Saturday, January 18, 2025
If you’ve recently had to hire an electrician, or have your HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system replaced or serviced, you may have asked yourself if you went into the wrong profession. Demand for these professionals is high, and the commensurate rates they can now charge, leads me to my (barely) under $10 stock […]
Very few brands have the distinction of having their corporate name become “genericized” so that the brand is synonymous with the activity. Google (GOOGL – Get Rating) is perhaps the most well known today, with the phrase “Google It” meaning any internet search. Unless you’re of a certain age, you may not know the term “Make a Xerox”. And […]
The market expects interest rates to retreat in 2024 which should be a boon to small and medium sized businesses that have been struggling with high rates. So this may be the perfect time to take a look at a business like Deluxe (DLX – Get Rating) that helps small and medium sized businesses scale and grow. Deluxe is […]
While the latest “pause” from the Federal Reserve has markets rallying in anticipation of rate cuts next year, for borrowers rates remain high. And, if the Fed does begin cutting next year, it’s highly doubtful that rates will come down anywhere near as fast as they were raised over the past year. That leaves a […]
Oil markets have been on a bit of a rollercoaster this year. The expectation going into 2023 was that oil would be fairly range bound, with the majority of its time spent in the upper part of the range. And while it has dropped in price recently, that drop is from a September/October price spike, […]
November was an excellent month for the U.S. stock market. The S&P 500 gained 9.1% in the month, compared to losing 5% over the previous two months. I was especially pleased to see the real estate sector (read: REITs) near the top of the sector performance chart. And more is coming. Let me show you… […]
If you asked the typical investor which two sectors led the charge in November’s big stock rally, few would come up with the right answer. The sector everyone would assume correctly that led the pack is technology, with a 13% gain. But the second sector—with a 12% rise—would not only come as a huge surprise, […]
With the pandemic fading into the rearview mirror, there has been a reluctant, but irrefutable move back to the office and back to school. But, if you’ve been to a classroom recently, you may have noticed a change from when you and I were sitting behind a school desk. Everything seems to have wheels on […]
Self-storage real estate investment trusts (REITs) have an excellent long-term track record. However, the pandemic shutdown, followed by the reopening of the economy, produced a boom and then a bust for self-storage operators. The year-and-a-half decline for these REITs is over, and it’s time to add some self-storage to your portfolio. Let’s take a look […]
The current economic cycle has been, in a word, unusual. Housing stocks have remained strong even as banks have failed and mortgage rates have skyrocketed. Infrastructure stocks have done very well, and there is currently a bidding war breaking out over U.S. Steel (X – Get Rating). And consolidation in the steel industry should further lift the industry […]
