What tends to generate less buzz in market news and other media outlets than the attention that is focused on the Tech sector that has dominated most of the past year is another COVID-driven trend that I think is also very important and has a few different interesting layers to it. Stay-at-home orders, shuttered restaurants […]
Read MoreThe Tech sector has been one of the top-performing areas of the market for the past year, which isn’t too surprising given the way Technology has enabled the corporate world to shift operational models to remote, work-from-home, and flexible working arrangements because of the ongoing pandemic. As analyst, I’ve been interested to see how it […]
Read MoreI’ve been writing quite a bit lately about positioning yourself conservatively to keep trading in a functional way even when the market is very extended. The commentary lately, and even market activity (increasing bond yields, rising inflation uncertainty), seems to be grappling with this question too. One of the biggest elements that comes to play […]
Read MoreOne of the open questions of the past year has been about the point in time where questions, discussions and commentary about the economy and the world don’t continue to revolve around the pandemic. That question remains unanswered, but as an analyst, part of my job is to sift through the relentless, constant stream of […]
Read MoreThere is a lot of fundamental data that I rely on to help paint an overall picture about underlying strength of any stock I might consider using for a value-based investment. While some fundamental investors prefer to work with easy-to-reference, quick-glance data like earnings per share, I prefer to expand my view of a company’s […]
Read MoreIt has been interesting to see how market commentary seems to have shifted as much as possible away from COVID-related news since the beginning of the year. In one sense, I think that could be a good thing, since there are a lot of issues, economic, political, and otherwise that are worthy of attention. This […]
Read MoreOver the last year, one of the best sectors of the stock market’s rally back to, and even above pre-pandemic levels has been the Materials sector. Beginning in mid-May to a peak last week, the sector had increased in value by nearly double by early January, as measured by the S&P 500 Materials Sector SPDR […]
Read MoreEven before the coronavirus pandemic started to take down entire sectors of the economy beginning in February, the Auto industry was experiencing quite a bit of bearish pressure. Sales were down globally, reflecting economic slowing in various parts of the world as well as the effects of an extended trade war between the U.S. and […]
Read MoreIt isn’t too hard to argue that one of the most severely impacted industries over the last year as a result of coronavirus has been the auto industry. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, considering that for most of last spring, shutdown mandates and shelter-in-place orders brought global economic activity to a standstill. […]
Read MoreThere are a lot of ways to look at a company and evaluate them for fundamental strength. Traditional metrics, including many of the ones that I rely on for the stocks that I analyze, measure everything from sales and earnings growth to how much productivity the company realizes per employee. You can break down the […]
Read MoreThe Tech sector has been leading the market higher throughout the past year, with plenty of momentum continuing into 2021. As measured by the S&P 500 Technology Sector SPDR (XLK), the sector is up a little over 6% through the first five weeks of 2021. It has also more than doubled in value from its […]
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