One of the things that always seems to be a little bit ironic to me about the markets is the way that fear tends to weave a web of intrigue and uncertainty under just about all conditions. That often means that when the market starts to correct, investors, analysts and economists don’t just look for […]
Read MoreAs we move into the last few months of the year, the sad and simple truth is that, no matter how much we might want to be able stop including COVID-19 and its impact on every aspect of life in our daily discussions, the health crisis hasn’t gone away, but instead is showing more persistence […]
Read MoreBeing a value-oriented investor means that seeing stocks trading at or near all-time highs is actually a demotivating factor; that’s because value-based analysis compares the value of the company’s book of business against the stock’s current price. Since the market tend to inflate stock values, upward trends also tend to outpace the growth in profitability. […]
Read MoreThe Food Products industry in the Consumer Staples sector is an area of the market that tend to get overlooked because, let’s face it, it just isn’t very sexy. Even so, it is one of very few segments of the market that saw consumer-driven improvements in demand during the pandemic. That gave a lot of […]
Read MoreAs a conservative-minded, value and fundamental-driven investor, my natural tendency is to shy away from stocks that market experts and popular market media analysts tend to talk to the most about. That means that my investments generally don’t look very sexy – but I’m far less interested in being sexy than I am in being […]
Read MoreFor more than two years – even before COVID-19 became a global pandemic that collapsed economic and social activity for most of 2020 and that continues to strain health care systems and keep pressure on a variety of economic forces – I’ve been writing about the wisdom in being very selective about the investments you […]
Read MoreThroughout the past year and a half, stocks in the Health Care sector have drawn a lot of attention from investors and analysts. That includes stocks in the Pharmacy/Drugstore industry; these were names, like Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) and CVS Corporation (CVS) that worked actively in the early stages of the crisis to provide a […]
Read MoreHave you noticed that market media tends to focus on just a few segments of the market at a time, while at the same time pretty much dismissing all the others? I think at least part of the reason is that investors are always looking for the “next big thing” in the stock market to […]
Read MoreI’ve written quite a bit in this space about my opinion that the Consumer Staples sector – and more specifically, stocks in the Food Products and Food and Staples Retail industries – are smart places to find good values in today’s market. That’s because most of the stocks in these industries are benefitting from the […]
Read MoreOne of the interesting trends that seems to inevitably come out of periods of economic uncertainty is investor rotation into “defensive” sectors, which usually includes Utilities, Consumer Staples and other pockets of the market that investors tend to think of as safe havens when market uncertainty is high. Another favorite topic analysts seem to like […]
Read MoreThroughout 2021, investors have increasingly been looking for reasons to look ahead – past the pandemic and to the day when we can finally say the whole thing is in the past. Many hoped that, with vaccinations becoming increasingly available, we would finally be able to stop talking about COVID-19 and its variants and start […]
Read MoreSince mid-June, the broad market has pushed above a consolidation range that lasted the better part of two months and has spent the summer extending its upward trend. This week some of that momentum has waned just a bit, but at the same time the S&P 500 Index has continued to establish new, all-time highs […]
Read MoreThe term consumer staples refers to a set of essential products used by consumers. This category includes things like foods and beverages, household goods such as cleaning supplies, hygiene products etc., alcohol, tobacco (etc.) These are those that people use regardless of their financial situation – they’re considered “non-cyclical.” They’ll always be in demand year […]
Read MoreOne of the things that always seems to be a little bit ironic to me about the markets is the way that fear tends to weave a web of intrigue and uncertainty under just about all conditions. That often means that when the market starts to correct, investors, analysts and economists don’t just look for […]
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