So the Federal Reserve cut interest rates. This was their third rate cut in the last three months. The new target range for overnight interest rates is 1.5 to 1.75%. That’s below the rate of inflation.

There are three things you should do right now.

#1. Don’t panic.

#2. Seriously, don’t panic.

#3. Make sure you own a broad, well-diversified portfolio of high-quality growth stocks.

I can help you with #3, but for the first two, well…you’re on your own but hopefully #3 will help.

Before I go further, let’s look at what the Fed is doing and why.

The Federal Reserve’s Game Plan

Not that long ago, the Federal Reserve was on a path of increasing interest rates. After all, the economy was slowly getting over its long hangover, and interest rates had been cut to the bone. Things were gradually getting back to normal.

In a three-year stretch, the Fed hiked interest rates nine times. Not only that but going by their public statements, they seemed on track for several more hikes. For the most part, Wall Street was cool with that.

But then it stopped, and Wall Street got scared. In the fourth quarter of last year, stocks plunged. Not only that, but stocks in economically sensitive areas really plunged. President Trump wasn’t shy about expressing his displeasure with the Federal Reserve and all those higher rates.

The key metric to watch is the yield on the two-year Treasury note. It’s not perfect, but the two-year yield can often be a decent forerunner for Fed policy. Last November, the yield on the two-year got as high as 3%. As worries about the economy and trade war set in, that yield started to plunge. By May, the two-year was below 2%, and earlier this month, it fell below 1.4%. That’s a stunning fall for such a short amount of time.

The Fed had to keep up. That’s why in late July, the Fed cut rates. They cut again in mid-September and again today. Jay Powell, the top banana at the Fed, said that this is simply a “mid-cycle” adjustment and not the start of recessionary rate-cutting splurge.

Wall Street believes him. At least for now. After today, the Fed will probably chill out on any more rate cuts, and they’ll assess how the current cuts have worked. The Fed, I should add, does not exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to forecasting the economy.

What does this mean for us? Lower rates are good news for investors for two reasons. One is that it lowers the cost of borrowing, and that’s a major expense for companies. It will also lower the cost of many variable-rate mortgages. Importantly, lower rates tend to help equity valuations. The lower rates go, the higher price/earnings ratios can rise. (Not always, but in general.)

There’s an old saying on Wall Street, “don’t fight the Fed.” That’s very true. Don’t forget; they have a lot more money. This is why investors should be following the Fed’s path.

The key insight is that lower rates help particular sectors of the economy. Basically, anything that is bought with financing; housing is the obvious example. Another area is the industrial sector.

Consider a company like 3M (MMM), formerly known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. This is a classic example of an economically sensitive industrial stock.

Blue chips don’t get much bluer than 3M, and the company is a lot more than Post-It Notes. Last year, 3M had revenues of more than $32 billion. The company is a Dow component, and it has 93,000 employees all over the world.

There’s something else it has—an amazing dividend streak. 3M has raised its dividend every year for 60 years in a row. That dates back to the Eisenhower administration.

This is a good time to give 3M a close look because the stock has disappointed Wall Street this year. Just last week, the company had to lower its business forecast again. This could be 3M’s worst year for sales growth since the recession.

But remember, most of those results happened when interest rates were higher. The lower rates will help 3M and its customers. You always want to pay attention when good companies go through rough patches. Over the last two years, the S&P 500 has gained 19%, while 3M has lost 19%.

Honestly, I’m not too worried about 3M. This is one of the largest and most innovative companies in the world. 3M currently pays out a quarterly dividend of $1.44 per share or $5.76 per share for the year. That currently works out to a dividend yield of 3.4%. That’s about twice what the Fed is charging.

3M will be back, and the Federal Reserve is helping.

Pay Your Bills for LIFE with These Dividend Stocks

Get your hands on my most comprehensive, step-by-step dividend plan yet. In just a few minutes, you will have a 36-month road map that could generate $4,804 (or more!) per month for life. It's the perfect supplement to Social Security and works even if the stock market tanks. Over 6,500 retirement investors have already followed the recommendations I've laid out.

