Daily Posts Archive
The market finished with a bang at the end of last week, spurred by excellent earnings news from technology leaders Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT). If you own the leaders, this is a rewarding market. But beneath the surface, all is not well.
Weight Watchers International (WTW 15.75) received a huge boost on the news that Oprah Winfrey had invested $43 million in the stock and will take a seat on the company’s board of directors and become a spokesperson. The news sent Weight Watchers’ stock price soaring 132% last week to 15.75. Here are my thoughts on the stock.
When I started writing about emerging markets, if I mentioned emerging markets to most investors, I get a polite, blank stare. And even among those who knew a little bit about emerging markets, suggesting that they actually buy a Chinese (or Indian or Russian) stock got the kind of reaction you see when someone bites into an apple and finds a worm … or, even worse, half a worm.
The market has been strengthening, so from a top-down perspective, there’s little to complain about, as the major indexes have acted very well following the early-October buy signal. Individual stocks, however, have been very tricky—defensive stocks are being bought while many potential leading stocks continue to meander.
I grew up primarily in Ohio. My brother and I couldn’t wait for the summers, when my mom would take us on our annual trek to Cedar Poin—the fantastic amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Known far and wide as “the roller coaster capital of the world,” (the company actually trademarked that slogan), we could talk of nothing else but what kind of new coaster we would find at the park.
The message I have for you today is this: Make sure you have a system—or a well-thought-out plan—and follow it, no matter how unusual/scary/crazy the world gets. Cabot Growth Investor has a great system (plug alert!), but I don’t pretend to have the Bible when it comes to investing. What’s most important is that you stay grounded and follow sound principles that work year after year. Don’t overreact to the latest blip up or down in the market.
Thanks to the Fed, U.S. Treasury bonds only yield 2% right now. Here are five reliable dividend growers that offer much better yields.