The million-dollar bar. No, that's not the name of a new candy bar from Hershey's. On Friday, the price of gold rose above $2,500 per ounce, making a 400-ounce gold bar worth more than $1 million for the first time. Bloomberg's Jack Wittels reports: For the first time ever, a bar of gold is worth a cool one million dollars. The milestone was reached Friday, when the precious metal’s spot price surpassed $2,500 per troy ounce, an all-time high. With gold bars typically weighing about 400 ounces, that would make each one worth more than $1 million. There are some nuances to the figure. … [Read more...]

Why invest with us when you can simply buy an index fund with your savings? Good question. When costs are low, why not buy cheap funds? It’s worked out well so far, right? The problem is it may not last forever, and a downturn may not happen on your schedule. That’s one reason I like individual stocks. With them, you may have more control. Another is that stock commissions are basically free, which levels the playing field. You can see how the index fund has become a commodity, with everyone jumping in the same boat. A forced buying strategy, regardless of anything else other than it … [Read more...]

You have watched the market fall and rebound in the last few weeks. Is it a fool's rally? In The Wall Street Journal, James Mackintosh suggests market valuations signal caution. He writes: The pushback I most often receive from readers is that true investors should ignore the day-to-day swings in the markets that obsess traders and just buy and hold stocks. There’s a kernel of truth in this: Most fund managers underperform, so what chance do individuals dabbling in the markets have? Better to buy the index. However, even the longest-term thinkers should adjust their portfolios when prices … [Read more...]

Gold prices have hit record highs in recent trading, but is there still room left for gold to rise? As you can see on my chart below, prices of gold in inflation-adjusted terms (real gold prices) are still well below the all-time highs of 1980 and haven't even eclipsed the peak prices of 2011 or 2020. In The Wall Street Journal, Joseph Hoppe discusses gold's recent record-breaking (in nominal terms) run, writing: Gold reached a new record high on rising hopes for a U.S. interest-rate cut and geopolitical tensions, rapidly reclaiming lost ground after a market crash and selloff in early … [Read more...]

You that Your Survival Guy thinks there are more ways to invest in AI than just chip stocks. All those data centers need power and lots of it. Here's what Fidelity is saying about energy and utility stocks: Stocks in the energy and utilities sectors sit at the nexus of ever-changing energy costs, surging global power demand, shifting energy production dynamics, and a range of other factors. As markets have heated up to record highs, investors may want to consider that these stocks appear to represent one of the best values in the market today based on earnings … [Read more...]