Maytag and Furniture Brands are losing out to lower-cost producers   Poor Maytag. The past several years must have been unbearably frustrating for this maker of washers, dryers, refrigerators, and other major appliances. After all, during this time consumers, propelled by the home refinancing boom, shopped… Read More

Australia and Canada offer some of the best natural resource plays around   As we’ve noted repeatedly, commodities—including but not limited to oil—are in long-term uptrends, making it essential for investors to own shares in at least some natural resource companies: energy companies for sure, and… Read More

Dushyant Pandit: Why India Can Keep It Up   Dushyant Pandit, a managing director at Tocqueville Asset Management, draws an analogy between India’s billions of people and Saudi Arabia’s endowment of billions of barrels of oil. For ages, both lay fallow. But just as oil became… Read More

Conservative or aggressive? Once you know, it’s not hard to pare down   If you’re relatively new to The Complete Investor, we can understand if you find our Growth Portfolio (p.4) a bit daunting. After all, it encompasses nearly 40 stocks, grouped into three risk levels… Read More

The first quarter was tough, with most market averages ending in the red. While not deep, the losses were widespread: about the only groups spared were energy, utilities, and one or two others.   With inflation seemingly low and growth steady, you might wonder why stocks… Read More

The Street is still in deep denial   THE OUTLOOK: Energy stocks are nowhere near their ultimate highs, and one reason is that Wall Street firms are clinging to fantasies that oil prices will come down permanently. HOW TO PROFIT: Continue to overweight a… Read More

So is Air Products & Chemicals, an alternative energy play   As we reported in a “Red Alert” and discussed at length on our Web site, we’ve sold American International Group. This has left us a bit light in the financial sector. We’re remedying… Read More

Buy International Rectifier, a leader in power-saving chips   Convertibles can offer the best of both worlds: income plus the chance for capital gains if the underlying stock goes up. Even if the stock doesn’t appreciate much, you still generally get the bond’s par value while… Read More

Mid-cap value funds are hot, and our newest has a solid long-term record   Lately it seems that almost every month we’ve had to find a fund to replace one that became closed to new investors. We’re not complaining, though—the reason for the “no new money”… Read More

No wonder Artisan and other funds like Jacob Engineering   We’re taking big profits in one midcap value pick—HCA, up 50 percent (with dividends reinvested) since we added it to FundFinds in November—and replacing it with another mid-cap value play: Jacobs Engineering. Read More