Stock Alerts

My pick for rising farm commodity prices is Deere; adding it to Jubak Picks Portfolio

My pick for rising farm commodity prices is Deere; adding it to Jubak Picks Portfolio

Wheat prices hit new highs at $7.46 a bushel at the end of April. That the highest since February 2013. Corn climbed to a new eight year high. The day soybeans rose for a tenth straight session to reach on eight year high.
When the prices of farm commodities climb, it’s tough times ahead at the grocery store for consumers. But it’s good times ahead for farmers and that means increasing sales of tractors and other farm equipment for Deere (DE). I’m adding the shares to my 12-18 month Jubak Picks Portfolio

Intuitive Surgical earnings surprise as recovery from pandemic faster than expected

Intuitive Surgical earnings surprise as recovery from pandemic faster than expected

Yesterday, April 20, after the market close Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) reported first quarter GAAP earnings of $3.51 a share, $1.47 a share above Wall Street estimates. Non-GAAP earnings of $3.52 were 89 cents a share above analyst expectations. Revenue for the quarter climbed to $1.3 billion, up 18% from the first quarter of 2020. In 2020 sales of the company’s robotic surgery systems, dropped to $4.4 billion from $4.5 billion in 2019 as hospitals halted elective surgeries during the pandemic. I added the shares to my Jubak Picks Portfolio on February 15, 2021 on expectations with in a post-vaccine global economy sales of its da Vinci Surgical Systems would rebound strongly. In the first quarter the company shipped 298 de Vinci systems versus 237 in the first quarter of 2020. As of 3:45 p.m. New York time today, Intuitive Surgical share were up 9.50% to $888.10. That exceeds my target of $860 a share and I’ll be looking to sell the shares sometime in the next couple of weeks after I’ve received the full benefit from a positive earnings season for BIG TECH stocks.

Thinking of buying VW on its push into electric cars? But which class of VW shares? Here’s the one I’m buying tomorrow for my 50 Stocks Portfolio

Thinking of buying VW on its push into electric cars? But which class of VW shares? Here’s the one I’m buying tomorrow for my 50 Stocks Portfolio

You could buy VWAGY, trading today, April 5, at $37.00, up 4.27% or you could buy VWAPY at $29.27, up 2.92%. (A search for VW ticker will discover another 21 symbols on various European exchanges but for U.S investors these two ADRs are the major choices. Both are ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) on Volkswagen’s German shares. But there’s a considerable difference between these two ADRs. For example, on April 5 VWaGY showed an average daily trading volume of 1.34 million shares. VWAPY, on the other hand, showed an average volume of just 232,327 shares. So what’s the difference?

Not all stock selling is about rising bond yields–for example, Tesla announced genuinely bad news today

Not all stock selling is about rising bond yields–for example, Tesla announced genuinely bad news today

Today, February 25, Bloomberg and Reuters reported that Tesla had told its workers that the company could halt some production at its car-assembly plant in California for about two weeks. Staff on a Model 3 production line in Fremont were told their line would be down from February 22 until March 7. Tesla is battling supply-chain issues resulting from backlogs at ports, severe snow storms affecting ground transport, and shortages in some semiconductors used in the its cars.

Intuitive Surgical Pick #10 for my new Millennial Portfolio (for investors who have more time than money); also adding it to Jubak Picks

Intuitive Surgical Pick #10 for my new Millennial Portfolio (for investors who have more time than money); also adding it to Jubak Picks

In my first 10 (actually to be 11 since I’ve got another pick up my sleeve) picks for my new Millennial Portfolio (for investors who have more time than money) I’ve been on the hunt for shares of companies with long, long revenue and earnings growth runways ahead of them, with short-term catalysts that might produce enough of a gain in the near term to keep investors on board for the long run, and some bad news in the present that been negative enough to take a bite of the stock price. Today, February 15, I’m adding Intuitive Surgical to my Millennial Portfolio and to my Jubak Picks Portfolio

COPX Pick #8 for my new Millennial Portfolio (for investors who have more time than money)

COPX Pick #8 for my new Millennial Portfolio (for investors who have more time than money)

In today’s YouTube Video “Avoiding Di-Worsification in 2021 in argued that the trend toward high yields on long-dated Treasuries–and thus lower prices for those bonds–should prompt investors to look beyond bonds and gold in their efforts to build diversified portfolios. I’m adding a copper miners ETF to my Millennial Portfolio tomorrow as a replacement for gold and to profit from the increased copper demand resulting from larger numbers of electric cars on the road over the next decade

More on Vaxart potential gains and risks–including my thoughts on when to re-enter

More on Vaxart potential gains and risks–including my thoughts on when to re-enter

I thought there was a possibility that Vaxart (VXRT) would recover from yesterday’s 60% drop on data from the initial Phase 1 trials of its coronavirus-vaccine-in-a-pill candidate. Especially because the initial reaction over-emphasized, in my opinion, the negatives in that data. But I suspected that yesterday’s downward trend would continue for at least another day and therefore chose to sell Vaxart shares out of my Volatility Portfolio.

Nektar should be climbing but this fast?

Nektar should be climbing but this fast?

Nektar (NKTR) is another one of those stocks that looks to be moving up more strongly right now than the relatively sparse news would explain. Shares of this biotech are up 18.96% in the last week and 24.37% for the last 3 months. I can see a stream of positive news that should be leading the stock gradually higher, but nothing that is especially “current.”

Nidec tacks on 7.69% gain today on updated annual forecast and new buyback plan

Nidec tacks on 7.69% gain today on updated annual forecast and new buyback plan

Nidec (NJDCY) shares gained another 7.69% today, after the maker of electric motors for hard drives, robots, and electric vehicles, raised its annual outlook for the fiscal year that ends on March 31. The new outlook forecasts operating income of 155 billion yen ($1.5 billion) versus the older forecast of 140 billion yen. The company authorized share buybacks of up to 50 billion yen, or about 0.7% of the company’s stock.

ExxonMobil shares drop on reports of SEC investigation

ExxonMobil shares drop on reports of SEC investigation

Shares of ExxonMobil (XOM) closed down 4.81% today on a Wall Street Journal report that the Securities & Exchange Commission was investigating a whistleblower complaint alleging that the company overvalued assets in the Permian Basin oil shale geology. The whistleblower complaint alleges that during a 2019 internal assessment workers were forced to use unrealistic assumptions about how quickly wells could be drilled to reach a higher valuation.