<i>Breakfast with Benjamin:</i> Investors' nerves are fraying and that's not a good thing. Plus: Spiking demand for U.S. Treasuries, dodging corporate taxes, the ABCs of liquid alts, risk-adjusted sector performance, and boning up on your Cinco De Mayo history.
Transparency a minor issue, says RevenueShares' Vince Lowry
<i>Breakfast with Benjamin:</i> Can Janet Yellen and her Federal Reserve colleagues avoid roiling the markets? Plus: Visa and MasterCard tighten screws on Russian banks, bond ladders get snubbed by a fan of bond barbells, checking the math on alternative-investment performance, and the momentum-stock nosedive is real.
<i>Friday's menu:</i> Investors waking up to Putin's Russia risks. Plus: Russia's debt downgraded as Kerry issues another warning; U.S. manufacturing comes back (but housing has not); how about this call: gold to hit $5,000 an ounce; the SEC starts to dissect liquid alt funds; and how sanctions are supposed to work.
<i>Breakfast with Benjamin:</i> Obama tees up more sanctions. Plus: Financial pros warn against ignoring Ukraine's significance, the housing market is being hurt by basement dwellers, epic Medicare fraud, safe investment bets surprise in 2014, and $1 million saved for retirement is now considered a good start.
Navigating an investment portfolio around Russia's increasingly aggressive move into Ukraine will not be easy, but there's no excuse for ignoring the potential risks &mdash; and maybe a opportunities &mdash; linked to the turmoil.
Leader Total Return Fund manager goes off the beaten path to make nimble bets on market and rate patterns.
Take Five with BlackRock's James Keenan, who says risks to the asset class include central bank policy.
“The best hedge of a stock portfolio is something that by design moves in the opposite direction of the stock market,” says Sungarden's Isbitts
<i>Breakfast with Benjamin:</i> Sugar-coating data to downplay retirement-income challenges. Plus: Simplified Fed-speak, ETFs continue to threaten active management, leveraged-loan fund investors hit the bricks, and there are still undervalued stocks worth considering.
