10 investing basics from Buffett

(moneycentral.msn.com) Last year's market madness didn't just flush away $7 trillion in wealth.

It also washed away a lot of investors' confidence and left them stumped about the best position to take now. "Somewhere between cash and fetal," quips one pessimist.

In such downbeat times, let's consider a dose of optimism, wisdom and insight: the basics as taught by that perennial investing Yoda, Warren Buffett.

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Merrill’s Rosenberg: No Recovery In 2009

(Clusterstock.com) Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg has once again bucked the consensus among market commentators who appear to have agreed that the US economy will recover in the second half of 2009. Based on our entirely unscientific survey of people talking to financial news folks, it seems that many believe that a recovery will come sometime in the second half of the year and that the stock market will anticipate this recovery by rallying some nine months before the economy.

The lesson of this would seem to be: buy stocks now! The Obama recovery is coming and you might miss the bottom.

Well, not so fast says Rosenberg.

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Byron Wien: Stocks, Gold, Oil To Skyrocket In 2009

(Clusterstock.com) It's that time of year again: Time for strategists to take big, bold swings, cross their fingers, and hope that enough goes right that they can say "As we said in January" (Or, if not, that the predictions disappear unnoticed in the noise).

Today, Pequot's Byron Wien throws his annual hat in the ring. Byron's bottom line? Buy everything.

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Ready for a rally?

(Economist.com/Buttonwood column) Markets could decouple from the economy in 2009—in a pleasant way for equity investors.

SOOTHSAYING is not a very respectable profession. Like Cassandra, those whose forecasts are correct tend not to be believed. Most people are drawn into extrapolating from current trends and are thus surprised when things change. That is one reason why economists are so hopeless at predicting recessions.

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By the Numbers — How 2008 Shakes Out

(MarketBeat Blog-Wall Street Journal)

Now that 2008 is finally history, it’s time to look back at the year in numbers — most of them pretty terrible.

-33.84% The percentage loss in the Dow industrials, worst since 1931, third-worst in history.
-38.49% The percentage loss in the S&P 500, worst since 1937.
-40.54% The percentage loss for the Nasdaq Composite Index, worst in history.

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Consuelo Mack's Wealth Track Interviews Jean Marie Eveillard and Mary Whitman

Great interviews with two of the best value investors in the business.


Read the transcript here

U.S. Stocks Post Steepest Yearly Decline Since Great Depression

(Bloomberg) U.S. stocks plunged the most in 2008 since the Great Depression as financial shares collapsed, energy and metal producers tumbled and the world’s biggest economy suffered a yearlong recession.

Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. retreated more than 60 percent as 80 out of the 84 financial institutions in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. fell as the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials dropped a record 36 percent. Caterpillar Inc. sank 38 percent as the U.S., Europe and Japan experienced the first simultaneous contractions since World War II.

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