If you want to do well in today’s market, ignore this rally. Pay all your attention instead to the only class of companies you need to know about. I call these companies the “best of breed.”  They’re probably the least-talked about companies in the market. Many investors are missing the boat. And that’s a shame.

This has been a tough quarter for companies. Compared to last year’s second quarter, profit is down roughly 31 percent and revenue is down even more. Wall Street thought it was going to be even worse. So in one of the worst quarters ever, the market has rallied.

Investors learn all the wrong lessons from a rally like this. Nothing about it makes sense. The smallest companies are outgunning the biggest one. The most heavily shorted stocks are doing better than the least shorted stocks. The companies with the worst analyst ratings are outshining the ones with

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TNK-BP's profits have fallen by 56.5% to $2 billion in the first six months of the year with demand tumbling.   Second quarter profits for the company did rise by 69% on the previous three months.  'We are in turbulent times, volatile and uncertain' says BP's CEO, and 'we expect the recovery to be long and drawn out'.  At Vladimir Putin's meeting with GDF Suez, the Prime Minister said that the government would be happy to receive further investment from French companies in the area of power and gas liquefaction.   The price of gasoline increased by 8.8% over the course of June; oil companies argue that high taxes are causing them to suffer.  Shell looks set to cut up to 25% of senior management across the globe as part of a restructuring initiative.  The Telegraph ...

A 4-day rally gets stopped at the border…  Home Prices fall at a -18.12% pace…  Alice Rivlin gives her 2-cents… * Kiwi bond maturities galore next month… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! As tradition with the Pfennig would have it, here’s my introduction to July… There I was… On a July morning… Looking for love… With the strength of a new day dawning, and… The beautiful sun…

Yes, for those “old rockers” from the 70’s like me… That’s Uriah Heep, at their best!

OK… So, welcome to July! The last day of June was quite the volatile one to say the least! There we were waiting for the S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index to print, and show that home prices were still down by quite a bit, when it did, it did, it printed at -18.12%… But! The media was all over that like a cheap suit, clamoring that

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Euro goes back and forth over 1.43…Eurozone unemployment rises to 9.2%…Australia’s GDP surprises! Is it protectionism? And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! I’m draggin’ the line today, as I was helping my oldest son, Andrew, with things in his brand, spankin’ new house, last night. Congrats to Andrew, for finding a great bargain, with a low, fixed, interest rate!

OK… Whew! What a day in the currencies yesterday! Another day, and another day of wild swings.. Volatility is the name of the game these days… Watching, for instance, the euro trade down to 1.4220, and then up to 1.4320 and not just on a one-way ticket! Oh No! this is a bounce here a bounce there… But just like it was going from 1.41 to 1.42, it took a few times over the 1.42 figure before it finally stuck, and headed to 1.43… All the other

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