MARKETS/ECONOMY – Page 2

EDITOR'S DESK, FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS, TECHNICALS

Portfolio Strength. Four Moves Toward More.

OCTOBER 12, 2019. Trade “agreements” are never final and “deals” are firstly talk. Meanwhile your portfolio turns in the wind created by all that gas. Individual investors can’t stop such. We can however reposition. Trade’s a drag, but not the only macro funk we face. Additionally there’s that pesky “economic slowing” thing. O.K.
Many people talk and some actually make sense. Here’s some. Opportunities only truly end when we stop looking, or thinking. Here’s more. Everything good’s now too expensive. Hog shit. The door toward greater safety or growth’s now closed. Pish-posh. Sometimes the good stuff stares you in the face to the point you don’t even notice anymore. Or maybe that stuff simply looks very different in this macro light. We have one, or two, and they’re not secrets. Both are in fact perfect examples of five characteristics that work brilliantly now. Buy either, or use them as ideas to narrow your process. Your portfolio will love you back for that. The future’s yet coming. Now is always when we’re preparing, Sumo-style. “Portfolio Strength. Four Moves Toward More.”

CULTURE, FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS, TECHNICALS, THINKING NOW

A Nine Worm Apple? Tell Me No.

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019. Apple isn’t Amazon. It’s China locked–big time. Nor is it exactly cheap. Some can’t decide. It’s either 18 trailing and 19 forward, or the other way round. Anyone worried about that shouldn’t buy Apple. Owning shares of Apple is like owning a slice of a country. AAPL doesn’t have revenue. It has GDP. Thousands of companies collaborate to create those ultra-sleek marvels. Does that matter?
GDP drops during any recession. Being big doesn’t stop that. Last night Jim Cramer stared into the camera and said “It’s not trading on fundamentals.” But he was talking about JNJ. “It’s mammoth” he said, and “JNJ’s trading on opioid headlines.” We said that in our piece “Off Label” back in August.
So what’s JNJ have to do with Apple now? Both are involved in complications that can’t be measured. For JNJ it’s a blizzard of full-ugly lawsuits, and Apple’s global fishing net of component supplies, most in oppositional China. Anybody know what they’re gonna do?
Apple has more money than Italy. That’s good because it will take money to thrive if economies dive. What else does Apple have? “A Nine Worms Apple? Tell Me No.” STOCKjAW takes a bite(Cover photo; Apple Store, Union Square, San Francisco.)

FUNDAMENTALS, GREEDY CREEP, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS

Off Label. JNJ. Just Say No.

AUGUST 29, 2019. Savvy investing’s bone-simple at its’ core. Buy lower and sell higher. The problem is what lies in-between. What lies in-between is known as risk. Risk comes in two forms. You don’t want any of either.
“Market risk” can only be avoided by not buying. “Individual issue risk” can be selected and “managed” by knowing what and when you’re buying. And Johnson & Johnson?
Opioids have proved a problem whether prescribed, taken, or neither. No? Then why are forty of fifty states already on-board and suing? Who wants trouble? Is buying JNJ’s trouble really “defensive?” Not everyone’s scheduled for court, tens of thousands of times. “Off Label. JNJ. Do Not Drive, Operate Heavy Machinery, or Invest…”

Editor's Choice, FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, Specials, STOCKS

Gimme Shelter. Stocks For This Storm.

