I added Freyr Battery to my 10 Perfect Stock Special Report today. Tomorrow I’m adding the stock to my Jubak Picks Portfolio with a target price of $21 a share. This is what I wrote about Freyr in my Special Report.
Yesterday I added General Motors to my 10 Perfect Stock Picks Special Report. Here’s what I wrote in that Special Report on the buy.
Is there such a thing as a perfect stock? Depends. Not a chance, if you mean a stock that will be perfect in every market for every time period. No way, if you mean a stock that will go up steadily from the day you buy it. Nah, if you mean a “Buy and Hold Forever Stock.” But there are stocks that are “perfect” for a specific kind of market. And there are stocks that are “perfect” for a specific holding period. And there are stocks that are “perfect” for investors with a specific portfolio goal. And in this Special Report, I’m going to give you 10 of those Perfect Picks.
Apple (AAPL), which once urged suppliers to increase production of its new iPhone, is now telling them “Never mind,” according to Bloomberg. The anticipated surge in demand has failed to materialize. the company had told suppliers to increase production in the second half of the year ahead of a projected increase in iPhone sales in the second half of 2022. Now Apple is aiming to produce 90 million iPhones in the period. That’s roughly the same level as in the second half of 2021 and in line with Apple’s original forecast this summer.
Shares of Eli Lilly (LLY), a pick for my Jubak Pick’s Portfolio in a post yesterday, are up 8.89% today as of noon New York time, September 28, on news that an experimental Alzheimer’s drug from Biogen (BIIB) and Japan’s Eisai(ESALY) slowed cognitive and functional decline by 27 percent in a clinical trial. Today shares of Biogen are up 38.07% and shares of Eisai are up 62.6% on the news. Why the pop in Lilly? As I explained in my post yesterday, Lilly has its own Alzheimer’s drug in development and positive results out of Biogen/Eisai are thought to be a positive for that drug too.
I’m extremely reluctant to add any stocks to any portfolios right now. There’s just too much near-term uncertainty and we remain locked in the grip of a pushing Bear Market. But I do want to upgrade my portfolios when possible to increase their future upside. So tomorrow September 28, I’ll be adding shares of drug maker Eli Lilly (LLY) to my Jubak Picks Portfolio; To make this an upgrade rather than an addition to this portfolio, I will also be selling shares of biotech Incyte (INCY) out of that portfolio. In this paired trade I think I’m adding a comparatively stronger drug pipeline to my holdings.
Shares of Costco Wholesale closed up 2.98% on September 26. The advance against the grain of a generally down market comes after the company announced a beat on both revenue and earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter on Thursday, September 22.
My one-hundred-and-seventy-sixth YouTube video: “Quick Pick Kroger” went up today. Grocery stocks aren’t very volatile. Normally. So when shares of Kroger, the nation’s free-standing largest grocery chain, went up almost 7.5% on Friday, September 9, it got my attention. A huge increase in sales of store-brand goods, cheaper for the consumer but more profitable for Kroger led to a very strong second quarter. And the sentiment among investors that this was a good stock to own during inflationary times. I’ll be adding it to my Jubak Picks Portfolio tomorrow, September 16.
Asian traders bid down futures for Japanese stocks by almost 2% and by 1.5% for Australian stocks ahead of the Monday opening of New York markets. On Friday, after a hawkish speech on interest rates and inflation by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell the Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 3.37%.
Pretty much everything got clobbered today after Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell promised that the Fed would raise interest rates and keep them high until inflation is under control. In other words, no quick turn to cutting interest rates in the second half of 2023. So chip stocks were down today, August 26, with Nvidia (NVDA) plunging 9.23% at the close. Consumer stocks were down with Shake Shack (SHAK) tumbling 8.61%. Financial technology stocks were down with Block (SQ) shedding 7.72%. Climate change stocks, an extremely hot sector lately, were down with EVgo (EVGO) bleeding 7.86%. Hide in gold? No way. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) was down 1.22%. (Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, I suppose.) But agricultural commodity ETFs? Green in a sea of red.
Lithium producer Albemarle (ALB) closed up 2.71% today after hitting an all-time high of $298.17 in intraday trading. The shares closed at $295.68. The gains for Albemarle, and across the lithium sector, came as Goldman Sachs upgraded lithium battery maker Freyr Battery (FREY) on projected higher demand for lithium batteries after the Inflation Reduction Act. Albemarle is a member of my Jubak Picks Portfolio where it is up 200.18% since my August 10, 2018 stock pick. The stock is also a member of my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio where it is up 221.67% since February 17, 2017.
On Tuesday U.S. natural gas prices tumbled after the operators of the Freeport liquefied natural gas terminal said production will resume in early to mid-November instead of October as earlier announced. The terminal, which handles almost 20% of U.S. LNG exports, was knocked out of operation by an explosion in June. The trouble at Freeport has been an especially big deal for European LNG shipments since the United States sends almost 75% of its LNG to Europe and that market has been scrambling to replace natural gas from Russia after that country’s invasion of Ukraine. Natural gas futures dropped 6.5% on Tuesday after hitting $10 per million BTUs for the first time since 2008. Today, Wednesday, August 24, natural gas futures for September delivery are up 2.09% as of 1:30 p.m. New York time.
