The World Financial Report

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Bloomberg Businessweek - September, 13 2010

* Inside Foxconn
Exclusive: Massive, secretive, and hit by a
rash of worker suicides, the Chinese manufacturer
of iPhones, PCs, and PlayStations opens up.
A look at the industrial powerhouse of the 21st century.

* Opening Remarks. The Case against Craigslist.

* Jobs. The fastest rising salaries.

* Etc. Bone-crunching all football edition.

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8 Value Stocks With Increasing Dividends

There has been a plethora of posts about dividend stocks lately. Quite a few have pointed out that many stocks that offer dividends now yield more than Treasuries or corporate bonds. Others tout the advantage of dividends being able to add to total return in a choppy, range-bound market. For a good round up of the latest articles on this topic, you can visit the Investing Ideas page at Seeking Alpha and check out the section on dividends.

The following list is from this weekend's screen of those stocks that just raised their dividend last week and yet are still more or less in the value stock category. (more)

Symbol	Name	New Dividend Yield	New Annual Dividend	Old Annual Dividend
ACGY	Acergy S.A.	1.24%	0.21	N/A
BOBE	Bob Evans Farms, Inc.	2.91%	0.80	0.72
ESLT	Elbit Systems Ltd.	2.30%	1.18	N/A
SSI	Stage Stores, Inc.	2.49%	0.30	0.20
MGPI	MGP Ingredients, Inc.	1.36%	0.10	0
HRS	Harris Corporation	2.28%	1.00	0.88
PZE	Petrobras Energia Participaciones SA	3.70%	0.57	0.35
SPIL	Siliconware Precision Industries Company, Ltd.	6.21%	0.30	N/A

The Fat Lady Just Sang Another Bar For The Treasury Rally

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader,

The Treasury bond market is certainly doing its best to roll over like the Bismark, the 30 year closing on the lows, 5 ½ points off its highs two weeks ago, boosting the yield back up to 3.81% (click here for my last piece, "Have Treasury Bonds Had It?").

Like a good Agatha Christie mystery, there are culprits hiding behind every set of drapes. Maybe it was the immense amount of debt the government brought to the market in the past two days as part of its regular refunding operations? Perhaps it was the surprise fall in initial jobless claims today from 477,000 to 451,000?

The smoking gun might even be found in Obama's hand with his $50 billion infrastructure spending project and proposed capital investment tax cuts. Sure, $50 billion amounts to little more than the change found under the sofa cushions in Washington these days. But it might just be the stick that finally broke the horribly burdened camel's back.

You knew the end was near with prime corporates, Like Hewlett Packard (HPQ), suddenly floating 100 year debt issues. The big call here is whether we have put in the definitive spike top in the Treasury market, or if we have established a new, higher trading range. A September sell off in equities, even a little one, would without a doubt make the case for the latter. It looks like someone just gave the short ETF (TBT) a shot of Viagra. Stay tuned for the next act.

Should You Buy a House Now?

By David Galland, Managing Editor, The Casey Report

Recently, we have had a number of queries about real estate. And no wonder. For starters, real estate prices have come down. Plus, in an environment with next to zero interest rates, the idea of possibly picking up some income-producing property on the cheap holds a certain appeal to some. Then there’s the fact that real estate is very much a “tangible” – and so should hold up reasonably well, should the fiat currency system come undone, as we expect it will before this crisis is over.

The following, from reader and correspondent Ross, considers the issue of home buying from an interesting angle.

My wife and I have been considering buying/building a house for a while now. After long months of searching, we have had to ask ourselves about the "value" of a home. I say this because my parents in 1972 purchased a 2, 000 sq/ft home for $20,000. That was almost exactly what my father made per year at his job at the time of purchase. Is this ratio one to consider as a prudent homebuyer not trying to live beyond his means? I make about $150,000 a year and can't imagine purchasing a house here in Pittsburgh for that price and being happy with that purchase.

My parents sold their home in 2001 for $180,000, which is obviously 9 times what they paid for it. We are looking at homes in the low 300s to purchase, and I can't imagine the sales price in 30 years being 9 times that price, which would be $2.7 million! So do you see my line of thinking?

Could hyperinflation cause the price to "appreciate" that same way over time? Is inflation what caused my parents home to return 9 times what they paid for it? The reason I wrote to you regarding this topic is that I thought maybe there was a future missive buried in this line of thinking. Maybe not, but if you have time I would love to hear your thoughts on home purchasing at this time. (more)

BNN: Top Picks

BNN speaks to John Zechner, chairman, J. Zechner Associates shares his top picks.


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Dow Theory: The Formation of a Line

According to Dow Theory, the formation of a line, the stock market trading in a narrow range, typically portends a major movement in the market once the range is broken through on the upper or lower end of the channel it has traded in. To be specific, Dow Theory indicates that a line is created when both the Dow Jones Transportation and Industrial Averages are in a range of 5% over a period for 8 weeks or more.

In the charts below, neither index has exhibited a narrow range of 5% or less. In addition, from a strictly technical basis, it would be difficult to say that a range has not been broken on the upside in March and April of 2010 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the downside in July 2010 for both indexes. However, it is challenging to ignore the general range of 10,700 to 9,750 that the Dow Industrials has traded in since late September 2009. Likewise, the Transportation index has traded in a fairly tight range since mid-May 2010. (more)