PG&E Plunges Into Crisis as It Faces Reckoning Over Fires

Shares of PG&E Corp. plummeted as much as 32 percent Wednesday after the company said it had exhausted its revolving credit lines, signaling it was shoring up its cash to prepare for a possible credit downgrade to junk. The utility’s filing also may have marked the start of a campaign to get bailed out by California’s lawmakers -- as it was after last year’s fires. “Watching this whole thing play out, it’s like a slow motion train wreck,” said John Bartlett, utility portfolio manager at Reaves Asset Management.

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  Bay Area lawmaker suggests breaking up PG&E after Camp Fire

  KGO – San Francisco
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  California wildfire victims sue utility PG&E alleging negligence

  Reuters

3 Beaten-Down Semiconductor Stocks to Buy Before the End of 2018

Semiconductor stocks, like the rest of the broader tech market, have been under heavy pressure in late 2018. A slowdown in the semiconductor market as well as the tariff wars between China and the U.S. have also affected sentiment in the sector. Although many of these chip stocks, including Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), are much cheaper than they were at the start of September, investors should not expect the choppiness in individual share prices to be over yet.

Warren Buffett buys JPMorgan shares as he ramps up bets on the financials

During the third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway snapped up a new position in JPMorgan Chase (JPM) of 35.6 million shares, making it the 10th largest stock holding. “I should’ve [invested],” Buffett said at the time.

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  Warren Buffett Buys More Bank, Tech Stocks with Stakes in JPMorgan, Oracle, PNC, Travelers

  Fortune
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  Berkshire invests in JPMorgan, Oracle as Buffett puts cash to work

  Reuters

These numbers show Suze Orman is right about needing $5 million to retire

Suze Orman broke the internet earlier this month when she told the “Afford Anything” podcast that those buying into the FIRE movement (financial independence, retire early) better save at least $5 million to achieve that goal. “Her views ruffled a lot of feathers, but after crunching the numbers, I have to agree — $5 million sounds about right if you want to retire before the age of 60,” the Financial Samurai blog’s Sam Dogen said. Dogen says 40 is the absolute earliest he’d recommend anybody retire, although even then, that’s asking a lot out of your investments.

• 
  Why does the early-retirement movement have so many haters?

  MarketWatch
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  Why early retirement IS all it’s cracked up to be

  MarketWatch

Canopy Growth CEO: 'For sure there's a marijuana bubble'

Canopy Growth Corporation saw its shares fall 13% on Wednesday after reporting disappointing earnings that included a revenue decline. Analysts had expected better results from Canopy after Canada launched legal recreational marijuana sales on Oct. 17. Canopy Growth CEO Bruce Linton doesn’t disagree.

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  CannTrust Holdings Doubles Sales as It Prepares to Move to the NYSE

  Motley Fool
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  Why ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF Is Down 9.5% So Far in 2018

  Motley Fool

Here's What to Expect from Nvidia's (NVDA) Q3 Earnings

Nvidia NVDA stock slipped 1% during regular trading hours Wednesday just one day before the company is set to report its quarterly financial results. Nvidia has been a graphics chip powerhouse for years, and its recently launched GPUs based on its new Turing architecture are expected to be a game-changer in the gaming industry. Meanwhile, Nvidia is set to benefit from the growth of cloud computing, AI, and machine learning.

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  Gaming, Datacenters, & Other Key Q3 Nvidia (NVDA) Estimates

  Zacks
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  NVIDIA Earnings Preview: What to Watch on Thursday

  Motley Fool

Cramer's 3 cardinal rules for investing during a bear mar...

Jim Cramer uses a story about a real-life bear encounter to illustrate how investors should approach the stock market's bearish moves.

• Jim Cramer Weighs In On Dropbox, Teva And More

  Benzinga
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  CNBC’s Jim Cramer says stock market is in ‘a very serious correction’ — and there’s nowhere to hide

  MarketWatch

5 Excellent Dividend Growth Stocks Worth Adding to Your Kitty

Stocks with a strong history of dividend growth year over year form a healthy portfolio with greater scope of capital appreciation as opposed to simple dividend paying stocks or those that have high yields. Dividend growth reflects a sustainable business model, a long track of profitability, rising cash flows, good liquidity, a strong balance sheet and some value characteristics. All these superior fundamentals make dividend growth stocks promising investments for the long term.

