The Food Products industry in the Consumer Staples sector is an area of the market that tends 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 in 2020, especially in the early stages of […]
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 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. That […]
Read MoreNo matter what current market conditions may be at any given time, one of the primary questions any long-term focused investor – whether you prefer a growth or value approach – should be whether the strength of the underlying business is strong enough to justify a stock’s current price. For growth-focused investors, the question is […]
Read MoreDecember means a lot of things. The start of the holiday season means seeing family, shopping for gifts, and planning social events. In a pandemic-driven world, a lot of us have been looking forward to this holiday season to restart many of those same activities that we were forced to minimize or possibly even avoid […]
Read MoreOne of the big themes this year of the “reopening” trade has come from a generally expected increase in consumer activity in activities that were almost completely restricted in 2020 such as travel to take vacations. That generally implies consumer demand for airlines, hotel bookings, and resorts should also increase, which is typically good news […]
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 MoreAs wrap up 2021 and look toward 2022, 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 than any of […]
Read MoreOver the last three years, I’ve used economic uncertainty – first from a year-long trade war through 2019, and then of course the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020 – as the basis for a lot of the analysis, and certainly some of my own investments in the marketplace. I think that when economic conditions become […]
Read MoreThe Tech sector has enjoyed a lion’s share of attention among all segments of the economy for a number of years. Throughout the pandemic, that attention only seemed both intensified and justified, as technology companies provided the tools that allowed much of corporate America to keep things going by shifting their workforces to remote working […]
Read MoreOne of the biggest themes that just about all of us have been paying attention to in one way or another throughout the year is the reopening of social activities and events from 2020, COVID-driven shutdowns and restrictions. While the pandemic is far from over, previously hampered industries like restaurants, hotels, travel and resorts have […]
Read MoreFor most of the last two years – even before the pandemic started – one of the areas that I have been able to find some interesting valuations to work with have come from the Telecommunications industry. Some of the largest players in the industry do much more than just telecommunications; AT&T Inc. (T) has, […]
Read MoreIf you’re like me, you’re probably more than a little bit tired of hearing all of the talk about coronavirus and its impact on daily life. That’s a big reason, I think that the market rebounded so quickly from pandemic-driven, bear market lows that took about a month to be seen from the market’s high […]
Read MoreThis week has seen the market reclaim much of the ground it gave up after Thanksgiving, as fears about the new omicron coronavirus variant have eased as indications are that while it is, indeed highly contagious, it also seems to be less severe than other variants, like delta that continue to plague global health systems. […]
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 not only to grow its business, but may 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“Uncertainty” has been the buzzword of the last few weeks in the marketplace. The emergence of yet another new, highly contagious coronavirus variant continues to keep pressure on a medical system that is already strained to its limits on one side of the economic picture, while the Fed’s consideration of moving up its plan to […]
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