. Equity News
Tel: (626) 961-8039
Email: info@usequitynews.com

Comments:
Disclaimer: User Comments do not reflect the views of US Equity News, and we are not responsible for the content of users' comments. We also reserve the right to edit or delete comments to our discretion.

---