"At the recent World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, Blackstone's CEO Steve Schwartzman said that India was high on the firm's investing agenda," points out Leonard Goodall.

The editor of No-Load Fund Portfolios explains, "Schwartzman thinks it's a great country for global growth, and he expects an investment return of 20% to 30% over the next 3 to 5 years.

Continue reading Invest in India with Matthews India Fund (MINDX)

Invest in India with Matthews India Fund (MINDX) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Both short and long-term factos suggest higher agricultural prices," says Leonard Goodall in No-Load Portfolios. Here, the fund expert looks at a pair of agriculture-based ETFs.

"Bad weather through the country has had a negative impact on the agriculture sector. Rain and flooding in the plains states has caused a delay in harvesting the winter wheat crop and other grains are behind in their normal growing season.

"Moreover, current grain supplies are low as compared with demand. These factors point to the possibility of higher grain prices in the months to come.

Continue reading Gains from grains: Agriculture ETFs

Gains from grains: Agriculture ETFs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"For the investor who has some money with which he or she is willing to take some risk, I suggest they take a look at the regional banks ETF iShares Dow Jones US Regional Banks (NYSE: IAT), which I've selected as my top speculative pick for 2008," notes Leonard Goodall, CFA and editor of No-Load Portfolios.

"I recommend this ETF for two reasons, a fundamental reason and a timeliness reason. From a fundamental perspective, most of the regional banks in this portfolio have good solid financials and they know their areas of service well enough to avoid the worst aspects of the current real estate crisis.

"The three largest holdings in the fund -- US Bancorp, Suntrust Bank and PNC Financial -- all have records of consistently improving earnings over the last five years. US Bancorp and Suntrust have raised their dividends each of the last five years, and PNC has raised its dividend in three of the five.

"Purchase of the fund now is timely because its price has been pushed down along with all financial stocks that have been the victim of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Continue reading Best Stocks for 2008: iShares Dow Jones US Regional Banks (IAT)

Best Stocks for 2008: iShares Dow Jones US Regional Banks (IAT) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"For a conservative investor who wants to incur only low to moderate risk, I would recommend a well-established mutual fund, the Fidelity Puritan Fund (NASDAQ: FPURX), as my top pick for 2008," says Leonard Goodall, CFA and editor of No-Load Portfolios.

"This is a balanced fund, with a portfolio that includes about 67% stocks, 26% in bonds and the rest mainly in cash. A major problem for most mutual fund investors is that the return they actually receive from a fund is well below the announced return on the fund.

"This is because they make bad-timing decisions. They buy the fund after it has run up in price and then sell it after it has suffered a downturn.

"The researchers at Morningstar have produced some work recently that suggests that for balanced funds the return that investors actually achieve is closer to the announced return of the fund than for most other types of funds.

Continue reading Best Stocks for 2008: Balanced gains with Fidelity Puritan Fund (FPURX)

Best Stocks for 2008: Balanced gains with Fidelity Puritan Fund (FPURX) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.