Banks are one of the best places to invest your money in, as they are not as affected by the ups and downs of the economy when compared to other businesses. In fact, logically speaking, right after a slump is when banks are of the highest value as they would earn from interests earned of loan payments. Banks are also quite generic when it comes to their services and strategies, so you can pretty much determine how all other banks perform by only studying the trends for one specific bank.

Still not all banks perform at the same rate with each other. With that, here are some of the best bank stocks of 2019 based on their past performances.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley is one of the major banks on Wall Street that is seen to be on the rise this 2019. It provides multiple services that are doing quite well such as debt underwriting, wealth management advice, and acquisitions services. It has also shown improvements in revenue at the latter part of the previous year and its current low prices are something that can be taken advantage of.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase is one of the largest banks in the United States and is one of the banks who have thrived despite the most recent financial crisis. It boasts 2.5 trillion US dollars in assets and is partnered with Berkshire Hathaway, which makes us foresee a bright future for this bank in 2019. Add to that its high dividends as well as the leadership of CEO Jamie Dimon and you’ve got one of the best banks that you can invest in.

Citizens Financial Group

Potential investors must take advantage of the low valuations currently being offered by CFG. Trading is currently at 10 times earnings with a P/E ratio of 0.6, this holding company that owns, among other assets, Citizens Bank guarantees dividends of at least 3.4%, making this one of the best bank stocks of 2019 as there’s no way to go but up for the 15 billion US dollar bank.

Wednesday was a trending day for Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) after Berkshire Hathaway shared that 7.134 million of the bank's shares were sold between April 10 and 12. Further to those 7 million shares, Berkshire also plans to divest an additional 1.865 million shares at some point in the future. Berkshire is selling because under federal regulations, the holdings of any single shareholder of a large bank must be below 10% and Buffet's company had owned 479 million shares at the end of last year. The selling is not because it is bearish on the bank. This works well good for the Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) bulls. Since Wels Fargo was re-buying its stock, Berkshire's holdings did increase over the 10% limit, so Buffett's firm sold to stay within the limit.

Over the past few weeks, fluctuating polls have shown that Donald Trump has narrowed Hillary Clinton's lead, improving his odds of becoming president. As the presidential race hurdles towards the November finish line, a few stocks stand out as potential winners if Trump is elected.

In general, energy and military-based companies stand the best chance of substantial gains. Under a Trump presidency, coal industries, for example, would avoid the substantial hit from Clinton's promise to close down plants and enact stricter regulations. In addition to coal and oil stocks such as Cloud Peak Energy Inc. (NYSE:CLD), Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), and Continental Resources, Inc. (NYSE:CLR), companies that provide for military, including Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT), will also benefit.

Rents  Down in 2016 Forecast

Zillow Rent Forecast sees rents to slow, shifting to low gear in all the 12 months of 2016 that will include even well-performing markets in the previous years.

For renters though, Zillow predicts a flat line this year as well, a market movement that is expected from a meager 1.1 % rent increase.

Back in 2015, rents shoot up over the charts well enough to go beyond the average income of most tenants and renters which then made rent affordability one of the most volatile issues then. This is dominantly obvious in rising metropolitan areas such as San Francisco where rent appreciation rose more than two digits or exactly 12.5 %. This will most likely not be an issue in 2016 where rent increases are performing only half as quickly compared to 2015.

H and R Block shares have come down 21% in the last month after a disappointing third quarter caused a mass exodus by investors from the stock. However, we believe that fourth quarter earnings could turn H and R Block stock around and potentially offer up a significant opportunity for the savvy investor.

Though the third quarter is traditionally low performing for H and R Block, this year's loss was greater than expected. Revenue declined to $475 million, far lower than the expected $502 million. The third quarter loss amounted to $79 million, a significant increase from the $37 million third quarter loss experienced in 2015. In its third quarter results, the company also noted that they have experienced their fourth consecutive year of declining volume.

In Washington, people are having trouble coming to terms with the nation's numerous social and economic troubles. It is a bad idea for our government to leave our limited public resources to the hands of wealthy and politically well-connected corporations like the Export and Import Bank.

Those who are in favor of the current status argue that the bank benefits taxpayers because it protects jobs and promotes US exports. However, these are unsubstantiated arguments that will not stand up to further inquiry. As a matter of fact, less than 2 percent of US exports are supported by the bank yearly, and the usual beneficiaries are huge businesses like Caterpillar and Boeing.
Moreover, the bank's claim of supporting 205,000 jobs in 2013 was disputed by the Government Accounting Office, stating that the bank did not consider the number of jobs that would have been available if the bank had not been present among other arguments. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office reported that over the next decade, the bank is estimated to yield losses to taxpayers.

Job Losses and Casino Bankruptcies Do Not Concern Donald Trump

On August 31, the Showboat Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City closed its doors as did the Revel Hotel some days prior. This resulted in the loss of approximately 5,000 jobs which included dealers, waitresses, bartenders, security guards and other personnel in the casino. The Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City is also poised for closure in late September, which will bring the number of laid off workers to 6,000.

Donald Trump has a lengthy history in Atlantic City and this includes him leaving his business deals in the area before the collapse of the local economy.

It was during the early 1980s when Trump first bought properties on the Atlantic City boardwalk after having received approval from the state's gaming and control board. This resulted in his forming a partnership with Holiday Inn and building Trump Plaza. The deal that Trump negotiated allowed him to collect 50% of all profits without assuming any liability for casino losses throughout the casino's first five years.

H&R Block jumped higher yesterday by 6% at the open after the company posted a smaller loss and better revenue than anticipated. The company also announced a stock buyback program of $3.5 billion in addition to closing its banking business a month ahead of schedule.

The company’s adjusted gross earnings for the first quarter came in at a loss of $96 million with revenue of $138 million. Analyst were looking for $108 million loss, the same as last year, and revenue of $134 million.

Cover via Amazon

Bill Gross, owner and co-chief investment officer for Pimco is in the  monthly Economical Times .  On this occasion he isn't attempting to clarify why increased rates of interest are ideal for investment and growth, but rather he's attempting to assist investors in deciding on foreign currency trading markets.  His point would be that the classic ideas of change rates do not make a difference very much nowadays, what is important will be the actions of core banking institutions with regards to quantitative easing.

Bill Gross is actually a bond industry celebrity: Following 4 decades of directing his way in the fixed income world and producing top-tier results for his shareholders, he continues to be Morningstar’s ruling “bond fund administrator of the decade.” The situation?

Image via CrunchBase

Trulia Is On The Stock Market

Trulia Inc. is riding the housing recovery well and has just gone public. With only one week of trading, it is now valued at over half a billion dollars.

The online real estate company opened on the New York Stock Exchange at $22 per share which was well above the asking price. Its offering is a test for how much people have overall interest in IPOs since Facebook's bad debut. Many companies are happy that it went so well the first day of Trulia's debut. Trulia makes money by selling subscriptions and advertisements to realtors. It has not returned a profit yet but its revenue has nearly doubled in the last year. If they lose those realtors, then their company will hurt so they must make sure that there is a demand for houses.