The yield on the 10-year Treasury is up 11 basis points as of 1:30 p.m. New York time today, Monday, January 3, to 1.62%. That’s the first time the yield has been above 1.60% since the emergence of the Omicron Variant in November.
This COMPLETE version consolidates all the 3 parts, 3 buckets and seven picks posted serially for this Special Report
I’ve read all the headlines explaining today’s drop in stocks, and yesterday’s and the day before. The chaos at OPEC and in oil prices. Fears that the economic recovery is slowing. Thoughts that inflation isn’t a worry and that instead we should fret about deflation. There is some truth to all these explanations. But I don’t see much of the way in news to support a major change in market trend and sentiment. And when I see a big, fast move like that of the last three days or so without much in the way of news to change investors’ view of the world, my thoughts turn to computers and program trades
The pandemic is over. (I’ve got my fingers crossed, I’ll admit, about a resurgence in the winter.) But it has left behind a changed world. The new normal won’t be exactly like the old normal in big and critical ways. For investors. Think of the pandemic as a really painful test for the global economy and individual companies. (As well as a global horror that killed more than 3 million people.) Some companies passed the test with flying colors–and in fact came out of the pandemic with stronger prospects than ever. Others saw the pandemic expose expected or unexpected weaknesses. In this Special Report I’ll be putting together a list of 5 picks and 5 pans for a Post-Pandemic economy.
After the close yesterday, April 29, Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), a key Apple supplier and a maker of radio frequency chips for smartphones and WiFi networking equipment, reported earnings of $2.37 a share on sales of $1.17 billion for quarter that closed on April 2 2021. That beat–slightly–Wall Street projections for earnings of $2.35 a share and sales of $1.15 billion. Year over year Skyworks earnings climbed 77% and sales rose by 53%. And what happened to the stock in after-hours trading? It got punished. Shares dropped to $183.37, a loss of $14.49 a share from the day’s close at $197.86. That’s a loss of 7.32%. In a market driven by expectations for constantly higher growth, I think you can see the problem.
Based on existing analyst forecasts for earnings in all of 2021, the S&P 500 trades at almost 24 times estimates, among its highest valuations ever. To bring the multiple down to its long-term average of 16 times annual profits, companies in the gauge will have to make about 15% more than the equity researchers currently expect them to earn — in 2023.
The week ahead could well bring even less volatility and even more complacency as we move into what everyone expects to be a stellar earnings season–at least in comparison to the first quarter of 2020
The big question is how much of the huge year over year earnings growth in the first quarter is already priced into stocks. And how much more of a rally can we expect on expectations for even higher year over year earnings growth in the second quarter.
This buy on the dip moment is over–this week’s revision of my Dip-O-Meter argues to me. The discounts to the February highs are, in general, getting smaller. And in many cases the size of the bounce that I’m seeing on up days is decreasing too.
I’ve scrubbed through the 20 stocks in the Dip-O-Meter, with updated numbers as of the close on Friday, March 26, looking for the best three buy on the dip trades. (Why only three? Because I think the same volatility that has created these profit opportunities makes it hard to be certain of a trend and I don’t want to bet the farm with the current degree of uncertainty. My choices for trades that I’ll put on tomorrow in my Volatility Portfolio are SunRun (RUN), Teladoc (TDOC), and PayPal (PYPL). These are all going into my Volatility Portfolio
It worries me when any asset moves too quickly–either up or down. Long-term rallies pauses for a breather from time to time. So do big moves to the down. Like that we’re seeing at the long end of the Treasury bond market right now. The yield on the 10-year Treasury closed at 1.71% today, up another 7 basis points on the day. And now up 42 basis points in one month.
On to Stage #2 in my Special Report: “Profit and Protect–What you need to know about stock market stages for 2021. And to my rules for the sells and hedges in Stage #2 for 2021: When you win, you lose. (I just posted sells for ILMN, CTVA, WST and VMW)