Click here for complete details to start your plan today.

Source: Investors Alley

U.S. equities are recovering on Tuesday thanks to a steepening of the yield curve. Put more simply, the bond market is suddenly feeling a little less worried about the specter of a recession after long-term rates fell below a critical short-term rate recently.

Stocks are taking their cue from this larger and much more important marketplace, helping the S&P 500 push back over the critical 2,800 level. Will the move above this threshold, which has confounded the bulls repeatedly since October, finally be definitively crossed?

If it is, newfound strength in the energy sector will be a key driver. Quietly, hoping not to attract attention to itself, crude oil has been steadily gaining ground since bottoming in December. With the start of the summer driving season near, West Texas Intermediate is once more flirting with the $60-a-barrel level. The Energy Select Sector SPDR (NYSEARCA:XLE) is following suit, preparing for a move up and over its 200-day moving average.

While I’ve recently discussed a few mega-cap energy stocks, here is a look at four slightly smaller names that are worth a look:

Occidental Petroleum (OXY)

Shares of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) are preparing to break up and and out of a tight three-month consolidation range as it extends away from a rising 50-day moving average. Next stop is a test of the 200-day average, which would be worth a gain of 6% from here. The company recently announced that it plans to double crude exports to 600,000 barrels per day in 2020.

The company will next report results on May 8 after the close. Analysts are looking for earnings of 76 cents per share on revenues of $4.1 billion. When the company last reported on February 12, earnings of $1.22 per share beat estimates by six cents on a 33.8% rise in revenues.

ConocoPhillips (COP)

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) shares are rising again above its 200-day moving average, returning to the upper end of a trading range going back to late October. Already enjoying a 20%+ rally off of its late December low, watch for a move to prior highs near $78 — which would be worth a gain of more than 14% from current levels.

The company will next report results on April 25 before the bell. Analysts are looking for earnings of 76 cents per share on revenues of $8.5 billion. When the company last reported on January 31, earnings of $1.13 per share beat estimates by 11 cents on over $9.1 billion in revenue.

Anadarko Petroleum (APC)

Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) shares are coiling up nicely within a four-month consolidation range, readying a powerful breakout that should see a test of the 200-day moving average. Such a move would be worth a gain of nearly 30% from here. The stock has been stock in a multi-year trading range, with resistance near $75 (first reached in 2011) and support near $40 (in place since late 2017).

The company will next report results on April 30 after the close. Analysts are looking for earnings of 19 cents per share on revenues of nearly $3 billion. When the company last reported on February 5, earnings of 38 cents per share missed estimates by 24 cents on a 14.3% rise in revenues.

Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD)

Similar to other names on this list, Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) is enjoying a solid base of support after months within a tight consolidation range that sets up a run at its 200-day moving average. Such a move would be worth a gain of more than 11%. Shares of shrugged off some bad news, including a downgrade from Mizuho on March 19.

The company will next report results on May 1 after the close. Analysts are looking for earnings of $1.52 per share on revenues of $2.2 billion. When the company last reported on February 13, earnings of $1.18 per share missed estimates by 16 cents despite a 75.4% rise in revenues.

As of this writing, the author held no shares in the aforementioned securities.

  [FREE REPORT] Options Income Blueprint: 3 Proven Strategies to Earn More Cash Today Discover how to grab $577 to $2,175 every 7 days even if you have a small brokerage account or little experience... And it's as simple as using these 3 proven trading strategies for earning extra cash. They’re revealed in my new ebook, Options Income Blueprint: 3 Proven Strategies to Earn Extra Cash Today. You can get it right now absolutely FREE. Click here right now for your free copy and to start pulling in up to $2,175 in extra income every week.

Source: Investor Place

There was good news recently for supporters of solar energy…

Despite tariffs imposed on imported solar panels, the United States installed more solar energy than any other source of electricity (accounting for 55% of all capacity installed) in the first quarter of 2018. According to a report from GTM Research, there were 2.5 gigawatts of solar power installed in the first quarter, a rise of 13% from the year earlier period.

