Updated Oct 06, 2023, 2:51 am EDT / Original Oct 06, 2023, 1:15 am EDT
Consumer-staples stocks have gotten hit hard in recent weeks, and hasn’t escaped the carnage. With the steady-Eddie beverage and snack giant set to report earnings on Oct. 10, its stock could be ready to pop.
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The forecast for the market is cloudy at best—and there are no meatballs involved. Questions about the strength of the economy, what the Federal Reserve plans to do next, and even the path of corporate earnings won’t be answered for months, leaving certainty-starved investors feeling like they’re walking on quicksand. It’s a good time to…
The Stock Market’s Drop Was the Worst Since March. Is It September or Something More Sinister?
Usually, the announcement of a CEO change at a struggling company brings optimism and maybe even a stock pop. Not for
Walgreens Boots Alliance
Its shares have tumbled since Rosalind Brewer announced on Sept. 1 that she was stepping down. That could present a buying opportunity if the company makes the “right” choice…
The Stock Market’s Rally Paused. It’s Time to Buy the Dip.
Surging S&P 500 Targets Finally Caught Up to the Stock Market. Why It’s Time to Buy Dips.
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https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-banks-fed-interest-rates-nasdaq-cc33814e
Air Travel Is Booming. 2 Stocks to Buy That Aren’t Airlines.
Intel
is cutting its dividend. In a treacherous environment for the economy and profits, more companies could do the same.
On Wednesday, Intel (ticker: INTC) cut its dividend by 66% to an annual 50 cents a share, helping push the stock down about 16% in the past month. Intel has lost market share for chips to
Advanced Micro Devices
(AMD) and has struggled to meet Wall Street’s earnings targets. Weighing on earnings is weak PC demand, with year-over-year declines in sales. A dividend cut this large may partly reflect the economic environment, but also the company’s own problems.
We all make mistakes—but the Federal Reserve may be making a bigger one than most. That could mean another difficult year for the stock market in 2023.
Those concerns were front and center this past week, following the Federal Open Market Committee’s December meeting. The Fed didn’t do anything to surprise the market as it raised the federal-funds rate by a half-point, just as everyone expected, and suggested a terminal rate of just over 5%, a level investors had slowly come around to. But the dot plot reflected the Fed’s belief that rates would have to go high and stay high, while Chairman Jerome Powell continued to strike a hawkish tone.
Things tend to slow down for the holidays. The stock market isn’t there yet.
With Christmas just a couple of weeks away, it’s easy to look ahead to candy canes, caroling, and presents under the tree, but there’s still work to be done. The coming week certainly won’t be boring, with highly anticipated inflation data and a Federal Reserve decision on back-to-back days. The two events will do much to determine the direction of the market for the coming weeks—a deeper slide or a resumption of the Santa Claus rally.
Stocks Are Clawing Their Way Back. Consider These Moves for 2023.
Investors finally got the inflation reading they were looking for, and are likely to get a split government for the next two years. That combination propelled stocks to their best weekly showing since June. On Friday, the
S&P 500
even briefly crossed the 4,000 threshold, a level it hadn’t breached in two months.
The S&P ended the week 5.9% higher, closing just below 4,000. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
rose 4.1%, and the
Nasdaq Composite
jumped 8.1%. It was the best weekly showing for the Nasdaq since March, and it came during a week when tech news seemed largely negative. Facebook parent
Meta Platforms
(ticker: META) announced that it will cut 11,000 jobs, the latest in a wave of Silicon Valley layoffs. The best thing Facebook can say for itself now is that it isn’t Twitter.
Heading into this past week, uranium miner
Cameco
was that rare stock in the market: It had posted a double-digit gain in 2022. One deal made those gains disappear—and created a buying opportunity.
At first glance, there didn’t seem to be all that much that was controversial about the joint venture Cameco (ticker: CCJ) announced this past Tuesday. Along with
Brookfield Renewable Partners
(BEP), Cameco agreed to buy Westinghouse Electric, a servicer to nuclear power plants, for $7.88 billion, including debt. Cameco will own 49% of the joint venture once the deal is completed.