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The MSCI Emerging Market index (EEM) is up 9% so far in 2019 but has basically hit the pause button in March.

High-quality stocks with low PEG ratios have outperformed the stock market indexes in both advancing and declining markets.

If you’re just starting your journey into the world of investing, these are some of the best investment apps out there.

A trip to Cabot Farm inspires a look into Cabot’s history.

Nokia (NOK) missed on revenue but beat on earnings yesterday, reporting EPS of $0.10/share, which exceeded estimates by over 50%. CEO Pekka Lundmark noted that 2024 will probably remain a weak year for the mobile RAN (radio access network) market, but reiterated expectations that it will likely pick up over the final two quarters. Declining demand for 5G equipment in the U.S./Canada, and a significant slowdown in China (also notably affecting AAPL) are the root cause, but economic data has only recently started to inflect.

The evidence continues to take steps in the right direction, with most of the intermediate-term, top-down measures now pointing up and, after last week, more and more leadership-type names are beginning to perk up. Of course, the headline news from this weekend was the downgrade of U.S. debt, which could be used as an excuse to pull in some indexes and stocks that have had good runs … though today there wasn’t much of that at all. All told, we’re increasingly optimistic when it comes to the bigger picture, though we still want to see more fresh leaders emerge. We have our Market Monitor at a level 7.

This week’s list is a bit eclectic, with everything from earnings winners to earnings setups to news-driven names. Our Top Pick acts like an institutional leader and has the story and numbers to match.

It’s been a wild market so far this year. The S&P 500 has gone from the cusp of a bear market to within 5% of the all-time high in just seven weeks.

Uncertainty remains. A negative development could still roil the market on any day. Negotiations will likely take more twists and turns in the weeks and months ahead. But investors appear, at this point, to believe that the tariff situation won’t blow up. The fear of Armageddon is being removed.

But there’s still the economy. It could gain steam or slow toward recession. We are in a place, at least for a while, where anything can happen. It’s tough to pick a horse amid such varying possibilities. Fortunately, there is a trend to bank on that will thrive regardless of the near-term gyrations of the market or economy.

Artificial intelligence is a massive growth catalyst that will endure and thrive in any environment. Investors temporarily forgot all about it. It’s a generational phenomenon that hasn’t gone away. It just took a break. Now, those stocks are soaring back.

In this issue, I highlight a stock that is likely to benefit in the months and years ahead. It is still well off the high with good momentum and has a huge catalyst for growth in the months and years ahead.

“Royal Bank of Canada (RY – yield 4.40%) is Canada’s largest bank, with $730.6 billion of assets. Royal Bank recently agreed to sell its struggling U.S. retail banking business, which consists of 424 branches in six southeastern states. The buyer, PNC Financial Services Group (PNC), is also purchasing...

We appear to be at a major turning point, a changing of the guard, if you will, and if you don’t heed the market’s message, you risk discovering that it has taken some of your hard-earned money. The fact is, most leaders of the last bull market are toast. Google is 37% off its high. Apple is down 37%, too. So what’s working? Two sectors.

2020 has been a bad year for many things, but not cloud computing. As a result, these cloud computing stocks and ETFs have taken flight.

Last week I wrote a long piece about Steve Jobs, Apple and AAPL, saying, “AAPL’s best days as an investment are over. In fact, AAPL is likely to underperform the market in the years ahead.” Today, the stock plunged on big volume through technical support, following the news that Steve would take a nearly six-month medical leave. So my timing was lucky. And my conclusion is unchanged. Remember, it’s all about changing levels of perception. Your job--and ours--is to find the next AAPL. One way to do that is to ask, “What company serves a mass market, is profitable, has terrific prospects for growing revenues and earnings rapidly, can ride a wave of societal evolution, and is not yet loved by the majority of investors?”

In a raging bull market that has benefited virtually every one of the S&P’s 11 sectors, the conspicuous laggard among them has been the consumer staples.


The staples sector is down 2.4% year-to-date, compared to positive net returns on the other 10 sectors. Leadership in recent quarters, which is illustrated in the following chart, includes: info tech (up 13%), communications services (up 12%), consumer discretionary (up 10%) and utilities (up 8%).

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce have taken a decidedly different approach to U.S. participation in international trade since November 2016. I realize that international trade can be somewhat of a dry topic, but since these decisions are affecting the bottom line in U.S. industry, stock market opportunities are unfolding before us.