2023 has seen more than its share of economic and market-driven uncertainty, and that’s kept a lot of recognizable names trading near historical lows. The truth about the economy, of course, is that it is subject to a lot of forces that have a relatively high degree of variability. These include global, macroeconomic considerations, as […]
Read MoreHeading into the end of 2022, the broad market staged a significant rally off of its bear market bottom, raising questions to start the new year of whether that momentum can be sustained. Since 2020, one of the surprising stories has been the way that a lot of traditional, brick-and-mortar retail companies found creative ways […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Jude Snair knows retail. She works in the portrait department of a JCPenney at the Newport Centre mall in New Jersey. But with or without an employee discount, the 20-year-old said she was mostly avoiding holiday shopping this year. “It’s looking more that people this year will be receiving homemade things,” Snair said […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measures eased in November while consumer spending stagnated, suggesting the central bank’s interest-rate hikes are helping to cool both price pressures and broader demand — with more tightening on the way. The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy, which Fed Chair Jerome Powell has stressed […]
Read MoreFor investors, the holiday season generally marks a time when consumer activity should be healthy and demand for consumer goods will be high. That’s a big reason that in the latter part of the year, as the colder months set in across the country, that retail stocks often start to see healthy increases in prices. […]
Read MoreTraditional, growth-oriented investing puts most of its emphasis on stocks that have already started moving up. That makes sense when you consider the popular technical idiom that a “stock tends to follow the direction of its next longer trend.” It’s a basic tenet of trend-based analysis: when you can clearly see a stock going up, […]
Read MoreUncertainty in the market makes a lot of people want to sit on their hands and wait for things to turn around before taking a new opportunity seriously. Value-oriented investors, however, understand that when more and more stocks are testing historical lows, there are also more and more useful targets of opportunity. That doesn’t mean […]
Read MoreIncreasing inflation causes all kinds of stress for just about everybody, in every sector of the economy. On the consumer level, rising interest rates raise prices for just about any good or service we may use, which eventually suppresses demand for those goods and services. “Consumer goods” is a term that covers a big swath […]
Read Moret seems that every year, economic and market activity finds a way to revolve around one or two primary themes. It’s safe to say that no matter where you start, the primary economic theme for 2022 boils down to inflation. Economic metrics were clearly starting show that inflation was picking up steam in late 2021, […]
Read MoreIncreasing inflation causes all kinds of stress for just about everybody in every sector. On the consumer level, rising interest rates raise prices for just about any good or service we may use, which eventually suppresses demand for those goods and services. “Consumer goods” is a term that covers a big swath of products, but […]
Read MoreSometimes, answering the question of whether a stock represents a legitimate, attractive value opportunity can be hard to do. A company could be struggling to grow its business, and as a result be forced to restructure its business in a way that makes most of the traditional measurables investors like to use look very unfavorable. […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — US inflation-adjusted consumer spending fell in May for the first time this year as persistent price pressures strain household budgets. Purchases of goods and services, adjusted for changes in prices, decreased 0.4% in May after a downwardly revised 0.3% gain a month earlier, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. Spending on services advanced while […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — A key source of US economic growth this year — consumer spending — is showing signs of losing steam, even before Wednesday’s round of Federal Reserve rate hikes kick in. Credit card data show that spending in May was just 10% higher from the same month last year, according to a Barclays report […]
Read MoreA primary economic theme for 2022, no matter whether you start the conversation by talking about the long-term impact of the pandemic, labor shortages, monetary policy, or the devastating conflict in Ukraine really boils down to inflation. Economic metrics were clearly starting show that inflation was picking up steam in late 2021, and this year […]
Read MoreIn 2021, one of the common themes that helped buoy the stock market in general, and a lot of consumer-focused industries specifically was the reopening of business and social activity and the expected surge in consumer spending that would accompany it. While COVID didn’t abate as some hoped, and the “return to normal” was more […]
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