Markets

"As stock markets slid in March, Judy Brady lay awake at night thinking about her portfolio. 'My retired friends who had all CDs and gold, and they were still making money, and my investments just kept going and going,' she said. 'I thought: I can't afford to lose all this.' So the 70-year-old retiree in Schaumburg, Ill., sold most of her stocks."  -- The Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2009

In this crazy world, it's hard to find things you can count on. Death and taxes, sure. Jobs, marriages, even your favorite breakfast cereal? Not so much. But there's another, more positive element you usually can rely on: Dividends.

Veteran Global Gainsmembers know what we love about China. There's tremendouspotential upside there, with many cheap stocksready to explode in value -- especially among smaller companies.

You know those signs on the highway, "We buy ugly houses"? The signposting buyers know they can turn something ugly today into beautiful profits tomorrow, all while paying the low, low ugly house price today.

Investing can be downright puzzling. Or not, if you believe Gregory Treverton.

It's been a scary crisis for dividend investors.

The Motley Fool had a great week, helping investors of all skill levels understand markets and stocks. The community talked about individual companies, trends, strategies, basic advice, and more. Read on to see three of the week's best.

There are three areas of the market that I've been scouring for undervalued stocks recently: banks, oil, and small caps. Why these three in particular? Here's my rationale for each (as well as some specific stock ideas).

The new trading week kicks off with Casey's General Stores (Nasdaq: CASY) serving up its quarterly report. Selling groceries, gasoline, and discounted merchandise has been a hot ticket during the economic lull, so it shouldn't be a surprise to see analysts projecting a profit of $0.36 a share for Casey's, 29% ahead of last year's showing. If that sounds ambitious, consider that Casey's blew past Wall Street's targets three months ago.

I've been startled recently by news stories about the massive declines in endowments at elite universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Princeton. Sure, many investors lost money over the past year, but the performance at Harvard and Yale "badly trailed" the results at the average college, as The Wall Street Journalso delicately put it. I'm shocked, but not because of these endowments' lackluster performance.