It’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 […]
Read MoreThe question of what sector of the market is the best place to put your money to work is a constant, never-ending quest no matter what current market or economic conditions are. That’s because not all segments of the economy thrive or struggle under the same conditions. The pandemic we’ve all been trying to understand […]
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 MoreOne of the traps that a lot of investors tend to fall into comes from the idiom “a rising tide lifts all boats.” In the broadest sense, the implication is that when the broad market is going up, stocks in general should be going up. The concept also drills down to individual sectors and industries […]
Read MoreThe market’s plunge from late February to March was perhaps the most rapid descent to bear market levels in history; the road back, while not as rapid, has also been remarkable, taking just about five months for the S&P 500 to follow the NASDAQ above its pre-pandemic highs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average within […]
Read MoreOne of the biggest questions value-oriented investors have to ask themselves is the reason a stock may look like a good bargain. More often than not, one of the simplest reasons is because the stock has been beaten down by the broad market. The reasons for the decline can be multitudinous, and can imply any […]
Read MoreOne of the big challenges during any economic period of being a value-oriented investor isn’t merely finding stocks that are trading at a discount to valuation metrics like Book Value. It is determining if the stock’s discount is due to temporary market forces like investor sentiment, which is often influenced by short-term uncertainty more than […]
Read MoreOver the last week, the market has been set on pushing to new higher highs, with the Nasdaq setting a new all-time high at the beginning of this week and the S&P 500 breaking above its last pivot high in May. The start of a new earnings season seems to have lifted investor sentiment, as […]
Read MoreThe market seems intent on keying off of encouraging news on the vaccine front, using it as the primary reason to keep pushing the market higher this week. It’s tempting to think that a fast-tracked vaccine is good news across the board, and so you should be “all in” on the market. I think that […]
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