The Consumer Discretionary sector has been one of the highest-performing sectors in the market year-to-date; as the broad market has pushed to new all-time highs, so has this sector, increasing about 24% year to date and more than 4% in the last month, as measured by the S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Sector SPDR ETF (XLY). […]
Read MoreOne of the challenges about investing in the stock market is knowing where to look. With tens of thousands of different companies, in more than a dozen different sectors, hundreds of industries and even more sub-industries to consider, it can be pretty easy to throw your hands up in the air in desperation. How do […]
Read MoreThe stock market’s rally since May has been good for a number of sectors, including Consumer Discretionary stocks. The sector is about 8.5% higher since the beginning of June, and nearly 21% year to date. With the biggest, most well-known names like Walmart (WMT), Amazon (AMZN) and Target Stores (TGT) leading the charge, the assumption […]
Read More2019 has been an interesting year for investors so far; we’ve watched the market raD to a new all-time high after testing near-bear market levels into Christmas 2018. One of the things that has marked this new bullish raD has been the fact that defensive sectors have been among the biggest winners. While the raD […]
Read MoreTuesday after the market closed, Micron Technology (MU) released its latest quarterly earnings report. MU is one of the most important players in the semiconductor industry, and since semiconductors are quite literally on the bleeding edge of U.S. – China trade, it only seems natural to pay attention to the stock. Their earnings report is […]
Read MoreThe longer you invest in the stock market, the more familiar you become with a lot of the concepts that are used to define and justify the various investing methods that drive them. Years ago, as I began to incorporate technical analysis and shorter-term trading strategies into my system, one of those basic principles was […]
Read MoreThe Consumer Discretionary sector includes stocks that cover a wide variety of the Retail industry. Because there are so many retail companies that offer different products to consumers, it’s hard to pinpoint any kind of specific niche. This is a sector that has performed pretty well this year; as measured by the S&P 500 Consumer […]
Read MoreOne of the things that has helped the market perform very well this year, along with the expectation that a trade deal between the u.S. and China will eventually get worked out, is the fact that most economic data measurements in the U.S. have continued to come in pretty healthy. Even the fact that tariffs […]
Read MoreIn 2019, one of the most interesting sectors in the entire market is the Consumer Staples sector. I tend to think of stocks in this sector, which include Food, Personal Care, and big-box retailers and grocers, as being defensive in nature, useful as a way to keep your money working for you in uncertain market […]
Read MoreIt really seems like the market is going to take any queues for the foreseeable future from the U.S.-China trade front. With both sides seemingly digging in on hard-line positions that they don’t want to be moved off of, it looks like uncertainty is going to continue to rule the markets as we move into […]
Read MoreIt’s interesting to see the different reactions people have to news. Not surprisingly, a lot of it has to do with the kind of news we pay attention to. If you pay more attention to politics, then you’re likely to be most passionate about current political events and issues. If you’re an active investor, then […]
Read MoreSometimes it’s a good idea to take a forced break from the prevailing news of the day and turn your focus to other things. Ih the stock market right now, all anybody seems to want to talk about is the trade war and the latest chapter in an ongoing debate that doesn’t appear ready to […]
Read MoreAfter a few days of doing like the rest of the market and paying a lot of attention to tariff news and trade war rhetoric, it felt like today might be a good time to shift the focus – at least a little bit – away from some of those issues and look for something […]
Read MoreThe 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 MoreFriday at 12:00 a.m., the Trump administration followed through on its threat to increase tariffs against China from 10% to 25%. Experts and pundits, including corporate heads, politicians, and economists seem united in the opinion that this latest phase of the trade war will be felt more acutely on the consumer level. The consensus seems […]
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