This was part of the move globally toward renewable energy. In its annual review of world energy released in mid-June, BP (NYSE: BP) revealed a surprising fact – 17% of the world’s energy growth in 2017 came from renewable energy sources. That was the largest increase on record and the equivalent of the energy consumed by Sweden and Denmark in a year.

Much of this progress is the result of falling prices for solar panels, thanks to overproduction from Chinese companies. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that solar power will soon be the cheapest source of new electricity in a number of countries.

However, there is a dark cloud on the horizon. As prices for solar power come down, government policymakers are moving away from subsidies for solar power projects and shifting toward auction-based systems to reward the lowest-cost producers of renewable electricity.

China’s Solar Eclipse

We saw such a move in the world’s biggest solar power market, China, announced in early June. It accounted for two-thirds of solar installations worldwide in 2017, with a 55% surge in new solar installations. So it was a bit of a shock to the industry when China said it would eliminate subsidies for most new solar projects as well as reducing feed-in tariffs.

China’s move was aimed at curbing runaway growth in the country’s solar generation, which had boomed under its generous subsidies program. The massive subsidies created a deficit of $15.6 billion in a fund set up to pay for the higher feed-in tariffs. The energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie forecast that deficit would soar to nearly $40 billion by 2020 if China had left its policy unchanged.

In addition, much of the solar power installed in China in recent years is “curtailed”, or unused, as provincial grid operators choose to use electricity from local coal-fired power plants instead. This practice is particularly prevalent in China’s far western provinces. In Xinjiang, for example, curtailment stood at more than 20% at the end of 2017. This was actually an improvement about one-third of installed capacity that stood idle the year before.

The government’s new policy sets a strict quota for solar installations and eliminates subsidies for any projects outside the quotas. And the quotas were so low that most of the quotas were already filled within the first five months of this year.

Because of China’s actions, solar installations worldwide are now expected to drop and the sudden contraction will place even more pressure on solar panel prices and on the manufacturers, who in many cases were already struggling. Wood Mackenzie expects that 20 gigawatts will be shaved off China’s solar installations this year as a result of the new policy.

That is equivalent to a fifth of last year’s overall global demand! Or as Edurne Zoco, head of solar research at IHS Market, told the Financial Times “If China really clamps down, there is no market, no combination of markets in the rest of the world that can actually compensate for that.”
The end result is that 2018 will likely be the first year in the short history of the industry that it will experience negative annual installation growth. And price-wise, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) lowered their forecast for this year from a 25% price decline to a 34% drop for solar panels.

More on China: Buy This Export to China That Is Exempt From Tariffs

Investing in Solar

This is why you saw steep price declines of all solar power-related stocks in June. Is now a time then to look for bargains among the beaten-down solar stocks?

The answer is yes and no. Let me explain…

First of all, you must stay away from broad exposure to the industry through ETFs such as the Invesco Solar ETF (NYSE: TAN), which is down about 8.5% year-to-date. There are just too many of the lower-tier players in such a broad fund.

You will need to pick and choose, or as the old adage goes, ‘separate the wheat from the chaff’. One way to do that is to go with the beneficiaries of lower solar panel prices (despite the tariffs), the companies that install solar power.

One such example is Sunrun (Nasdaq: RUN), which is the largest residential solar power company in the United States with a 15%  market share. Its stock has soared over 122% year-to-date and is up 90% over the past year.

Since establishing its so-called ‘solar as a service’ model in 2007, Sunrun leads the industry in providing clean energy to homeowners with little to no upfront cost and at a savings to traditional electricity. The company designs, installs, finances, insures, monitors and maintains the solar panels on a homeowner’s roof, while homeowners receive predictable electricity pricing for 20 years or more.

Another factor in its favor is the fact that California passed a law that will require the installation of solar power generation of all new homes, beginning in 2020. The state’s largest solar system installer is Sunrun.

Another company to look at is one that was once considered ‘dead’ – Enphase Energy (Nasdaq: ENPH). Its semiconductor-based microinverter system converts energy at the individual solar module level and brings a system-based high-technology approach to solar energy generation, storage, control and management.

