IWM

Magnificent 7 Earnings Reports Not Bad Thus Far

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By Brian Nelson, CFA   Shortly after Trump’s Liberation Day, where the President unveiled lofty tariffs on numerous countries, we released our wait-and-see outlook for the equity markets, which thus far has proven to be the right move, with the markets largely recovering from the depths reached in April. The S&P 500 (SPY), for example, is down just 3.3% year-to-date, excluding dividends.   A lot has happened since Liberation Day, including easing of tariffs to a 10% baseline for most, if not all, countries, with the key exception of China, where tariffs remain extremely elevated and prohibitive. Many countries are now reportedly negotiating trade agreements with the White House, and we expect China to be added to that list soon, even if … Read more

What to Do During This Market Selloff

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By Brian Nelson, CFA In short, nothing. The U.S. stock market (SPY) was chugging along nicely until what was interpreted as a very favorable Consumer Price Index (CPI) print on July 11 that sent a rotation out of large cap growth and big cap tech into the beaten down areas of smaller cap stocks, prompting a broader market sell-off. The reasoning goes that, with inflation largely under control, smaller companies will benefit more from future rate cuts via reduced interest expense relative to larger companies. Though this is true, to varying degrees, the magnitude of the rotation was somewhat surprising, as rate cuts should benefit large cap growth (SCHG) and big cap tech (XLK), too, but we’ve seen this rotation … Read more

We Remain Bullish; Is This 1995 – The Beginning of a Huge Stock Market Run?

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Image: Large cap growth stocks have trounced the performance of the S&P 500, REITs, and bonds since the beginning of 2023. We expect continued outperformance in this area of the market. By Brian Nelson, CFA We’re now roughly four years past the depths of the COVID-19 meltdown, where equities collapsed in February and March of 2020. As the markets began to recover through 2020, our long-term conviction in equities only grew stronger. We think the biggest risk for long-term investors remains staying out of the market on the basis of what could be considered stretched valuation multiples. As we outlined heavily in the book Value Trap, valuation multiples hardly tell the complete story about a company and often omit key … Read more

12 Reasons to Stay Aggressive in 2024

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By Brian Nelson, CFA 1. The Fed has signaled that rate cuts could start with inflation at a 2 handle (2 point something) and not at exactly 2.0%. That means that the Fed may become anticipatory to prevent overshooting to the downside with inflation. We see this as positive for long-duration equities, particularly those whose free cash flow generation is robust in the out-years, inclusive of big cap tech and the stylistic area of large cap growth. 2. Unemployment is at structural lows of 3.7%. Employers are working hard to keep talent on board, and with each paycheck, employees are pumping more and more money into the stock market via retirement accounts. This tailwind remains a stiff one and will … Read more

Can Things Really Stay This Good?

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Hi everyone:   It’s Brian. Can things really stay this good? It’s a question that I keep asking myself. For starters, the investment landscape has changed quite a bit over the past decade. Years ago, interest rates were near-zero, and an intense focus on dividends may have made a lot of sense. Interest rates are now much higher, and that means risk-free assets offer yields that are a multiple of that of the yield of the S&P 500. The markets in this regard are starting to make a lot of sense as Dividend Aristocrats have suffered a difficult year so far in 2023.   I think many of these names will likely remain depressed until risk-free rates fall below that … Read more

Is It Time To Turn Bullish? Inflation Tamed?

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To download the January 2023 edition of the Best Ideas Newsletter, please click here (pdf). ——————————————— About Our Name But how, you will ask, does one decide what [stocks are] “attractive”? Most analysts feel they must choose between two approaches customarily thought to be in opposition: “value” and “growth,”…We view that as fuzzy thinking…Growth is always a component of value [and] the very term “value investing” is redundant.                          — Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway annual report, 1992   At Valuentum, we take Buffett’s thoughts one step further. We think the best opportunities arise from an understanding of a variety of investing disciplines in order to identify the most attractive stocks at any given time. Valuentum therefore analyzes each stock across a wide spectrum of philosophies, … Read more

Stock Market Locked in Technical Downtrend; Millionaires Expect More Pain in 2023

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Image: The stock market has been locked in a downtrend through all of 2022, and the latest bull trap has spoiled the Santa Claus rally. 2023 may be an equally rough year. By Brian Nelson, CFA This market just doesn’t want to go higher in the near term, and the latest bull trap wasn’t encouraging at all. We think long term investors should stay the course, but it is looking more and more like we won’t see a stock market bottom until sometime in 2023. Santa brought coal this year. The false breakout of the downtrend on December 13 was very telling. Just when investors thought the markets just might be headed for a strong Santa Claus rally and a … Read more

Fed Raises 75 Basis Points; Food Price Inflation Continues to Wreak Havoc on Consumer Budgets

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Image Source: Federal Reserve The Fed upped its key benchmark rate to the range of 3%-3.25% on September 21, but it may not be enough to stem the rise in inflation. We think the market has further room to fall. By Brian Nelson, CFA We think the Fed is looking to crush the economy and break the will of businesses to raise prices. Unfortunately, there is only so much that hiking the federal funds rate can do, and much of the inflation that is hurting the consumer is coming in the form of food prices, and this doesn’t look like it will abate anytime soon. I had warned about a coming market “flush” in a late August video, in part … Read more

Stocks Surge: Strong S&P 500 Earnings Growth Expected, Headline Scares With Inflation Tamed, Interest Rates Still Low

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Image Source: BLS. The pace of inflation looks like it may slow down considerably in 2023 as sequential monthly increases pause their advance. The Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), seasonally adjusted, paused its advance during the month of July, and the markets have generally reacted positively to the news. We’re reiterating our view that inflation is not necessarily bad for the markets over the long haul, and while it may take some time for companies to sort out higher prices across their input bases, inflation is not a new challenge for the markets at all, and the best way for investors to combat inflationary tendencies, by and large, is via stocks, which generate nominal earnings, whose equity prices are quoted nominally, … Read more

Stocks Up 70%+ Since COVID-19 Pandemic Bottom, Best Ideas Outperforming So Far in 2022

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Image Source: Mike Cohen By Brian Nelson, CFA Investors are building in near worst-case scenarios for future free cash flow expectations across our coverage universe in most cases, and it may not make a lot of sense, in our view, given the resilient nature of the global economy through thick and thin. Within the discounted cash flow model that we use to derive the fair value estimates for companies in our coverage, we apply a 10-year baseline (discount) Treasury rate of 4.5%, which is still meaningfully above the current 10-year Treasury rate that is now hovering around 3.5%. What that means is that there still remains an adequate margin of safety within our analytical framework before we might grow concerned … Read more