Good news about continued vaccine approval and deployment, along with Congress’ approval of a second stimulus package over the weekend has the major indices very near the highs they set last week. There is a not-too-surprising temptation to think about the end of the pandemic and start looking for all of the ways that the […]
Read MoreMoving closer and closer to Christmas means that most people’s focus is on end-of-the-year celebrations and time with family. I think that’s true this year, even though for many of us 2020 has meant maintaining distance from family members and loved ones; for me and my family, that has also impacted our normal, end-of-the-year massive […]
Read MoreThis year’s pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the operations of just about every type of business in America. One of the business segments that has experienced an especially conspicuous decline is the Auto industry, where stay-at-home, self isolation orders at the beginning of the outbreak cratered demand for petroleum products of every type. […]
Read MoreOver the last several months, 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 93% as measured by the S&P 500 Materials Sector SPDR (XLB). This […]
Read MoreIt’s a bit interesting to me to see that while Healthcare stocks in general have performed well this year in no small measure due to the ongoing pandemic, the gains don’t extend to every single stock in that sector. That’s isn’t altogether unusual; after all, no matter what direction the trend of a given sector […]
Read MoreIt isn’t too hard to argue that one of the most severely impacted industries in 2020 as a result of coronavirus has been the auto industry. As of the beginning of October, auto sales are down across all major U.S. car brands by an average of nearly -17%. That shouldn’t come as much of a […]
Read MoreAs a value-focused investor with more than a bit of a contrarian bent, I tend to get nervous when stocks keep making one new high after another, and I like it when I see stocks trading at or near historical lows. That’s pretty different than the mindset of most investors that focus on growth first, […]
Read MoreThe market’s uncertainty over the last couple of weeks appears to have raised the spectre of increasing downside risk, even as the market this week has managed to reclaim a portion of the drop to correction territory that started earlier this month. It is clear that while the stock market pushed past its pre-pandemic highs […]
Read MoreThe last few weeks appear to have brought uncertainty back to the market. Rising infections in a number of states seem to coincide with the reopening of schools, with the demographics showing most of those infections coming among teen to college-age young people. To some, that might not sound like a big deal, but it […]
Read MoreOne of the interesting threads that comes out of periods of market 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 high. Another favorite topic analysts seem to like […]
Read MoreOne of the ironies of the stock market right now is that if you look at the major market indices, it’s easy to say that, right or wrong, investors continue to look for a V-shaped recovery in the U.S. economy. That’s the hope that, while the impact of COVID-19 on virtually every sector in the […]
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