It is interesting to note that as China pulls back on solar, India is going ahead full steam. And Enphase is installing a 4.5 gigawatt solar power plant in India that will send power to Bangalore. When completed, it will be the company’s largest microinverter-based solar plant installation.

Its stock has seen a Lazarus-like comeback, soaring over 700% in the past year and it is up more than 182% year-to-date.

Finally, there is my favorite and a member of the Growth Stock Advisor portfolio, SolarEdge Technologies (Nasdaq: SEDG).

The company has invented an intelligent inverter solution that has changed the way power is harvested and managed in a solar photovoltaic (PV) system. The SolarEdge DC optimized inverter system maximizes power generation at the individual PV module-level while lowering the cost of energy produced by the solar PV system. Since beginning commercial shipments in 2010, SolarEdge has shipped over 6.7 Gigawatts of its DC optimized inverter systems and its products have been installed in solar PV systems in 120 countries.

I believe its DC voltage optimizer strategy will win more and more market share versus the more expensive micro-inverter strategy used by their rivals. Despite its recent pullback, the stock is still up 25% year-to-date and 129% over the past year.

Stocks like these three will likely survive and even thrive, despite tariffs and China’s cutbacks on its subsidies for solar, as the number of competitors dwindle.

President Trump is at it again… on June 13, he again blamed OPEC for the rising price of oil. In a tweet he said, “Oil prices are too high, OPEC is at it again. Not good!”. This follows a similar tweet on April 20 when President Trump said “oil prices are artificially Very High” due to the supply curbs by OPEC and its allies.

Trump’s tweet comes ahead of a meeting next week of oil ministers from OPEC and Russia who are under pressure from the U.S. to raise output by at least one million barrels of oil a day, after more than a year of enacting production cuts.

So is OPEC to blame? Yes and no. There are other factors at play here such as a robust global economy that has driven up demand for oil. For example, if you look at just China and India, they have imported 962,000 barrels per day more in the first five months of 2018 than in the same period last year.

But the real problem is on the supply side, with President’s Trump’s imposition of new sanctions on Iran exacerbating an already bad situation. Let me explain…

Oil Supply Constraints

I found it interesting that well-known hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand responded to President Trump’s tweet saying an oil price spike is coming because the number of countries with excess production capacity are few. “OPEC has the lowest spare capacity ever right now. There is going to be a real issue. Prices will be above $150 in less than 2 years. Eventually higher prices will bring more supply. But right now [there is] too little supply coming over the next few years despite US supply growth,” he tweeted.

Andurand is someone to listen to in the oil market… he has returned to his investors a cumulative 560% since 2008. But is he just talking his ‘book’? Last year, he began accumulating positions betting on a return to $100 a barrel oil.

Related: Big Oil Bets Big on Big Data to Increase Revenues and Cut Costs

Unfortunately, for us consumers of oil Andurand is largely correct…

First, supply and demand right now in the oil market are roughly in balance at about 100 million barrels a day. BUT the so-called shock absorbers that would cushion any interruption in supply or spike in demand are at dangerously low levels.

Commercial stocks in the world’s major economies currently stand at 2.8 billion barrels, composed of crude (1.1 billion barrels), other liquids (300 million barrels) and refined products (1.4 billion barrels). The level of these inventories is already 27 million barrels below the five-year average, according to the International Energy Agency.

Then you must consider that the vast majority of inventories are held for operational reasons to ensure the uninterrupted flow of oil from wellhead to final customers. Global oil consumption has increased by more than 6 million barrels per day over the past five years, so other things being equal, the oil industry will want to hold more inventories for operational reasons. That leaves only a small percentage, generally less than 15%, actually available to act as a shock absorber.

For the last four decades, the oil industry’s second line of defense has been the existence of significant volumes of spare production capacity. But today, nearly all spare production capacity is held by Saudi Arabia, with smaller volumes held by Russia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The other oil producers have no spare capacity.

