Over the last month, the entire market seems to have been holding its breath, waiting for some kind of catalyst to pin the market’s next wave of momentum on. Are indications that the weakening global economy is rippling into the health of the U.S. economy correct, or is an increasingly accommodative Federal Reserve going to […]
Read MoreSince the beginning of 2018, the Materials sector has been one of the worst-performing sectors in the market. Despite an increase since the end of last year of a little more than 10%, the sector remains down more than 14% since January 2018. Concerns throughout the period about increasing commodity costs have been compounded more […]
Read MoreOver the last several years, one of the biggest benchmarks the Fed has used to evaluate the need to raise, lower or maintain their interest rate policy has been the employment rate. Every month, the market seems to hold its breath as a new set of unemployment and salary data is made available and everybody […]
Read MoreOne of the classic benchmarks of the economy’s health and strength is the housing market. Stocks of retail companies like Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW) often serve as proxies of to guide the market’s perception of the housing market, but it also isn’t uncommon to see experts and analysts referring to homebuilders like D.R. […]
Read MoreOne of the things about stocks in the Consumer Discretionary sector that is interesting is how widely disparate they are. The general perception of most stocks in the sector is that they are highly cyclical, sensitive to inflationary pressures that make them more risky when the economy is in trouble. One industry in the sector […]
Read MoreThe market has been nervous this week – whether you want to cite trade war fatigue, global economic fears that could be rippling into U.S. economic metrics, or earnings reports from some of the market’s biggest companies that have disappointed investors. I think it’s true that tariffs between the U.S. and its biggest trading partners […]
Read MoreOver the last week or so, I’ve written about a few companies in the Food Products industry that I think offer some interesting possibilities under current market conditions – something that is even more true if the market sees an increase in short-term volatility. Investors are putting a lot of focus on geopolitics right now, […]
Read MoreAs the market continues to recover from its lows in late December, I’m seeing more and more reports and opinions that while economic growth in the United States may begin to slow (and based on some measurements, that might already be starting to happen), it isn’t expected to actually reverse and begin contracting for as […]
Read MoreWatching the market bounce higher off of late-2018 drop that nearly pushed the major market indices to bear market levels means that it starts to get tempting to think that it’s a good time to start jumping back into stocks and get ready for the rally back to the next set of market highs. The […]
Read MoreEven with a nice rally in the market to start the new year, there are a lot of stocks that remain at or near 52-week, or even historic lows. If you like looking for value as I do, that’s actually a pretty nice problem to have; it means that there are plenty of options to […]
Read MoreBank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE: BAC) has joined a growing list of prominent voices on Wall Street warning that the U.S. economy is in the late cycle stage, or the phase just before the economy slides into recession. The note, titled “U.S. Economy bull/bear: Most signs point to late cycle,” was sent to clients […]
Read MoreThis week, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management released its list of 10 geopolitical risks that it believes could wreak havoc on the market in 2019. While Morgan Stanley WM sees a few of these scenarios as “frightening but unlikely,” many of the others have surfaced as realities in 2018. Here is the list, from most likely […]
Read MoreA survey released Wednesday showed that corporate CFOs aren’t feeling all that positive going into 2019, with almost half of all respondents anticipating a recession will start by the end of the year. Of the 212 chief financial officers surveyed by Duke University, 48.6% believe that the next negative growth period in the U.S. is […]
Read MoreUNITED STATES ECONOMIC DATA AND STATISTICS, GENERAL 1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics(link is external) – Employment, productivity, working hours, and more. 2. U.S. Federal Reserve(link is external) – Bank assets, exchange rates, interest rates, industrial activity, and more. 3. U.S. Treasury(link is external) – Data, statistics, and charts on interest rates, economic trends, and the impact of fiscal policies. 4. U.S. […]
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