This is one good argument for the market to stabilize around here if not rise a bit. I'm not that worried about the market until VIX goes back down showing complacency in the market again.

Cisco is slowly turning into a better stock, however, the hardware side of the tech business has not been a good place to put your money. Sadly, a lot of the networking growth has been centered on crypto currencies as well. I'd stay clear until there is a clear need for more network bandwidth.

Oil is likely to trade back down into the trading range unless something like Mideast action takes place. That said, the trend for oil long term is up and the trading range over time shows this.

I think there is some regulatory risk, but it's mainly a single stock being affected and for good reason. That is Facebook. It doesn't pay to mess in politics for ad revenue. I seriously doubt that Facebook was unaware about what was going on given the money involved. On Tesla and Musk once again that's what happens when tech plays in politics. They should have never joined Trump's roundtable and may pay the price for leaving it. Clearly Musk thought there was a way to monetize political relations like he has before. He may pay the price for that. Amazon is another matter. It seems like it's being blamed merely as a side show to be blames as an accessory for the terrible deficit that was passed. The post office should raise rates for Fed Ex and others more than Amazon. After all, the post office does a large part of their logistics and is suffering lower business because of the competition. Even so, the postal deficit is really insignificant to the giant deficit the rest of the US government is running. This is a diversionary tactic from Trump more than anything else unless he has people making money on shorting the stock as he lambasts it. I dearly hope this isn't going on. Anyways, the further from politics you can get your company, the better. This is not just a tech issue, it is a general issue applied to any business.

Yes, the bears have some points to keep the bulls out of the China shop, but so far nothing to take down growth and earnings significantly. I'm expecting mild rotation towards inflation caused mostly by the weak dollar and oil rising. So far it looks like its happening.

The best way to do well in the market is to be in it and be a bit skeptical and bearish. Although this keeps you from performing insanely, it also keeps you from losing a lot of money. Buy stocks you can own long term safely. This is not bearish. However, if you hit a bear patch, you will be safe enough to survive the winter and be able to enjoy another summer while also enjoying the tax gains of not paying tax on capital gains in the meantime.

Sure people say this is a dead strategy, however, they are not the millions of wealthy people who benefit from this generation after generation. They frankly don't care what people say and know that this strategy works. Some say, well you may get stuck with AT&T, etc. I'd say, then you aren't picking safe good investment grade stocks to use this strategy on. Don't fall for the straw man fallacy.

The semiconductor and hardware markets will likely go through more cycles and haven't been that spectacular for some time (semis are better than other hardware). However, the software sector of the tech industry has been eating markets whole. They are likely to keep performing well given they are one of the few strong growth sectors of the market as they save people from spending more for less at brick and mortar stores while giving better price comparisons.

Thus as you can see in the chart, I don't find current returns all that out of control, especially since much of these are from just a few mega cap tech stocks like Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. Valuations here are high overall, however, growth is much higher than the rest of the market. So the real issue is not so much about the chart but growth. When growth slows noticeably in tech is when to be scared. So far, this is not happening.

The only really good thing to buy in Russia that's worth it is oil and gas assets. That said, why buy them when you can buy them relatively cheaply elsewhere? Saudi Arabia is investing in overseas oil in the US not Russia. Why? Russia is cheaper. Maybe they saw what happened to Exxon. Or they saw Russia shoot itself in the foot weaning Eastern Europe off its oil pipelines. The political risks of Russia are the main reason why no one wants to invest there and i totally agree.

That said, Russia's economy will do better as oil prices rises if they don't shoot themselves in the foot and make it so no one wants it. Sadly they have been known to use their oil and gas supplies as political weapons. No one likes to deal with such behavior unless they get the supply cheap, cheap, cheap. We will see what Asia says as Russia tries to peddle their reserves to them since Eastern Europe is no longer as interested in depending on them given they tried to freeze them to death to make a point.

Sadly the Federal Reserve needs to raise rates to sell their treasuries which are now mainly short term US Treasuries. They can raise long term rates by switching to longer term treasuries which will push up rates if they can sell them. The ROW especially China have increasingly refused to buy long term Treasuries because of the US's monetary games (yes the US plays monetary games as well, not just China).

Sadly the things people really need are what is bankrupting people today. Housing costs, education, and medical expense inflation is off the board and is deflated by the "official" inflation measurements. However, this is what is killing our economy and stalling any hopes of strong growth. The author is right that strong growth comes from savings, ergo the concept of capitalism.

We as a nation must learn to be a bit more austere, however, it is a hard nut to swallow. Likewise, it is hard to get the average and lower income to save when they can't afford rent and medical costs. And people complain the rich saving just increases income discrepancies. It is not an easy problem, however, the main problem about housing inflation can be solved by making it harder for mass speculation in housing by removing tax deductions for anything but your primary residence, requiring at least 10% down payments on homes, no diversion of property taxes on taxes by anyone (corporation, individual, or REIT), and restricting foreign ownership of US homes. These may not be the best solution. I'd be open to other suggestions.

Medical costs will stop skyrocketing either when there is universal health care such as other countries, or when there is no government intervention. The steep rise in healthcare costs has been correlated to the increasing intervention in medical costs by the government. Without this, medical costs will have to readjust to what the market can afford not what the government will pay making it unaffordable for us mere mortals.