A little over six weeks ago, I wrote about HAL in this space, using the stock to analyze the potential opportunity a narrowing spread between the prices of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil and Brent crude could represent. At the time, and through a big portion of September, pressures from Permian pipeline restrictions (which are […]
Read MoreIf you’re like me, you’re probably a little bit tired of hearing all of the talk about tariffs, China and trade talks. More than simply “the new normal,” trade seems to dominate most of the questions that arise about the health of the global economy and the sustainability of economic growth in the United States. […]
Read MoreAnother week, another wave of trade-centered speculation. Earlier this week, the market decided to rally after President Trump said that a trade deal could happen “sooner than you think.” Yesterday, investor’s mood seemed to sour a bit as a report suggested that the U.S. is unlikely to extend a waiver allowing American companies to do […]
Read MoreIf you read my highlights in this space on a regular basis, you’ve seen me highlight a number of stocks in the semiconductor industry. It’s an interesting segment of the market to me for a number of different reasons. Over the last decade-plus, it’s been one of the highest-performing pockets of the market, arguably one […]
Read MoreAny experienced investor, no matter what their investment philosophy is, will undoubtedly tell you that one of the most useful ways they keep track of new opportunities as they come up is by maintaining a watchlist of stocks that they can check on a regular basis. A good, diversified list of stocks in a variety […]
Read MoreComing into a new week means that there is an entirely new set of market data to look forward to. The earliest part of the latest earnings season is about to kick off, with a small but important set of earnings reports due from companies like Nike Inc. (NKE), Micron Technology (MU), KB Home (KBH), […]
Read MoreThe market has struggled to define a clear direction in the last couple of days. While the Fed did as most economists and analysts predicted, cutting rates by another quarter point this week, the market was less than enthused by Chairman Powell’s comments, which seemed to fail to deliver the kind of clarity about the […]
Read MoreOne of the challenges my approach to value investing gives me is how to work with stocks that have been performing strongly under current market conditions. My method tends to favor stocks trading at the lower end of its historical trading ranges, and so seeing a stock already in a long, sustained upward trend usually […]
Read MoreOver the last four years, one of the most disappointing stocks in the market unquestionably has to CVS Health Corp (CVS). The stock hit an all-time high in July of 2015 at around $113 per share, but has steadily declined from that point to its lowest point since 2013 a little below $52 per share. […]
Read MoreAn eventful weekend promises to keep the market interesting this week. A series of drone strikes on Saturday knocked out about half of Saudi Arabia’s daily oil production. The culprit has yet to be definitely identified, although the Trump administration didn’t hesistate from pointing fingers at Iran. As of Sunday night, both Brent and West […]
Read MoreYears ago, as I began my career as an investor, I read a book by Peter Lynch. Mr. Lynch had made his name, and his fortune, as the manager of Fidelity’s flagship Magellan fund in the late /70’s and ’80’s, and his incredible performance was one of the big reasons Magellan, at the time, was […]
Read MoreIn the last week, one of the interesting threads that I’ve seen come out of the market’s latest run of 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 […]
Read MoreIf you’ve been reading my daily posts for very long at all, you should be pretty used to seeing me evaluate companies throughout the market on the basis of both their fundamental strength as well as their value proposition. That’s because in the search for good investing opportunities, I’ve learned to rely on a few […]
Read MoreProgress on the trade front has given the market a new set of momentum over the past couple of weeks – enough that the major indices are nearing the all-time highs they set at the end of July. Even so, the unpredictability associated with tariff news and the trade war itself has resulted in a […]
Read More