As a conservative-minded, value and fundamental-driven investor, my natural tendency is to shy away from stocks that market experts and popular market media analysts tend to talk to the most about. That means that my investments rarely look very sexy – but I’m far more interested in being able to keep my money working for […]
Read MoreOne of the ways that I think a smart investor keeps track of industry and economic trends that can have a carryover effect on broad market activity. One of the sectors that is useful for the purpose is the Energy sector, since energy products such as petroleum and natural gas are used in the production […]
Read MorePart of taking a smart, value-based approach to investing in the stock market involves keeping track of information on industry and economic trends that are likely to have broad residual impacts on market activity. One of the sectors that I think has a broad carryover effect on multiple other sectors in the economy is Energy, […]
Read MoreSince the beginning of 2021, the energy sector has rebounded strongly from the pandemic-driven pressures that had kept prices – particularly in crude oil – depressed throughout 2020. From a November 2020 low point at around $34, for example, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude more than doubled to an October peak at around $85. The […]
Read MoreOne of the sources of a lot of conversation among talking heads and market analysts in general lies around the “reopening” concept. This theme has been pretty constant for most of the year, even as COVID variants – omicron is just the latest – have extended the health crisis well into 2022, with some experts […]
Read MoreThe Food Products industry in the Consumer Staples sector is an area of the market that tends to get overlooked because, let’s face it, it just isn’t very sexy. Even so, it is one of very few segments of the market that saw consumer-driven improvements in demand in 2020, especially in the early stages of […]
Read MoreFor investors, the holiday season generally marks a time when consumer activity should be healthy and demand for consumer goods will be high. That’s a big reason that the latter part of the year, as the colder months set in across the country that retail stocks often start to see healthy increases in prices. That […]
Read MoreNo matter what current market conditions may be at any given time, one of the primary questions any long-term focused investor – whether you prefer a growth or value approach – should be whether the strength of the underlying business is strong enough to justify a stock’s current price. For growth-focused investors, the question is […]
Read MoreDecember means a lot of things. The start of the holiday season means seeing family, shopping for gifts, and planning social events. In a pandemic-driven world, a lot of us have been looking forward to this holiday season to restart many of those same activities that we were forced to minimize or possibly even avoid […]
Read MoreOne of the big themes this year of the “reopening” trade has come from a generally expected increase in consumer activity in activities that were almost completely restricted in 2020 such as travel to take vacations. That generally implies consumer demand for airlines, hotel bookings, and resorts should also increase, which is typically good news […]
Read MoreFor more than two years – even before COVID-19 became a global pandemic that collapsed economic and social activity for most of 2020 and that continues to strain health care systems and keep pressure on a variety of economic forces – I’ve been writing about the wisdom in being very selective about the investments you […]
Read MoreAs wrap up 2021 and look toward 2022, the sad and simple truth is that, no matter how much we might want to be able stop including COVID-19 and its impact on every aspect of life in our daily discussions, the health crisis hasn’t gone away, but instead is showing more persistence than any of […]
Read MoreA couple looks at their portfolio on a computer. Deutsche Bank writes that the stock market could see a return to value investing as interest rates rise. The era of easy money is coming to a close and value investing may be due for a comeback. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its plan to […]
Read MoreOver the last three years, I’ve used economic uncertainty – first from a year-long trade war through 2019, and then of course the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020 – as the basis for a lot of the analysis, and certainly some of my own investments in the marketplace. I think that when economic conditions become […]
Read MoreThe Tech sector has enjoyed a lion’s share of attention among all segments of the economy for a number of years. Throughout the pandemic, that attention only seemed both intensified and justified, as technology companies provided the tools that allowed much of corporate America to keep things going by shifting their workforces to remote working […]
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