A little over six weeks ago, I wrote about HAL in this space, using the stock to analyze the potential opportunity a narrowing spread between the prices of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil and Brent crude could represent. At the time, and through a big portion of September, pressures from Permian pipeline restrictions (which are […]
Read MoreAnother week, another wave of trade-centered speculation. Earlier this week, the market decided to rally after President Trump said that a trade deal could happen “sooner than you think.” Yesterday, investor’s mood seemed to sour a bit as a report suggested that the U.S. is unlikely to extend a waiver allowing American companies to do […]
Read MoreAny experienced investor, no matter what their investment philosophy is, will undoubtedly tell you that one of the most useful ways they keep track of new opportunities as they come up is by maintaining a watchlist of stocks that they can check on a regular basis. A good, diversified list of stocks in a variety […]
Read MoreComing into a new week means that there is an entirely new set of market data to look forward to. The earliest part of the latest earnings season is about to kick off, with a small but important set of earnings reports due from companies like Nike Inc. (NKE), Micron Technology (MU), KB Home (KBH), […]
Read MoreThe market has struggled to define a clear direction in the last couple of days. While the Fed did as most economists and analysts predicted, cutting rates by another quarter point this week, the market was less than enthused by Chairman Powell’s comments, which seemed to fail to deliver the kind of clarity about the […]
Read MoreOver the last four years, one of the most disappointing stocks in the market unquestionably has to CVS Health Corp (CVS). The stock hit an all-time high in July of 2015 at around $113 per share, but has steadily declined from that point to its lowest point since 2013 a little below $52 per share. […]
Read MoreAn eventful weekend promises to keep the market interesting this week. A series of drone strikes on Saturday knocked out about half of Saudi Arabia’s daily oil production. The culprit has yet to be definitely identified, although the Trump administration didn’t hesistate from pointing fingers at Iran. As of Sunday night, both Brent and West […]
Read MoreYears ago, as I began my career as an investor, I read a book by Peter Lynch. Mr. Lynch had made his name, and his fortune, as the manager of Fidelity’s flagship Magellan fund in the late /70’s and ’80’s, and his incredible performance was one of the big reasons Magellan, at the time, was […]
Read MoreIn the last week, one of the interesting threads that I’ve seen come out of the market’s latest run of volatility is a wave of 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 […]
Read MoreIf you’ve been reading my daily posts for very long at all, you should be pretty used to seeing me evaluate companies throughout the market on the basis of both their fundamental strength as well as their value proposition. That’s because in the search for good investing opportunities, I’ve learned to rely on a few […]
Read MoreProgress on the trade front has given the market a new set of momentum over the past couple of weeks – enough that the major indices are nearing the all-time highs they set at the end of July. Even so, the unpredictability associated with tariff news and the trade war itself has resulted in a […]
Read MoreThere are a lot of factors that a smart investor should consider when thinking about using a stock for a long-term investing opportunity. A company’s fundamental strength and relative value are two of the primary elements that I pay attention to, but along with those I also factor in technical factors like the stock’s long-term […]
Read MoreThis week, I’ve been turning my focus to Healthcare stocks, most particularly to the Healthcare Equipment industry of that sector. The most-established stocks in the industry all seem to be at or very near to all-time high levels – something that I believe is driven by broad fundamental strength among most of these companies as […]
Read MoreIn the last few days, the Healthcare sector has drawn a little extra attention, since it has been one of the best-performing sectors in the market in the last month while other, more cyclical sectors have seen increasing bearish turns due to trade-related uncertainty and volatility. Healthcare stocks certainly do have some sensitivity to trade […]
Read MoreAs an investor that prefers to focus on value, my preference is to emphasize stocks that are currently trading at significant discounts to their basic valuation metrics. That usually means that most of my attention is directed on stocks that are also trading at or near to yearly or historical lows. That also means that […]
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