Add it up and OPEC’s spare capacity currently amounts to less than 2 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That is not good when you consider that in its latest oil market update, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that it is possible that exports from Venezuela and Iran could decline by as much as 1.5 million barrels per day or about 30% of their current output by the end of 2019. Iran sanctions may take nearly a million barrels a day off the market and with the sorry state of Venezuela, oil production there may totally collapse.

To compensate for that lost output, Saudi Arabia and the others could boost production by somewhat over 1 million barrels per day, according to the IEA. But if that happens, OPEC spare capacity will be reduced to less than 1 million barrels per day – the lowest level since 2004!

And even though US production from its shale fields is on the rise, keep in mind that most U.S. refineries cannot handle that type of light sweet crude and run on the heavier crude such as from Saudi Arabia. And pipeline constraints mean much of that shale oil cannot reach the marketplace.

Oil Price Rise Investments

So how can you profit from this, or at least, make enough money to offset what will surely be rising gasoline prices?

Keep in mind that many oil producers are generating more free cash at current prices than they did at $100 per barrel before the market crashed four years ago. This is because of deep cost cuts during the downturn, with average operating expenses per barrel down by a third and development costs halved thanks to cost-cutting since 2014. That means most oil majors can now cover dividends and capital expenditure at prices around $50 per barrel, meaning that, at anything above that level, they are very profitable.

Of the larger oil companies, my favorite is Norway’s Equinor ASA (NYSE: EQNR), which recently changed its name from Statoil to emphasize its long-term move pivot away from oil and toward alternative energy.

But for now, the company is enjoying the benefits of higher oil prices it is earning (earnings per share were up 24% in 2017) from its rich North Sea oil holdings, including the massive Johan Sverdrup oil field. It’s stock up an impressive 26% year-to-date.

More Reading: Buy This Commodity Set to Become More Precious Than Oil

In its latest earnings report, the company lifted its adjusted net earnings to $1.47 billion, from $1.11 billion in the same period last year. Analysts had, on average, expected $1.61 billion. Cash flow from operations increased by 20% to $7.1 billion.

Here in the U.S. I like ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), which is also up 26% year-to-date. This should continue as the company expects compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of production through 2022 of 22%. Not surprising when you consider that the bulk of the acreage it holds in the Eagle Ford shake and Bakken shale are rich in oil. Another plus is that on February 1, ConocoPhillips entered into a deal with AnadarkoPetroleum to buy a 22% stake in the Western North Slope of Alaska. The company will also acquire the stake of Anadarko in the Alpine pipeline. Once the deal concludes, ConocoPhillips’ cash flow will rise from incremental production increases.

But for every winner, there is a loser. And the biggest loser, if oil prices continue to rise, is the airline industry. Overall, the International Air Transport Association says it expects net income of $33.8 billion for global airlines this year, down 12% from its December forecast.

Jet fuel represents a third of airlines’ expenses and industry executives predict costs will be passed on to consumers via higher fares. If I had to pick one loser among the airlines, it would be American Airlines (Nasdaq: AAL), which has added fuel costs to its other problems (overcapacity, etc.)

American lowered its profit outlook for 2018 due to an expected $2.3 billion rise in fuel costs this year. It unfortunately had listened to the short-term Wall Street focus… why waste money hedging – everyone ‘knows’ oil is headed lower, raise your profits by not hedging. Its stock is down 22% over the past three months.

Look for even more winners and losers if the oil price continues its ascent.Buffett just went all-in on THIS new asset. Will you?
Buffett could see this new asset run 2,524% in 2018. And he's not the only one... Mark Cuban says "it's the most exciting thing I've ever seen." Mark Zuckerberg threw down $19 billion to get a piece... Bill Gates wagered $26 billion trying to control it...
What is it?
It's not gold, crypto or any mainstream investment. But these mega-billionaires have bet the farm it's about to be the most valuable asset on Earth. Wall Street and the financial media have no clue what's about to happen...And if you act fast, you could earn as much as 2,524% before the year is up.
Click here to find out what it is.

