Category: Finance

Stock prices were down sharply after the President, a self-described “tariff man,” threatened via Twitter to impose a five percent tariff on all imports from Mexico unless “the illegal immigration problem is remedied.” The White House later issued a statement saying that unless Mexico “substantially stops” the number of illegal entrants across the southern border, the tariff would increase to 25 percent by October. The Dow index was down 1.41 percent while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes fell 1.32 percent and 1.51 percent respectively. The Entrepreneur Index™closed the day 1.55 percent…

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Stock prices were up modestly in the morning, drifted down in the afternoon but rallied in the last hour, leaving the major indexes with small gains on the day. The S&P 500 index is down roughly five percent so far in May. The technology sector was quiet today. Netflix had a gain of 0.76 percent while Amazon.com declined 0.16 percent. Software-maker salesforce.com was up 1.81 percent but chipmaker NVIDIA Corp. fell 0.88 percent. Eight of thirteen tech stocks on the index were up today. Dollar Tree Inc. had the biggest gain on the Entrepreneur Index™, rising 3.14 percent after reporting…

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I love pricing. I also love going to Las Vegas, especially when it’s to attend a pricing conference. True, that’s not the reason most people visit, but then most people aren’t as passionate about pricing as I am. On this particular trip, it wasn’t the conference but a chance encounter on the Vegas strip that reinforced for me the three pricing lessons that are the foundation for any successful pricing strategy. I was en route from the airport to my hotel when my cab got stuck on a side street.…

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Investors continue to flock to the safety of U.S. Treasury bonds as signs of a slumping U.S. economy accumulate. Stock prices were down again yesterday with the Dow and S&P 500 indexes falling 0.93 percent and 0.84 percent respectively. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 0.39 percent while the Entrepreneur Index™ closed the day off 0.09 percent. U.S. Treasury bond prices, on the other hand, jumped sharply, resulting in a six basis point drop in the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond. At 2.27 percent, the 10-year yield is the lowest it’s been…

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Losing money in the stock market can cost you your life, and I’m not just talking about the old cliché of people jumping out of skyscraper windows when markets crash. In fact, people with as little as 10 percent of their wealth in the stock market who experience a 10 percent loss stand an increased risk of dying early or suffering health problems such as high blood pressure and depression. That’s according to a study published in the American Economic Journal, which looked at booms and busts in the U.S. stock market between…

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