Author: The INO.com Team

JC Penney looks to old CEO to secure its future

Posted on by The INO.com Team

J.C. Penney (NYSE_JCP) is hoping its former CEO can revive the retailer after a risky turnaround strategy backfired and led to massive losses and steep sales declines.

The company's board of directors ousted CEO Ron Johnson after only 17 months on the job. The department store chain said late Monday, in a statement, that it has rehired Johnson's predecessor, Mike Ullman, 66. Ullman was CEO of the department store chain for seven years until November 2011.

The announcement came after a growing chorus of critics including a former Penney CEO, Allen Questrom, called for Johnson's resignation as they lost faith in an aggressive overhaul that included getting rid of most discounts in favor of everyday low prices and bringing in new brands. Continue reading "JC Penney looks to old CEO to secure its future" →

Today's Video Update: Great Britain Lost Its Last Great Leader Today

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere! Adam Hewison here, President of INO.com and Co-creator of MarketClub, with your mid-day market update for Monday, the 8th of April.

The Amazing Iron Lady
As a former citizen of England, I was saddened to read news that Margaret Thatcher, one of the great leaders of the world, died today. The "Iron Lady," as she was nicknamed, really did change the world and the economy of Great Britain. The world needs more leaders like the late Maggie Thatcher, instead of the poll-driven, politically-correct-don't-offend-anyone types whose only mission is to stay in office at all costs! Margaret Thatcher was one-of-a-kind and you don't see that coming along every day in this leaderless world. Continue reading "Today's Video Update: Great Britain Lost Its Last Great Leader Today" →

Gold Chart of The Week

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Each Week Longleaftrading.com will be providing us a chart of the week as analyzed by a member of their team. We hope that you enjoy and learn from this new feature.

Weekly Gold Report (April 8th through April 12th)

After the worst weekly decline of the year in US equities, we are slowly on the mend as we enter a week full of FED activity.

A few standouts from last week included a terrible Non Farm Payroll number on Friday and a full throttle campaign from the BOJ to continue to crush the Yen. Fridays jobs number was a big miss as 88,000 jobs were added and some real numbers regarding the drop in individuals that are actively looking for jobs was revealed. Even after these figures were announced, the stock indexes were only rattled for a short period of time before the realization that the FED will step up Quantitative Easing set back in. Since then, the stock market seems to be holding up fairly well. Continue reading "Gold Chart of The Week" →

Oil price rises to near $94 after sharp drop

Posted on by The INO.com Team

The price of oil rose to near $94 a barrel on Monday, rebounding after sharp losses last week that were due to concerns over abundant supplies and weak U.S. employment figures.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for May delivery was up 97 cents to $93.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 56 cents on Friday and was down 5 percent from midweek.

The price of oil last week fell after a weak jobs report cast doubt on the strength of the U.S. economy. The Labor Department reported the economy added 88,000 jobs in March, the fewest in nine months. The slowdown may signal the economy will weaken this spring.

"The latest jobs data provide a useful reminder that this is still an uneven recovery in the U.S. economy," said Caroline Bain, commodities analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Continue reading "Oil price rises to near $94 after sharp drop" →

When Should You Take Social Security? 62 or Full Retirement Age?

Posted on by The INO.com Team

My wife, Jo, started receiving Social Security as soon as she could. When she wondered aloud how much larger her checks would have been if she'd waited, I said, “It makes no difference! You are already four years ahead of the game.”

When we applied at the local office, the agent kept reminding her of the big raise she would get if she waited until full retirement age, or better yet until she was 70. Stop with the hard sell; she wanted it at 62, period!

Why did she take it early? To illustrate, I did a little investigating on the Social Security Administration's website and used its retirement planner. Continue reading "When Should You Take Social Security? 62 or Full Retirement Age?" →