AUGUST 17, 2019. Civil safety messaging is mostly about releasing dire information “appropriately. Never panic people.” That includes bridge collapses and raging epidemics. Never mind the yawning gap or the bodies. And GE may be another Enron fraud, but it’s “inappropriate” to say so. Panic’s destructive in it’s own right, but the clear truth helps, if you can get any in time.
Here’s some. The storm’s upon us, parked and churning. Our economic globe’s spinning more slowly now, and the trade bomb’s going off slow-motion style. Gimme shelter. It exists, if you look.
Meanwhile even keen people confuse trade friction with overarching reality; a mud fight for global influence and economic predominance.
This cultural slipknot around our prosperity isn’t about to loosen.
Years of exasperating trade talks with the multiplicity of Japanese “faces” ended only in fruitless exhaustion. They never truly opened their markets. Japan yet lives in an endless recession.
Global slowing, fed fumbling, and the tariff tilt are boring a hole in confidence. That trade face-off that once seemed so sensible now spins with much darker import. Many are now playing not to lose, and offering stock picks accordingly. We look inside those picks. It’s not that complicated, when you actually do the looking. “Gimme Shelter. Stocks For This Storm.”

Editor's Choice, EDITOR'S DESK, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS

Dividend Glory. Ford 6.33%. If You Can Find A Cheaper Dividend, Buy It.

AUGUST 8, 2019. Investing insight has a short shelf-life. We just covered Ford. Now we’re stockjawing again. Why? Ford’s a miracle. Now is the time to recognize that–right now. Again–why? Others are beginning to catch on. Ask Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley.
Why is Ford all the rage again, so soon? Again, it’s a miracle, even more so since Monday’s market face-plant. Ford’s Fa King dirt cheap, almost free. The dividend is sky-high, at 6.33%. And? And increasingly many believe it’s payable. And? And it’s holding up like a heavy weight champ, amid some of the fugliest conditions we’ve ever seen. Again, think Monday. Think “Dividend Glory. Ford 6.33%. If You Can Find A Cheaper Dividend, Buy It.”

CULTURE, FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS

Ford. Fabulous Still? If It Runs On Gas, It’s Time Is Running Out.

AUGUST 2, 2019. Summer’s end always seems near when the calendar opens on August. Who doesn’t feel it? The pool splashes on, but not the same. Seasons’ change fills the air, and it fills the air for Ford.
It’s been 116 years since the T and 57 more since the Mustang. Every Ford from then to now has been pushed by gas. Gas is now sad. As the planet chokes the auto industry shambles for form–compact, sedan, gas, big, small, diesel, shared, hailed, hybrid, or EV. It’s the menu at McDonald’s.
Some say the Germans are in the lead, again, soon to be offering real choice. The Chevy Volt’s a joke, and the Toyota Prius isn’t. The Tesla galaxy’s in trouble. Musk’s on a leash, as is our Great Electric Hope.
America’s need is grand and we hate limits. Besides, where you gonna plug-in?
Ford’s trucked between the battery technology rock, and the environmental hard case. Meanwhile the company lives on big products that rely on cheap gas. Now they’re livin’ on a big dividend promise as well. The vice is closing, socially, despite the price of gas and the shale revolution. If it runs on gas its’ time is running out. Ford. Fabulous Still? (Lead photo; Sunset over Detroit.)

FUNDAMENTALS, INVESTING, MARKETS/ECONOMY, STOCKS, TECHNICALS

Looking Larger. Arcing Farther. Find Harris There.

JUNE 19, 2019. It’s been seven months since James Mattis occupied the role of Secretary of Defense. Now we have nominee and long-acting Secretary Patrick Shanahan sinking in a boiling scandal of domestic chaos and violence, a cover-up, and suspect harboring regarding his son and an assault with a baseball bat. Shanahan has playing a high-level decider role in Pentagon procurement actions.
Many contractors troll the beltway and the Crystal Palace clocking very big D.C. business. But who’s shares skated up 2.24% yesterday? And who’s technology now feeds the date-ravenous brain of the F-35 joint strike fighter? And who’s share price has cranked 45.8% year-to-date, but yet remains affordable on a growth adjusted basis? That would be the high-flying yet quiet Harris Corporation.
We’d never heard of Harris. Now we know and we’re sharing what we learned with you.
We only paid up moderately for the chance to participate in a sprawling multiyear global defense modernization program. The program rolls fast on a systematically growing budget, already authorized, yet still in the early stages. Harris is there, on multiple fronts. You can be too.