Dollar Tree

A newcomer to the Fortune 500, Dollar Tree was also its best performing stock last year, returning nearly 61%. That was no small feat: As a group, the Fortune 500 sank 41%. The company cashed in on the recession, as a $1 (or less) price on everything from candy to glassware drove sales at more than 3,500 stores.

Continue reading Top performing stocks you should invest in

Altira has excellent cash flow, and is the ultimate recession proof stock. During a recession, I am looking for a company that is going to maintain if not grow its earnings and provide a nice dividend. Altria does that. At its current price it has an over 8% yield, putting a good amount of cash into your pocket ever quarter. Continue reading The best stock to invest in during recession

The permanent portfolio fund is a type of investment that is made to offer a solid performance whatever of what is going on in the market. Here are the basics of permanent portfolio funds and what they have to offer you as an investor.

Permanent Portfolio Fund

The idea for permanent portfolio funds that you have a mutual fund that could withstand any market conditions. This was accomplished by investing in many different types of securities. Putting emphasis on investing in things that you could find outside of the stock market.

A permanent portfolio school of thought was to invest in an equal proportion of stocks, bonds, cash, and gold. Therefore, the original investment mix was 25% of each type of investment. In today’s conditions the current composition of the fund is 25% precious metals, 10% Swiss franc bonds, 15% real estate and natural resource stocks, 15% aggressive growth stocks, and 35% in government securities such as T-bills. In this way investors funds regardless of what happened in the economy feel more secure. Although with this fund you have to expect a slow and steady growth curve. This type of fund has been proven to gain value steadily over time.

New Jersey Resources(NJR) is an energy-services company that provides retail and wholesale energy services to customers in New Jersey and other states from the Gulf Coast to New England and Canada.

The numbers: Fiscal second-quarter revenue declined 20% to $938 million as net income and earnings per share surged 183% to $36 million and 83 cents, respectively. The debt-to-equity ratio remained low at 0.63, but a quick ratio of 0.43 indicates a weak cash position. Margins improved significantly, with the operating margin climbing 443 basis points to 6.2% and the net margin jumping 272 basis points to 3.8%.

The stock: New Jersey Resources has fallen 6% in 2009, in line with the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13 and offers an attractive 3.4% dividend yield.

Amazon.com (AMZN  83.00, -0.03, -0.04%) ended relationships with online affiliates in Rhode Island to avoid a new sales tax law in that state, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site. Recently, Rhode Island passed a law requiring companies to collect a sales tax on products sold through online-marketing affiliates. On Friday, Amazon reportedly ended affiliate programs in North Carolina as that state was seeking to adopt a similar tax

Apollo Group Inc. (APOL 69.35, +3.36, +5.09%) said that its fiscal third-quarter profit rose to $201.1 million, or $1.26 a share, from $139.1 million, or 85 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue increased to $1.05 billion from $835.2 million last year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research estimated a quarterly profit of $1.12 a share on revenue of $1.04 billion.

Dell Inc. (DELL 13.87, +0.01, +0.07%) is reportedly developing a pocket-sized electronic device for accessing the Internet. The Wall Street Journal said that Dell is creating the device to run on Google Inc.’s Android software, which is currently used by T-Mobile in mobile phones and is expected to become widely deployed in other devices. The Dell device is said to be slightly larger that Apple Inc.’s /quotes/comstock/15*!aapl/quotes/nls/aapl (AAPL 141.90, -0.07, -0.05%) iPod touch and could go on sale in the second half of the year.

The Treasury Department and a committee of major bondholders at General Motors have reached a deal that could give creditors a larger stake in GM than previously offered. But bankruptcy is still likely in the next few days despite the deal.

The agreement, revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by GM (GM, Fortune 500) early Thursday, would essentially give the bondholders 10% of the company but also give them the rights to buy an additional 15% of the company’s stock at a low price.
Continue reading GM Bankruptcy

Shares of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) rose 2.6 percent to $23.60 in premarket trading after the company announced a plan to separate its AOL unit.

Microsoft may not be recession-proof but it turned in a strong performance in a year most companies would like to forget.

Profits jumped 25.7% to $17.7 billion on revenues of $60.4 billion as the software giant offset declining sales of its Windows operating system with increased revenues from its server and tools software products.

Finally, a bit of good news from the forefront.

U.S. stocks rallied, capping the market’s steepest two-week gain since 1938, as investors speculated the Obama administration’s plan to rid banks of toxic assets will spur growth and investor Mark Mobius said a new bull market has begun. Treasuries and the dollar fell.

Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. both soared at least 19 percent as the U.S. Treasury said it will finance as much as $1 trillion in purchases of distressed assets. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. jumped more than 6.7 percent after oil rose to an almost four-month high. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index extended its rebound from a 12-year closing low on March 9 to 22 percent as all 10 of its main industry groups advanced.