US stock rallied from earlier lows on reports that the Obama administration will announce a housing initiative that will subsidize mortgage rates to help struggling homeowners. Read More

Health care stocks offer recession-resistant growth with a kicker: an emerging boom in acquisitions activity. Read More

The long-term driver for the global economy is the rise of domestic demand in emerging markets. Read More

Our recommendations in the health care, utilities, defense and waste management sectors have performed well and positioned the Growth and Income Portfolios to weather the challenges ahead. Here we revisit some of our other defensive picks from 2008. Read More

It’s earnings season for US companies, and you can expect big moves for stock prices--in both directions. Here’s a look at emerging trends and what they mean for the year ahead. Read More

Earnings are starting to come in fast and furious for Income Portfolio companies. The good news: Despite unprecedented economic and credit challenges, the numbers so far are quite solid. Read More

Generations of investors have turned to municipal bonds for reliable income with little to no credit risk, but that conventional wisdom has been turned on its head. Once-stolid munis have been shunned of late, victims, too, of plunging real estate values. Read More

The ongoing travails of the nation’s largest financial institutions continue to dominate the headlines, but weakness in the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) system could spell trouble for smaller banks. Read More

Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroad (AMEX: PW) is a small real estate investment trust (REIT) with a market cap of just $18.5 million. It owns 112 miles of rail line in the heart of Appalachian coal country as well as 20 miles of branch line and the equipment and machinery for maintenance. Read More

To identify the best growth-oriented plays, we follow a three-part approach: economic analysis, investment trends and diversification. Read More