The market rallied strongly yesterday; I guess that shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise, since investors are apparently so fearful of the prospect of what an extended escalation of the trade war that the entire market seems to be hanging on every tweet or sound bite that comes from the White House or […]
Read MoreOne of the most basic principles of technical analysis is the identification of trends. Trends can last very short periods of time of just a few weeks at a time, or they can extend into several months or even into years. One of the most important elements of trend analysis is the simple fact that […]
Read MoreAs an analyst, I take a lot of interest in trying to find reasons the market stages some of the moves it makes. The factors, geopolitical, economic, or emotional, that drives trends over any time period can be widely varied, and sometimes it’s interesting to see not only what is influencing the market today, but […]
Read MoreThis year has seen the broad market rally strongly to begin testing its all-time highs established in September of 2018. That rally has favored just about every sector of the market, including the Materials sector. As measured by the S&P 500 Materials Sector SPDR (XLB), the sector is up a little over 15% year-to-date. Normally, […]
Read MoreIn investing, there’s a natural tendency to be drawn to familiar names, an emotional comfort zone that comes from thinking about putting your hard-earned dollars into a company to which you feel you have a connection. It’s one of the reason well-known fundamental investors like Peter Lynch are known for suggesting idioms like “invest in […]
Read MoreA few months ago, I wrote about the merger between pharmacy kingpin CVS Health Corporation (CVS) and healthcare insurer Aetna Inc. I decided to try to determine if the deal, which closed shortly after I wrote about it, offered a compelling reason to buy the stock at its price at the time, which at the […]
Read MoreThe Consumer Discretionary sector cuts a wide swath across the economic landscape of the United States. It’s easy to think about the sector as the place you’ll find retail stocks, but the truth is that there are a lot of other businesses within the sector that are much more than just the department stores and […]
Read MoreWhen it comes to identifying stocks that might make useful investments, there are as many strategies as there are people. You can break these strategies into any different number of categories. I like to differentiate between strategies by thinking first about the amount of time I might actually plan to hold the stock in question, […]
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 MoreThe energy sector is one of the most cyclical segments of the market. That’s because so much of the sector is tied, to a greater or lesser extent, to the price of a single commodity: oil. From mid-2014 to the beginning of 2016, oil plunged from about $100 per barrel to as low as $26. […]
Read MoreSometimes natural phenomena imposes its will on the world with force. Hurricanes in the South or along the Eastern seaboard, tornadoes in the Midwest and massive snowfalls in the North during the winter months are all examples of times when Mother Nature demands attention from the world – even the stock market. At the beginning […]
Read MoreSometimes natural phenomena imposes its will on the world with force. Hurricanes in the South or along the Eastern seaboard, tornadoes in the Midwest and massive snowfalls in the North during the winter months are all examples of times when Mother Nature demands attention from the world – even the stock market. At the beginning […]
Read MoreAs the stock market moves deeper into correction territory and challenges the lowest support levels it reached earlier this year, a natural question becomes what a smart investor should do with your money. Do you take everything out of the market and sit on the sidelines until things start to settle down again? The ultra-conservative […]
Read MorePolitics have been putting more pressure than normal on the stock market of late; after the Trump administration announced a preliminary agreement with China to halt imposition of any new tariffs at the beginning of this month following the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, the market seemed poised to rise a new wave of bullish […]
Read MoreIt’s an annual thing – the day after Thanksgiving marks the official start of the holiday shopping season. Anxious to get a jump on the best deals of the season, shoppers line up outside stores all over the country. It also marks a point in the year when the stock market starts to pay even […]
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