Market Talk
It's been a wild sequence of recent events. Before opining on the market and stock, let's pray and send help where possible for the victims of the firestorm of LA county. As of preliminary data today, January 13, the wildfires in LA county have burned over 40,300 acres, resulting in 24 fatalities and more missing persons along with destroying or damaging more than 12,300 structures. Meanwhile, the high winds off the Santa Monica mountains continue.
Next, we should perhaps consider when it comes to stocks, there are NO absolutes. We can deal with fundamentals on valuations, projected growth and things like return to shareholders such as dividends. We can try to project and predict future value and there will always be the intrinsics as well as hidden values that the market may not see at the time. In a sense, trying to be one step ahead because the market values are also based on predictive trends that dwell into the unknown, basically ... THE FUTURE.
Market dynamics..
The jobs report data can be misleading.. The touted job increases were not in productive areas as far as GDP. They were in
Health care (46,000 jobs)
Retail Trade (+43,000 jobs)
Social Assistence (+23,000 jobs)
Government (+33,000 jobs)
Leisure and Hospitality (+43,000 jobs)
Manufacturing experienced declines. Further, high productivity sectors like manufacturing, technology, and infrastructure were under represented, which may challenges long-term GDP growth and economic competitiveness.
WE will opine on this in a future post.
With the above preamble, let us now step into stock talk.
Stock Talk
Stocks we stay the course in some.
KTOS - contract after defense contract keeps rolling in.
KGC , Gold mining with steady earnings and a divy too.
PR, starting to "pop"? on easing natural gas restrictions. Oil and Natural gas co in the Permian basin of America. Drill baby drill staying the course. Britain is running out of natural gas!
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-britain-running-gas-181640726.html
MO - paid the dividend. It typically fades back some after the divy but as the next dividend date approaches, the stock may trend higher as long as earnings continue steady. MO offers an 8.02% dividend at the current sp of $50.85. Perhaps worthy of holding some MO for "mo" .
Two new stocks on the radar, close to LA. These two could play a big role in the recovery.
- KB Home (KBH) : known for affordable, yet quality custom made stick built homes. Just today posted an earnings blowout .
- Champion Homes (SKY) : known for affordable high quality modular homes, RVs and quality trailer homes.
... and Maintain dry powder for opportune times.
If you dare ... Stay tuned and aware ....
For now, we close by noting that any view on the market and stocks on any particular day may change in the future days to come. That is why we watch and see how our views match up with the reality of the time. But trying to look ahead a few months into the future may be a way to do things. If you think too deep about world events and the recent alliances forming, projecting ahead can be a dicey endeavor. In all - we use the word maybe "some", not "too much" and play it accordingly. Remember, never get arrogant in our various notions because things do change in the market and individual stocks are subject to many factors outside of our control.. So we try to -stay aware.
With all the above caveats and attempted prognostications, I will close this post. Stay tuned for more opining on the market and stocks to watch.
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