I used to, and will one day return, to posting the best performing stocks of the week - but the wicked volatility and "student body left" trading of the past 4 months has made it a moot point. Everything must either be bought or sold, as stocks are either deemed "good" or "bad" that hour, day, or month. The herd piles in, or piles out - regardless of sector, style, fundamentals. It's been a market of asset allocation not individual stocks much of the back half of the year. I like to look for relative strength and ride sector/company trends for the longer term - this market is not for that sort of investor. This has been for many months a run and gun daytrader environment; not a place for theme investors. With that said, I am always curious to see what stocks held up over the long run... folks, no matter what happens (short of 8%+ rally here in the next 3 days) we are projecting the worst year in the markets at least since the[More...]

Amidst turmoil in the financial sector this week and over the past year, the following is a list of Pennsylvania-based banks and financial services companies with market caps over $100M that have recorded stock price gains over the past year. The 11 compa[More...]

With the financial landscape shifting under recent news, especially the quasi-nationalization of Freddie Mac and Fannie May, I believe that it is time to speculate on selected regional banks for both dividend and total return over the next few quarters and beyond. Notice that I say speculate, as investors deep down inside know that there will be a continuing fallout as worthy financial institutions survive and those fatally contaminated flop.Here are a few regional financial choices for you to research. They shed a nice dividend that appears supported, trade at a decent volume per day and have a successful niche market, excellent management, or both, indicating hope for future prosperity.S&T Regional Bank (STBA) trading at $35.23/share with a yield of 3.44%.Sterling Bancorp (STL) trading at $16.80/share with a yield of 4.52%.First Commonwealth Financial Corp. of PA (PCF) trading at[More...]