As always, Wall Street is imagining things.
CNBC recently reported on findings from Credit Suisse that an unusually high number of companies have fallen from the ranks of top earnings growers to the bottom 20.
That sounds bad, but there's much more going on behind the scenes.
The Dow Jones today is trying to rebound from a Wednesday rout that followed the unsurprising decision by the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.
Investors remain extremely grim about the prospects of the Fed's plans to hike rates two more times in 2019.
The hike comes at a time when the central bank reduced its growth estimates for the U.S. economy.
by Shah Gilani
The markets took a break for the funeral of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and I'd bet most investors are grateful for the pause in the "Groundhog Day," Yogi Berra "déjà vu all over again"-type action we've been going through since, yes, October.
Yeah, the market just did what it did just last month; the FAANGs rolled over and played dead, only to come roaring back for a seemingly strong push up north and, just when things looked brighter, tanked again.
Rally and swoon, rally and swoon… While there is still a fighting chance for the old bull, it's looking increasingly grim.
We're rapidly getting to the point that investors who are unprepared or out of position could be in some serious danger.
That's why I'm looking so closely at these specific numbers...
by Tim Melvin
As some of the tech darlings have fallen rather sharply over the past couple of months, I begin to get the inevitable questions about the wisdom of buying these market darlings.
Everyone just assumes that because I am an investor, I care about these stocks. After all, they're the ones on the news and in the papers – the stock market equivalent of "must-see TV." The truth is that I don't give a rat's furry behind about the "growth and glamour" stocks.
Why? I could never justify paying the multiples of asset value and cash flow that these stocks fetch at any given moment in time… except in the aftermath of a precipitous decline.
But are they on sale "enough" to suit my tastes or, since you're here, move me to recommend that you spend your hard-earned ducats on them?
by Tim Melvin
Bad news: The plane crashed.
You've washed up on a desert island, the sole survivor. You're stranded thousands of miles from civilization. It could be years before you encounter another human being.
When the chips are down like this, it's all-important to take inventory of the wreckage and your immediate surroundings.
Your very life depends on it. So, a look around your new home reveals:
Scrap airplane aluminum for crafting shelter and weapons…
A source of fresh water…
Natural fibers for fashioning rope, animal traps, and clothing…
Coconuts and pineapples for distilling booze of some kind…
A full set of Louis L'Amour novels…
An anthropomorphized volleyball to keep you from descending into madness…
Top-flight stocks that will pay you unreasonably high returns for the rest of your life…
Uh-oh!
In the stocks department, you've come up critically short. After all, the best stocks are the ones you don't have to worry about for years on end, and you won't be talking to your broker anytime soon – unless you want to pretend the volleyball is your broker or try and reach him on the other end of a coconut telephone.
Not to worry. All is not lost. Because I've got you covered with these, my very own personal "desert island stocks."
Our Chris Johnson is going to show you what's grabbing everyone's attention lately: the FANG+ Index and the five actively traded growth stocks within it.
Today, he'll be looking at Nvidia and Baidu using his Best in Breed analysis...
No doubt, the big tech stocks and "FANGs" are important drivers in this stock market. Since the bull market began, this core group of stocks have been responsible for pulling the market higher.
Of course, they're not the only stocks causing the bull market. However, when we talk about the value, or market capitalization, of the stock market, these are some of the biggest and most valuable companies out there.
by Shah Gilani
Big market benchmarks like the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite all tend to go up together, even if they don't always move up at the same pace.
But when markets go down, especially if they go down hard, they all tend to lose at similar rates.
So the secret to being defensive – or profiting from any market plunge – is knowing what's driving the markets and where the important support levels are in benchmark stocks and indexes.
Naturally, as stocks approach those levels, it's a good idea to start setting up your defenses.
That way, if they break those levels, you're free to parlay a potentially ugly downside move into some beautiful profits.
I'm going to show you what the big fish (the institutional investors and trading desks) are keying on now – and what important levels they're watching.
Because if these break, things will get very rough indeed...
In this second and final installment on the FAANG stocks, our Chris Johnson looks at the remaining FAANGs – Apple, Google, and Netflix – to determine where they currently stand and how best to rake in the profits moving forward…
In this two-parter, our Chris Johnson takes a close look at each of the FAANG stocks to determine whether they've been "defanged" or not.