It strikes me, at times, how little humankind has changed over the centuries. The ancient Greeks waited for answers to the most pertinent questions of their day from the Oracle at Delphi – a high priestess that supposedly spoke to the god Apollo.

Today, Wall Street also waits for word from on high as to the future course of markets from the Federal Reserve. The new Chairman (or is it Oracle) Jay Powell will explain to the public why the Fed deemed it is necessary to raise the federal funds interest rates by a quarter percentage point again, to the range of 1.50% to 1.75%.

Market pundits will attempt to interpret exactly what the Fed’s future plans are by looking at the so-called dot plots to see if three or four interest rate hikes (including this one in March) are in Wall Street’s future. That ‘analysis’ will lead to classic, almost Pavlovian, response by some market participants to immediately sell some sectors in response to future higher rates.

One type of stock that will be sold is the so-called dividend aristocrats. The reasoning is straightforward… in the three years through 2017, the average yield on the dividend aristocrats index was 0.4% higher than 10-year Treasury yields, according to Bloomberg data. Now, the average dividend aristocrat offers a yield of 2.3% versus the more than 2.8% yield on the 10-year Treasury.

Utilities: Bond Proxies

One sector that has consistently paid higher dividends has been utilities. These companies make much of their income from regulated assets which means that their earnings and dividend payments are steadier and more reliable. That makes their shares behave more like bonds. In other words, they are bond proxies.

But now that ability to attract investors with higher dividends  is under pressure thanks to the Fed raising rates, making government bonds more competitive among income-seeking investors. In a Pavlovian-type response, JPMorgan in February came out with a list of 50 bond proxies that they put on an avoid list for investors. More than half of the list consisted of utility firms.

However, the current harsh reality is that U.S. utilities’ finances are under pressure from both higher rates and the effects of the recently-passed tax law. The sub-sector most under pressure is the power sector. Let me explain…

Power Sector Punishment

First of all, these companies are in a no-growth environment. U.S. demand for electricity is stagnating: total power consumption was slightly lower last year than in 2010, according to the Energy Information Administration. There has also been a major shift in utilities’ fuel mix. Since 2010, the proportion of U.S. electricity generated by coal-fired plants has dropped from 45% to 30%, while the proportion from natural gas rose from 24% to 32% and the proportion from renewables rose from 4% to 10%.

But the U.S. power sector has been doing fine because two of its crucial inputs were dirt cheap: natural gas and money (thanks to near zero interest rates). The utilities need money to constantly upkeep and upgrade their power infrastructure. But now the Fed’s policy change is changing that dynamic and raising their costs.

Rising rates aren’t good news for the utilities sector because many of the companies are heavily indebted. The utilities in the S&P 500 have debt with an average maturity of 14.5 years, according to JPMorgan. And while only 19% of their debt matures by 2020, over time, rising interest rates will put upward pressure on their costs. In their regulated businesses, the utilities should be able to recover much of their increased costs from their customers. But the more companies try to raise rates, the higher the risk that they will get push back from various states’ regulators.

The power companies’ problems are being compounded by the recent changes in the tax laws. As you can imagine, the changes are very complex and will affect different companies in different ways.

However, one common effect is that it will squeeze utilities’ cash flows. The corporate tax rate has been cut from 35% to 21%. But it is believed that states’ regulators will insist that customers benefit from that reduction with lower bills. Eventually, the power companies may be able to recoup the lost income. But in the short run this loss of revenue means that cash flows will be squeezed. This may even result in some utilities’ credit ratings being cut.

Some Companies Will Cope

Management at some utility firms are already taking action in order to alleviate this expected loss in their cash flow. They have decided to issue more stock (diluting existing shareholders) and cut back on capital expenditures.

One of the largest utilities, Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), announced in February that it planned to raise $2 billion from selling shares this year and would also cut its five-year capital spending plan by $1 billion. Its CEO, Lynn Good, said the share sale was needed “to maintain the strength of our balance sheet”.

Another large utility, First Energy (NYSE: FE), announced in January a $2.5 billion investment in common and convertible preferred shares (again diluting existing investors), from a number of institutional investors including Elliott Management and GIC. The funds would be used to pay off debt, contribute to its pension fund, and to “strengthen the company’s investment-grade balance sheet”.

