Stocks To Buy

The retail sector has been a laggard this year. The headline data suggests a bit of a slowdown, particularly compared to the pandemic era. However, behind the headlines, things are more nuanced. Customers can’t cut back completely on necessities like food or clothing. So even with a pullback, it may be seen more with luxury goods rather than wants. That logic also extends to necessities such as upkeep and repairs. Home improvement spending has dropped a bit. But homeowners are looking to ...
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Investors have a number of tech trends that they can play. This year, AI stocks have been all the rage. But other parts of the tech space are big and steady winners, even if they don’t get the headline attention. One such area is in cybersecurity plays. Data breaches are on the rise. And companies with the skills to reduce or mitigate the impact of a breach can see growing returns. Best of all, these companies tend to have a steady business ...
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The stock market is made up of sectors. Some of them are in favor at any given moment. Others are out of favor. Buying out of favor sectors can lead to big gains when the trend shifts. Investors can also sour on a sector that has performed well recently, on the logic that it may be time to change. But some sectors are less susceptible to change than others. One such sector is agriculture. There’s always demand for food. And there are ...
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The market’s rally higher this year has been driven largely by tech stocks. While the market has pulled back a bit overall, many companies and sectors have been laggards. There’s still some residual concerns that are now creating a value today. One sector is the media space. Fears of a slowing economy and declining ad spending hit the sector hard last year. So far, it’s been slow to recover. But buying a diversified player here can lead to solid returns. Comcast (CMCSA) ...
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The latest Fed meeting minutes suggest the central bank may continue to raise interest rates. However, the steady increases of the past year are over. With interest rates likely near, if not at, their cycle peak, some investments look better than others. Fixed income could perform well here, as prices on assets like bonds will rise as interest rates move lower. But it’s also likely that we’ve seen the worst of the selloff in defensive parts of the market, such as ...
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The past few months have seen retail stocks underperform on concern that consumers have been slowing their spending. The latest retail sales data indicates that consumers are fine overall. If anything, they’re just cutting back on spending unless they can get a big bargain. Investors looking at the retail space should focus either on companies that can offer big, regular sales, or on big box stores that cater to consistent demand. Home improvement chain Home Depot (HD) is in the latter category. Consumers ...
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Value investors can have a tough time when it comes to investing. They can recognize that a company is trading at a discount to its value. But short of taking it private, it’s hard to get that value unlocked. It takes time and patience. Recently, a proposed merger agreement led to a rejection by the company that was set to be taken private at a premium to where its shares traded. Typically, a rejection would mean shares would trend lower. In this ...
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The market may not like the fact that inflation’s decline this year has started to stall out. While inflation does look likely to start showing signs of staying in the 3-4 percent range, some investments fare better than others in an inflationary environment. The best investment for this scenario is for a company that offers a service and can raise prices far higher than inflation. It’s also best if they don’t have anything to physically manufacture and produce. The winner here is ...
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