The last couple of weeks have seen the market rallying strongly, driven primarily by plans announced by various state governments loosening restrictions on business operations and on public lands access. Some have already begun doing that, while others plan to begin on or around May 1. Others in some of the hardest-hit areas of the […]
Read MoreOver the last few months, the Aerospace industry, which includes commercial airlines has been one of the biggest, unquestioned losers in the stock market. Yes, the biggest portion of the fact that the industry is down more than -37% since February is because commercial travel has dried up to practically nothing because of global shutdowns […]
Read MoreOne of the challenges of everyday investing, and trying to stay abreast of current events and major news is that sometimes you can start to get lost in the noise of right now. By that, I mean that most good investment decisions are made with an eye on what your end goals are, and where […]
Read MoreNo matter what kind of broad-based damage is seen in the stock market when economic conditions become difficult, or even recessionary, there are always pockets of strength – in certain defensive-oriented industries, and also in smaller segments of sectors and industries that may not traditionally be considered defensive, but still generally benefit from other shifts […]
Read MoreHealthcare stocks remain a prime area of focus for my analysis right now, and will continue to be as all of North America struggles to find a justifiable reason to get national economies restarted. I think that the basis for any kind of reopening of businesses has to come from evidence not merely that infections […]
Read MoreThe market appears to finally be taking notice of the swan dive in oil prices. Lost in the frenzy and angst of COVID-19, shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders, at least until now, was the price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia that began at the start of the year and saw West Texas Intermediate crude prices […]
Read MoreOver the last few weeks, I’ve been turning my attention more and more to companies in the Health Care sector, simply because as COVID-19 quickly turned from a distant, overseas problem to a global crisis that has now impacted the world on multiple levels, health care is among the few areas of the economy that […]
Read MoreThis week the market has followed last week’s precedent pretty strongly, moving higher to mark the strongest one-month increase since 2015. Investors have seemed anxious to look for reasons to start buying stocks again, and while it can be argued that a lot of risks remain in place, this really looks like a case where […]
Read MoreBeing a contrarian investor can mean a few different things. One is that contrarian investing is often correlated with value investing, and I think that makes sense in a lot of ways. That includes the reality that all price trends – up or down – are finite in length and duration. That means that eventually, […]
Read MoreYears ago, as I began my career in the investing world, I was introduced to a book written by famous mutual fund manager Peter Lynch, One Up on Wall Street. In it, Mr. Lynch outlined some of the methods he used to identify the stocks that helped him build the Fidelity Magellan Fund into the […]
Read MoreWith the entire country on a lockdown that most experts aren’t expecting to end quickly – even as indications are that the infection curve is indeed starting to flatten in the U.S. and cities, states, and even the federal government starting to work on plans to get the economy restarted, and to determine when the […]
Read MoreThe market seems to be looking for reasons to start functioning something relatively close to normal right now – at least, as much as normal is possible under current circumstances. Last week saw the major indices stage their biggest short-term rally in the last seven decades as investors used unprecedented Fed action to inject the […]
Read MoreInvestors, like the entire the market, and like all of us seem anxious to find some kind, any kind of reason to see hope in the future – either for the prospect of seeing some form of a “return to normal” for the U.S. at large. Get the kids going back to school, churches open […]
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 MoreAs I’ve studied the market over the years, one of the intriguing contrasts comes in the way different analysis methods take in the “big picture” of the market. That includes the way that fundamental investors and analysts look at the market versus those that prefer to work on strictly technical terms. I like to work […]
Read More