Marjorie Backman
New York - http://
Marjorie Backman is a writer and editor in New York City.
Picking the right bond fund to stash your cache and grow it safely
In these times of economic uncertainty many investors are taking a closer look at bonds and bond funds. But if individual investors are looking for a safe place to grow their savings, they should select funds carefully. As the New York Times observed in a December 26 piece, Older Investors Should Examine the Risks in Bonds, "Because conditions may worsen before they improve, older investors should check that their bond investments are indeed what they thought they were--and that they fit their tolerance for risk." The article quoted Financial Counselors bond manager Gary Cloud: "We are in a 2 to 3 percent world, and if they want to earn more than that they need to proceed cautiously."
A WSJ January 4 piece In Search of Wall Street Bargains, carried Morningstar analyst Lawrence Jones' assessment of 2008 as an "absolutely brutal year" for most bond investors and observed: "Bond prices tumbled as investors anxious about the economic slowdown dumped corporate bonds and other obligations that carry the risk of default." Meanwhile, Treasury securities and the funds composed of them "delivered strong returns as investors bid up the prices of these safe havens."
Also on January 4, a Chicago Tribune piece, Bonds may be a shield, but they're still risky, echoed this theme. Noting that Steve Savage, editor of No-Load Fund Analyst, has advised individual investors to consider corporate bond funds and even high-yield bond funds, the Tribune warned, "Whenever yields are high, there is a good chance that financially stressed companies won't be able to repay their debts. In other words, bonds would default and investors would lose money."
Continue reading Picking the right bond fund to stash your cache and grow it safely
Bond basics: Looking for an alternative to cash? Some fixed-income options
So spooked by the market that you've withdrawn cash from your investments to stuff beneath your mattress? Or do you simply crumple every mutual fund statement without opening?
Yesterday as I sipped my coffee, Payson Swaffield, vice president and chief income investment officer of Eaton Vance of Eaton Vance (NYSE: EV) in Boston, shared with me by phone some current alternatives in fixed-income investments. There are two worlds of fixed-income investments (bonds, essentially), according to Swaffield. One is very low risk and low return. The other is slightly higher risk but has equity-like return possibilities.
First some definitions: A fixed-income instrument is an investment in a bond or another debt security issued by a government or government agency, such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, a municipality, or a private enterprise. Fixed-income investments have traditionally provided lower volatility than equity investments as well as risk diversification, Swaffield says.
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From Ellis Island to eBay, it's a doll world
Move over, American Girl dolls and corporate parent Mattel (NYSE: MAT). Ellis Island dolls are vying for the collectible budget of hyphenated Americans with a unique version of Americana through various online channels. What may have been the first wave of Ellis Island dolls surfaced as early as 1992 after the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation let Lenox, today known as Lenox Group (OTCBB: LENX), create a limited edition of six dolls to mark the centennial of Ellis Island. With porcelain heads, hands and legs and costumes, the dolls each measured 1.5 feet tall or slightly smaller and portrayed immigrants of various nationalities, such as "Eva," from Germany, "Stefan" of Poland and "Katrina" of Russia. Artist Pat Thompson served as designer for three of the dolls, which originally cost $152 a piece.
While Lenox Group has created many art ceramics, collectibles and figurines over its 120-year history, since November 23 it has been reorganizing under Chapter 11.
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Web browser makeovers and why S&P is bullish on Google
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My view of the world is partly framed by my computer screen, so I found it nearly impossible to ignore the clamor this fall about new Web browsers. At the end of August Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) released a beta version of Internet Explorer 8, which was followed a couple days later by an online comic book that announced Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) launch of Chrome, for Windows only. And who could ignore the buzz in October about Microsoft's SearchPerks, an incentive program with prizes for those willing to sift the Web via its search engine Live Search? Or the fact that yesterday Google announced a new way for users of its search engine to customize their results, ranking and annotating them?
I wondered why these big public companies considered browsers so important, why they had spent the money to update them and give them away for free over Labor Day weekend--and even to reward me to search online. So I rolled up my sleeves, downloaded, read some and talked to a stock analyst.
I was not the only one to notice some similarities in the two new browsers: Both offer private browsing (Web surfing without leaving any history) and crash recovery (so that only the specific tab involved in opening a faulty Web site fails not the whole browser application).
Yet each browser has innovations. As reporters and reviewers have noted about Internet Explorer 8, for example, Accelerators allow you to highlight a term to use it as a launch pad for such applications as mapping, translating and e-mailing. The Web Slices feature lets you plant a snippet of a favorite site atop your browser; you'll be alerted as it's updated.
Chrome sports what Google calls a "streamlined" look. The browser is designed as a giant box, with its features tucked neatly inside for you to pull out. Chrome can also showcase within your browser screen nine small views of your most-traveled Web sites. BusinessWeek points out that it's the "wizardry" under the hood that really matters and that enables this browser's applications to run fast.
These browser makeovers come, says Scott Kessler, senior director of information technology at Standard & Poor's Equity Research, as browsers and search engines have increasingly become linked. "Companies are ... appreciating the increasing relevance of the browser and search in terms of how they communicate with the world, users, customers," he says. "A lot of applications that formerly ran on computers or desktops now operate within the confines of the browser itself."
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Can neurotech deliver on its growth promise? (ACOR, ACAD, EVTC)
Earlier this week I met with three CEOs of the neurotech industry -- Ron Cohen of Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ACOR), Uli Hacksell of Acadia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACAD) and Jörn Aldag, of Evotec (NASDAQ: EVTC) -- along with Zack Lynch, the director of their trade association. Their November 10 media tour gave me a chance to gain some insight into this niche within the biotech industry of companies seeking cures for brain illnesses through drugs and devices.
At a time when revenues from blockbuster drugs are tapering off as their patents expire, these companies -- and their two-year-old Neurotechnology Industry Organization -- are hoping to unlock a new area of business growth while offering cures to ailments of longer-living populations and diseases involving the central nervous system.
Hawthorne, New York-based Acorda is already selling its first product, Zanaflex Capsules, which help control spasticity. Its Fampridine medication, aimed at bettering the walking capability of people with multiple sclerosis, is still undergoing Phase 3 testing. Update: November 14: Ron Cohen let me know Acorda has successfully completed Phase 3 testing of Fampridine
and intends to apply early next year for Food and Drug Administration approval to market it.
Meanwhile, San Diego-based Acadia, led by Hacksell, is conducting Phase 3 clinical trials of pimavanserin, which addresses psychosis related to Parkinson's disease.
Evotec, a Hamburg, Germany, company, whose acquisition of San Francisco-based Renovis in May could better position it to attract U.S. venture capital, is working on remedies for insomnia, Alzheimer's disease and smoking cessation.
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