October is joining September and August for months this year that the Dow Jones Industrial Average made the journey from high at the beginning to lower prices by month’s end. The closely watched measure of the really big stocks in the market rallied from time to time but never enough…

Oil prices and interest rates: concerns about these 2 key factors are leading investors to dump shares in the transportation companies that depend on them for profitability. It’s not that the price of petroleum has skyrocketed — it’s the huge potential for that given all of the unresolved trouble in…

Starting January 1, 2024, the Corporate Transparency Act mandates that personal information must be submitted to the Treasury Department regarding certain private “reporting companies [1]”. This reported information includes individuals serving as officers or directors of reporting companies, as well as Beneficial Owners who have direct or indirect control of…

For the value investor, here are a few small caps of the Russell 2000 index, now trading below book value and paying dividends. The index itself has recently fallen to new 52-week lows, an indication that value might now be present among the components. Nothing is guaranteed but this is…

Being a bond investor over the past two years has been brutal as the bond market, measured by the Bloomberg Aggregate Index, declined 13% in 2022 and is down another 2.5% so far in 2023. And to add insult to injury, bonds fell in tandem with stocks in 2022, robbing…

The reporting period continues in overdrive with the busiest week of earnings. 164 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report this week after a similar number last week. Earnings were markedly improved the previous week, as more earnings reports helped offset the drag from some healthcare earnings misses discussed last…

Many tax professionals are familiar with cases where clients were aggressively encouraged to apply for the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), resulting in false claims and penalties. To address this, the IRS has recently published FS-2023-24, temporarily halting the program and providing a procedure to withdraw claims without penalties. The ERC,…

It’s rare for the bond market to dominate headlines versus stocks, but that is the case lately as the 10-Year US Treasury yield has tested 5%. While short term US Treasury yields have been well above 5% for months, the long end of the yield curve has been lower than…

There’s a strong correlation between money and happiness. Unfortunately, it is a reality that has an impact on our overall contentment. In fact, financial matters are a common cause of divorce, with 22% percent couples citing their finances as the reason behind their divorce according to the Institute for Divorce…

Everything coming at me seems like a scam, lately: Texts saying I have a package, emails that I won a prize, phone calls about my cable bill, and the supposed government telling me I might have free money if I would just visit their web site. The thing is, that…