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  CBG Capital Limited (ASX:CBC): Ex-Dividend Is In 4 Days

  Simply Wall St.
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  Is Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WLTW) A Smart Choice For Dividend Investors?

  Simply Wall St.

3 Overpriced Semiconductor Stocks Due for a Fall

Semiconductor stocks have had it very easy for the last few years. In looking for semiconductor stocks to dump I’m looking for companies that investors had overreached for, but where the final collapse has not yet come. Put the cash in your pocket while it’s still on the table.

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

Heading into today, shares of the robotic surgery system company had lost 7.27% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 0.16% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.41% in that time. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.02 billion, up 14.49% from the year-ago period. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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  The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Intel and Boeing

  Zacks
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  Starbucks (SBUX) Stock Moves -0.55%: What You Should Know

  Zacks

Berkshire invests in JPMorgan, Oracle as Buffett puts cash to work

The investments were disclosed in a Wednesday regulatory filing detailing Berkshire's U.S.-listed stocks as of Sept. 30, following a quarter when the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate spent $17.7 billion on equities. According to the filing, Berkshire owned $829 million of PNC stock, $460 million of the insurer Travelers, and $2.13 billion of Oracle, the database software company. “While nervous investors fear the end of the economic recovery, Mr. Buffett is buying economically sensitive bank stocks," said Bill Smead, who runs Smead Capital Management Inc in Seattle and owns Berkshire stock.

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  Warren Buffett buys JPMorgan shares as he ramps up bets on the financials

  Yahoo Finance
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  Warren Buffett Buys More Bank, Tech Stocks with Stakes in JPMorgan, Oracle, PNC, Travelers

  Fortune

Why I’m Now Bullish on Apple Stock

It has been a rotten stretch for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) bulls the past few weeks, but gravity may finally be losing its grip on shares. If misery loves company, AAPL stock’s 17% correction is even a bit more rotten than the Nasdaq 100’s 14% decline over the past several weeks. It wasn’t long ago — in fact, just about two weeks on the calendar — that I was bearish on AAPL stock in front of earnings.

• Apple, bellwether for technology stocks across Wall Street, dips into bear market territory

  CNBC
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  10 Reasons It's Time to Be a Stock Market Bear

  Motley Fool

PG&E shares plummet after company discloses ‘electric inc...

PG&E shares plummeted after the company disclosed an ‘electric incident’ just before the massive California wildfires. The utility company discloses it may not have enough insurance coverage to cover damages if its equipment caused the Northern Califor...

• 
  Bay Area lawmaker suggests breaking up PG&E after Camp Fire

  KGO – San Francisco
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  PG&E Plunges Into Crisis as It Faces Reckoning Over Fires

  Bloomberg

California wildfire victims sue utility PG&E alleging negligence

The lawsuit seeking damages against California's largest public utility was filed on Tuesday in San Francisco County Superior Court by three law firms, which refer to themselves as Northern California Fire Lawyers. "It's important to remember that the cause (of the "Camp Fire") has yet to be determined," PG&E said in a statement. The Camp Fire, which began last Thursday, has all but wiped out the Sierra foothills town of Paradise in Butte County, about 175 miles (280 km) north of San Francisco, that was overrun by flames and largely incinerated.

• 
  Bay Area lawmaker suggests breaking up PG&E after Camp Fire

  KGO – San Francisco
• 
  PG&E Plunges Into Crisis as It Faces Reckoning Over Fires

  Bloomberg

Wall Street is souring on Apple

Apple (AAPL) is now down almost 20% from its all-time high. Earlier this year, Apple became the first company with a market capitalization north of $1 trillion. Since reporting earnings on November 1, shares of Apple are down more than 10%.

Here’s why you shouldn’t retire super early — even if you can

Despite the many perks of early retirement — waking up whenever you want, for example — it wasn’t the easiest decision. Earnings tend to peak around 48 for men and about 39 for women, according to an analysis by PayScale.

Why Alibaba Stock Still Has Plenty of Better Days Ahead

While this sounds impressive, it still wasn’t enough to impress BABA stock investors. Although this year’s single day event beat last year’s numbers, Wall Street was still disappointed, so the stock fell on the news. Beyond this recent drop, 2018 has been a generally tough year for Alibaba stock: In fact, it is down 20% year-to-date. The iShares China Large-Cap ETF (NYSEARCA:FXI) is only down 13% for the same period, so even compared to that, BABA stock still lags.