It’s the weekend, but 24/7 Wall St. wanted to show our readers, who may not be on our email list, what they may see each day and on the weekend. This weekend’s email is been broken up into sections to keep it more condensed and organized, and the explanations for each section are below.
Enjoy your three-day weekend, as Monday is Presidents’ Day.
24/7 Special Reports and Exclusive for February 11 to 15
We have broken these specials and exclusive reports into groups, as many of these cover one point but we wanted to show the opposite side of the coin too for a “best/worst” or “top/bottom” approach.
No/Yes socialism here: The fastest growing economies in every state and the fastest shrinking economies of every state.
If you build it … The tallest buildings in the world sure are larger than they used to be.
Health and food ideas. These are the most healthy item at each fast food spot; followed by the states where people live the longest (and probably are not eating fast food).
Equality and gender matter. These are the countries with the best gender equality and the countries with the worst gender equality. We also took a look at the most influential women of the 21st century and flagged the 25 highest paying jobs for women.
For President’s Day: Each president’s own unique path to office, the net worth of every president in modern-day terms and the strangest fact about each president. Guess how historians rank each president through time.
Weekend suds and entertainment alert: These are the most popular beer brands in America, followed by the oldest bar in each state. Bing predicts who will win the Oscars, and the top 25 grossing movies of all time.
Your Money Matters, Markets, Finance
We have several views here covering the investing themes, stock pickers corner, economy and broad markets, and personal finance. Some of the broader ideas are not being viewed enough to keep covering endlessly, but if you don’t want to be blind-sided by the next major market turn, a slowing economy or an outright recession, then you better pay attention. If you wait to hear about it happening on CNBC, Bloomberg or elsewhere in the financial media, you will have already lost your shirt and your ass(ets). Again, Monday is President’s Day, so you should get the day off unless you are in retail or other consumer services.
Market and Economy
As of late on Friday, with a more than 350 point gain to 25,800 on the end of the government shutdown and hopes for continued China trade deals, the Dow Jones industrial average was up a whopping 3,100 points from the lows on January 3. This may look and feel like too much, but the Dow was still about 1,200 points under its all-time high of last year of 26,951.81. The consumer sentiment was much greater than expected, inflation looks tamer and financial confidence looks strong as a field of garlic, even considering that the debt burden per citizen is getting back to worrisome levels.
Market Upside/Downside
Stocks surged late in the week, even some that felt like they shouldn’t. I am revisiting the DJIA 28,000 model calculations for 2019 this weekend because it frankly looked somewhere between “silly and ludicrous” at the start of 2019, after the beat-down we took at the end of 2018. Now it doesn’t look as ridiculous, but it seems hard to imagine we get there in a straight line (if we do get there), even though it’s now just 8.5% higher to that level.
The good news is that the retail sales huge disappointment from this week may be very incomplete (does not include e-commerce giants like Amazon and non-store retailers) when considering Mastercard showed stronger sales, Visa flat to up marginally and the dual boost from no shutdown again and an expected victory in China-trade talks in two(ish) weeks. Either way, the economic impact of things in the coming weeks from corporations likely will remain muted. There should NOT be a recession in 2019 or in early 2020, even with continued slowing, barring new events.
According to S&P, stocks now look fairly valued, but a rekindled China trade deal will leave more room for upside ahead. Canaccord Genuity said this week: “[O]ur favored recession indicators don’t even put one (recession) on the radar. On the other side of the coin, Societe Generale sees the Fed slowing down on its asset sales and potentially being a net buyer of Treasuries again in 2020.”
Warren Buffett
The Oracle of Omaha, via Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A), had a lot of surprises in his public stock holdings (including tech — and Oracle itself — and banking stocks) for the top Buffett picks for 2019.
Dividends and Retirement
See the 15 best dividends for retirees in 2019, and NextEra Energy Inc. (NYSE: NEE) could become the first $100 billion utility.
Analyst/Research Stock Picker’s Corner
Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in Adobe Systems, AIG, CareDx, Coca-Cola, General Dynamics, Harvard Bioscience, LogMeIn, TrueCar, WorkDay and more. Thursday’s top analyst calls included CenturyLink, Chimera, Comerica, Dish Network, Exxon Mobil, NetApp, Pulte, Petrobras, Teva Pharmaceutical, Yelp and many more. Other key analyst and research calls you must consider looking backward and forward are as follows:
- How analysts (actually surprisingly) rate Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) after earnings.
- Jeff Bezos downgrades NYC for Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and HQ2, and he upgraded electric truck/SUV investment.
- Did Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) upgrade bitcoin and cryptocurrency?
- Airbus upgrades the image of Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and its 787 Dreamliner.
- Forget baby powder, Johnson & Johnson upgrades robotics bigtime.
- Big lithium for EV car battery concerns.
- Analyst sees 50% upside for Elon Musk and Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TLSA).
- Five stocks under $10 with huge upside potential.
- General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) to launch electric bikes in Europe (really).
- Levi Strauss upgrades blue jeans in an IPO filing!
And lastly, personal finance and business ideas: The hottest businesses you can franchise in America.
Partial Earnings Calendar for the Week Ahead
- Tuesday: Advance Auto Parts, Herbalife, Walmart
- Wednesday: CVS Health
- Thursday: Baidu, Caesars, Dominos, Dropbox, First Solar, HP Enterprise, Hormel Foods, Roku
- Friday: Wayfair
We’d love to have you subscribe to our open daily and weekly subscriber email blasts for some added color that we might not quite mention in some of our published articles. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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