To get to my 10 picks for my Special Report: A New Core Portfolio for a New Market, let me start with the second half of that title, the new market part. Why do I think we’re headed into a new market–and what kind of stock is this new market likely to reward with gains? And then onto my 10 picks for a New Core Portfolio.
In the first section of this Special Report: When will the selling stop? When to buy What to buy” posted back on January 11, I said that I’d look to buy in tiers. And thus stagger my buying to take account of any earnings season selling and any volatility around the Fed’s January 26 meeting. In the first tier, I said, back on January 11, I said I’d look for former momentum and earnings growth favorites, especially in the technology sector, that had taken big hits in the selling from the November 19 high. The three first tier buys were Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and and the first three buys back on January 11 were Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, and Adobe (ADBE). I said I’d name my second tier picks after bank earnings. Which means today.
If you worry about what worries me right now, I know what you want to know. When will the selling stop? When will it be a good time to buy “bargains”? And What stocks should you buy when you begin to buy? Those are the three questions that I’ll answer in this Special Report. Along with listing my first three buys on this selling.
With the VIX “fear index” falling back closer to “normal” levels–it dropped to 21.89 yesterday from 31.12 on December 1–it sure feels like the extreme volatility of the end of November and early December is on the ebb. The move to yesterday’s 21.89 close from December 1 was was a surge of 30% in the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index in a week. This move away from panic follows on a jump in the “fear index” in the week from November 24 to December 1 of 67% in the opposite direction. I’d be surprised if we don’t see another surge in volatility in the rest of December or in January with what promises to be a crazy earnings season, but even if volatility holds at something like today’s level–slightly elevated from the historical averages but in the rough ballpark–don’t forget that volatility has a long tail. Volatility, in fact, creates volatility. And not least of all in individual stocks.
Here we go again. It’s not that we really have any more information about the Omicron Variant–we certainly don’t know what its effects will be on global economic acuity–but just as fears that the Covid-19 variant would send the world back into lockdown crushed stocks last week, this morning, December 7, a belief that Omicron won’t be all that bad has taken root and stocks are soaring in morning action.
After yesterday’s selling, we’re getting a bounce today. But, significantly, the bounce in stocks is much less “bouncy” than the Monday bounce from Friday’s plunge.
In last week’s video QuickPick of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) I promised a longer take on the cybersecurity sector and another pick for my portfolios to go with Palo Alto Systems and CrowdStrike (CRWD). This post is that (somewhat) longer take and OKTA (OKTA) is my promised pick for my Jubak Picks and Millennial portfolios.
I’m starting up my videos on JubakAM.com again–this time using YouTube as a platform. My forty-fifth YouTube video “QuickPick: Palo Alto Networks” went up today.
Today, Monday, July 19, stocks accelerated their retreat from the end of last week on fears that a fourth wave of the pandemic, fueled by the Delta variant, will crush hopes that the economy is headed back to normal. As of the close New York the Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 1.59% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 2.09%. The NASDAQ Composite was off 1.06% and the NASDAQ 100 had dropped 0.90%. The small cap Russell 2000 had fallen 1.51% and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) was down 1.68%. For the day at least you can see the market’s fears accurately reflected in the list of stocks falling most heavily.
Another day; another ransomware attack. This one is being called the largest non-national-state supply-chain cyberattack ever seen (and possibly the largest cyberattack ever, period.)
Yesterday, May 20, after the market closed, Palo Alto Networks (PANW) reported third-quarter fiscal 2021 non-GAAP earnings of $1.38 per share. That beat the Wall Street consensus by almost 8%. Last earnings for the third quarter of the fiscal year were $1.17. Revenue gained 24% year over year to $1.07 billion. That was slightly above the Wall Street projection of $1.06 billion. After the earnings announcement the company raised guidance for the fiscal 2021 fourth quarter to project earnings per share of $1.42 to $.44 and year over year revenue growth of 23$ to 24% to $1.65 billion to $1.715 billion. For all of fiscal 2021 the company forecast adjusted earnings of $5.97 to $5.99 a share. That was up from an earlier projection of $5.80 to $5.90 a share.
After not moving very much yesterday on the actual news from the Federal Reserve-the Standard & Poor’s 500 finished up 0.29% and the NASDSQ Composite closed higher by 0.40%, today, March 18, markets decided they really didn’t like the Fed’s stance on inflation, interest rates, and bond yields.
A day after Fed chair Jerome Powell said the Fed wasn’t much concerned about either the projects for higher inflation or the rise in Treasury yields, the yield on the 10-year Treasury spiked to 1.71% at the close. (It was at 1.74% as 1 p.m. in New York.) The closing yield amounted to a jump of 7 basis points in the yield on the benchmark Treasury issue. The yield on the 10-year Treasury is now up an astonishing 42 basis points in a month. And as has been the case in 2021 and as you might expect, stocks sold off with high multiple, high momentum technology shares taking the worst beating.
