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24/7 Wall St. Weekend Edition: 25-ish Things You May Have Missed but Should Not Miss Out On
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It’s the weekend and 24/7 Wall St. wanted to share a copy of what was sent out on Saturday morning to its thousands of email subscribers. After all, we wouldn’t want our readers thinking we were just taking time off to sit in the sun or in the rain.
This weekend’s edition of our daily morning report has been broken into three groups as normal: Specials and Features; Business, Finance, Investing Ideas; and Looking Backward and Forward. It is not exactly 25 things you may have missed this week, because it’s actually more than just 25 issues concerning your money and interests.
Specials and Features
In our special reports in recent days a lot needed to be covered. These fit the target of 24/7 Wall St. with overlaps on finance and the economy, as well as other issues for our readers to ponder. These were seen as follows:
- These counties have the biggest tax bills in each state.
- Here is our big feature on poverty in America, a look all around the country.
- The levels of bullying are far worse in some states than in others.
- These are America’s fastest growing and shrinking housing markets.
- Here are the 31 highest paying companies in America and the 29 worst paying companies.
Business, Finance, Investing Ideas Corner
It was a very busy week in finance and in the economy. The stock market took a breather, but honestly, with it being the end of the quarter, the “news flow” actually created very little net movement. The Dow Jones industrials ended the week down just 1% and the S&P 500 fell even less, while the Nasdaq 100 was up about 1%. These are some of the key issues you may have missed this last week regarding investing ideas and research.
Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Accenture, Blucora, Carnival, CNOOC, Hormel, Intuit, Lowe’s, Tesla, WPX Energy and many more. (Full ticker list: ACN, BCOR, BEP, CCL, CAI, CMRE, HRL, INTU, LOW, MYOK, NCLH, PSXP, SSW, TTGT, TDOC, TEO, TSLA, TGH, TRTN, WPX, ZNGA.)
Ten stocks are doing so badly they seem to have no idea at all that this is the biggest raging bull market of our lifetimes.
Despite all the obvious caution in chip stocks, Deutsche Bank is still positive in five key chip shares.
Here’s what it takes to become a member of the top 1% all over the country. It’s pretty easy to be a one-percenter after you look at the map and options.
America seems ready to use Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) as their bank too.
Merrill Lynch likes five out-of-favor tech giants.
Goldman Sachs also has five tech names on its Conviction Buy list for upside ahead.
Several of the most important stocks in tech-land are having serious chart trouble. Can you say “death cross” in your lingo?
Beverages may actually dominate the cannabis business trends in the years ahead.
Is it time to worry about too much euphoria in shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD)?
It may finally be time to get bullish on International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) for a serious gain into 2019 or 2020.
Two analysts see a dry-eye biotech having over 100% upside, even after a huge run and despite pressure from a secondary offering.
Looking Backward and Forward
Friday was the end of the third quarter, and gross domestic product (GDP) estimates have been coming down marginally, even as the Federal Open Market Committee has removed its “accommodative” stance with the promise of additional rate hikes ahead. And to complicate matters further, Hurricane Florence’s total damage could be in the neighborhood $30 billion. And there is more evidence of a slowing housing market.
The international markets are facing serious issues. Italy’s banks were trading limit down on Friday and the nation’s interest rates were rising, and Italy is the 13th largest GDP in the world. The list of the nations in trouble of sorts in the top 20 economies by GDP (ranked from CIA World Factbook) has become worrisome:
- China (1) has trade and growth issues.
- India (4) has a non-bank finance and growth issue.
- Japan (5) can’t seem to even manufacture growth.
- Russia (7) … Well, you know it’s Russia, but at least they are still adding gold to backstop the ruble.
- Brazil (9) is slow.
- The United Kingdom (10) is suffering under Brexit.
- Turkey (14) has its leadership and economic woes building.
- Canada (18) has trade issues with the United States and Prime Minister Justin seems no closer to a NAFTA deal with Trump.
- And Iran’s (19) issues with the United States are quite well known.
This week, which once again ended the third quarter, was a mixed week, but here’s how the major indexes and ETFs were looking on year-to-date performance:
- Dow Jones industrial average (DIA), up 7%
- S&P 500 (SPY), up 9%
- Naz 100, up 19%
- Gold (GLD), down 9%
- China (FXI), down 7%
- Eurostoxx 50 (FEZ), down over 4%
24/7 Wall St.Before worrying too much about that next U.S. recession, note that consumer confidence is basically at an all-time high and the average credit score in the United States is now the best it has ever been. And fresh data on Friday showed a rise in personal income and in consumer spending.
And after all that, it’s time for an attitude adjustment! When Monday starts, it will be the start of the fourth quarter. Retail is probably going to be strong as steel this holiday season, based on preliminary indications. We just have to keep in mind that the National Retail Federation reported that holiday 2017 sales were up 5.5% for the year-on-year comps we have to consider this year, so it’s going to take the higher wages and tax reform dollars to add even more on top of all that strong consumer confidence. Over the course of the coming weeks and into November, you are going to start seeing a change in our views, and that is a move to how 2019 is shaping up ahead of time rather than just how 2018 is looking.
I was just reminded this week about something pathetic taking place in America, and it isn’t even from Washington, D.C. The Knowledge Academy issued a report showing that only 67% of Americans know what a recession is, even after the last economic fiasco of eight to 10 years ago. And to make matters worse, only 16% of Americans are considered to have a high level of financial literacy. I guess people would rather worry about celebrities, sports and other issues that will not help them when they start thinking at age 60 or so that they better start thinking about how to pay for their retirement. No wonder so many feel left behind.
The first week of October will be a quiet week for earnings, but we will get the key unemployment report next Friday. And here are 10 pieces of major corporate news from the last week you may have missed:
- One issue that seems to not be going away but only getting worse is Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) and its SEC issue from Elon Musk’s actions. It is becoming a circus, but before you wonder why Musk chose to not be ousted as board chair, it’s pretty obvious. He is the founder and feels like Tesla wouldn’t have risen to this level without him. Right or wrong, and it can be debated endlessly, founders hate to be forced out and Musk knows that he could then be fired as CEO the next day. That said, here’s a clue about who might replace Elon Musk if and when it happens.
- Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) is now guilty of buying back too much stock with low revenue growth. Corporate governance sure saw a strange turn here.
- Are thousands of layoffs coming at Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) — with the 6% dividend yield intact?
- Two huge contract wins for Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA).
- Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) should perhaps just consider changing its names to Bed Bugs & Beyond after another huge earnings disappointment.
- The GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) turnaround might actually be real this time, maybe, sort of. Nick Woodman’s revenge!
- Despite the good/bad PR, Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) still has many post-earnings fans for 2019 earnings.
- General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is a $99 billion company all over again and not even in the $100 billion club anymore. Perhaps CEO John Flannery should demand that all analyst reports are issued on Monday of each week, and that way GE shares can just trade down the other four days all on their own without comments from the peanut gallery driving it down each and every day. No further explanation needed.
- Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) vs. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) gets even stranger.
- Michael Kors is acquiring Versace, and doing a weird name change.
That’s all folks! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
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