Friday, May 17, 2024
Part of America’s new, muscular industrial policy—with about $2 trillion in federal spending over 10 years—is restoring our country’s infrastructure and reshoring its manufacturing. This endeavor requires a gargantuan number of rocks. Suppliers of cement (made from limestone), and granular aggregates (sand, gravel, and crushed stone) are set to be among the biggest beneficiaries of […]
We are just two days away from Thanksgiving. The cooking has started around here. The turkey went into the brine last night, and the prep work for the stuffing is underway. There will only be one issue of Hidden Profits report this week, because I expect you will have better things to do than read […]
Recession in 2024? Wall Street traders are saying “fuggedaboutit.” An economic downturn is the furthest thing from the minds of market participants, as they are bullish on risky “junk” debt—chosen as the top contrarian trade, according to a majority of participants in a recent Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey. Despite heavy outflows in 2023, and […]
Longshots. Have you ever had one off big for you? Years ago, I had a friend who took some time off to travel around the country on his motorcycle. After a few months, he left Denver and was riding the backroads headed back East. He wanted to explore the West Coast, but he was low […]
Infrastructure. What a pompous word! I am a huge fan of infrastructure investing. Still, when I see some pension consultant or product salesperson droning on about the correlation factor of infrastructure assets and the durable cash flows produced by permanent infrastructure, I suddenly feel the need for a nap. So I can only imagine how […]
Until recently, consumer staples stocks had been popular with conservative investors. These companies make and sell products that are everyday essentials, which means their revenues and profits are fairly stable and quite predictable—a characteristic investors should like. Of course, this type of company is not going to grow rapidly. But their ability to be “Steady […]
No one knows what the market will do this week or next. Last week we saw traders come to the mass conclusion that the Fed was done raising rates and that rate cuts were right around the corner. While I have never personally seen a bull market start with large cap stocks trading well north […]
Is the bottom for stocks in? That’s the question I will address in this week’s first edition of the Hidden Profits Report. The Fed has a lot to say about both the current level of stock prices, and no matter how much you may hate the Fed or wish we did not have a fiat […]
It is well-known that investing into fixed income instruments has been a losers’ game ever since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates. 2022 was the worst-ever year on record for U.S. bond investors, according to an analysis by Edward McQuarrie, a professor emeritus at Santa Clara University who studies historical investment returns. And the […]
In today’s Hidden Profits Report, I take a quick hulk at where the markets are trading and current valuations. In spite of the recent period of volatility, large-cap stocks are clearly overvalued. Small-cap stocks are trading at discounted valuations with an average PE ratio of just 8. Small-cap deep-value stocks are trading at ridiculously low […]