These type of actions should help secure these companies’ future. But it will hold back their stock performance over the short- to intermediate-term, as well as the performance of a broad utilities’ ETF such as the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLU), which is down 4.62% year-to-date.

For now, I would avoid the entire utility sector. But if you have a high risk tolerance, you may want to consider the ProShares Ultra Short Utilities ETF (NYSE: SDP). This ETF seeks a return that is double the inverse of the return on the Dow Jones U.S. Utilities Index. This ETF is up more than 7% year-to-date.

Buffett just went all-in on THIS new asset. Will you?
Buffett could see this new asset run 2,524% in 2018. And he's not the only one... Mark Cuban says "it's the most exciting thing I've ever seen." Mark Zuckerberg threw down $19 billion to get a piece... Bill Gates wagered $26 billion trying to control it...
What is it?
It's not gold, crypto or any mainstream investment. But these mega-billionaires have bet the farm it's about to be the most valuable asset on Earth. Wall Street and the financial media have no clue what's about to happen...And if you act fast, you could earn as much as 2,524% before the year is up.
Click here to find out what it is.

Source: Investors Alley 

The forecast showed an extra 20 million pounds of uranium production for 2018 … with no buyers. As you can imagine, the uranium price plummeted.

It hit its lowest price in October 2016 at $18.75 per pound. That touched a 13-year low price.

The downtrend began back in 2011. The uranium price peaked at $72.50 per pound in January 2011. It fell steadily since then, down a total of 74%.

This is a shocking result for an energy source that many embraced as a “green” rescue from hydrocarbons just a few years ago. Nuclear power creates safe, carbon-free energy.

The problem is, it can cause huge disasters. That’s what we discovered when the Fukushima disaster struck Japan.

The Demise of Nuclear Power

An earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011. The earthquake damaged a reactor. Then the tsunami inundated the area, destroying vital backup generators.

Without the backup power, cooling water couldn’t get into the plant. That caused a runaway reaction, a meltdown — the greatest fear for all nuclear power plant operators.

A series of human errors compounded the damage. The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, was completely unprepared for the situation.

The result killed the nuclear power industry.

Fukushima turned the world against nuclear power. Germany shut down all its reactors in response. Demand for uranium fell, and the uranium price collapsed.

This finally led major uranium producer Cameco Corp. (NYSE: CCJ) to cut production in early November 2017. The company’s earnings fell and fell. It struggled to maintain profitability. It finally announced that it would suspend operations at its flagship McArthur River mine for 10 months.

Cameco’s decision cut the surplus to just 5 million pounds … and then the unthinkable happened: The world’s largest uranium producer followed suit. Kazakhstan’s state-owned uranium miner Kazatomprom cut production by 20% for the next three years.

The result could be a massive bull market in uranium.

The Uranium Price and A Windfall for Uranium Producers

Shares of Uranium Participation Corp. (Toronto: U), which hold physical uranium for investment, soared in response. As you can see from the chart below, shares are up 30% in just a month and a half.

Shares of uranium companies surged too. However, this is just the beginning. Analysts that cover the uranium sector believe these cuts could add $30 per pound to the price of uranium. That’s more than double the current spot price.

For uranium producers, this will be a windfall. Companies like Cameco and Ur-Energy Inc. (Toronto: URE) will see revenue and earnings rocket higher.

This appears to be great news for the uranium sector. It’s a story we’ll continue to watch in 2018.

Good investing,

Matt Badiali

Editor, Real Wealth Strategist

Right now, an untapped ocean of energy—found underneath all 50 states—is about to transform the world’s energy industry. In fact, there’s enough of this energy in the first six miles of the earth’s crust to power the United States for the next 30,000 years. Wanna know this untapped energy source? Learn NOW! And as companies rush to extract this energy from the ground, they’ll need the help of one Midwestern company’s technology to make use of it. This is your chance to take advantage of John D. Rockefeller-type fortunes. Early Bird Gets The Worm...