The S&P 500 Index had been up nearly 1 percent after the first four days of trading this week. Israel’s attacks on strategic targets in Iran followed by Iran’s counterattack changed the narrative as the selloff Friday wiped out those gains sufficiently to throw that benchmark into negative territory for the week. It can be … Read more
The markets have soared in the past two weeks with word of tariff relief. It was accompanied by reduced concern about a potential recession and greater confidence in US corporate earnings engines. Adding to this optimism is that corporate administrative costs in dealing with regulatory red tape and fears of SEC fines have been relegated … Read more
The first 100 days of Trump 2.0 have been anything but “business as usual.” During the past several weeks with tariff wars and Administration policy changes taking center stage, huge volatility swings in both directions have greatly disturbed many investors. Seemingly, there has seldom been a better time to be a volatility trader. All 5,200+ … Read more
Our last blog discussed safe harbors amidst the current storm of market volatility. The idea presented was to investigate the strong buy stocks with the lowest betas. This week we home in on a sector that is typically low volatility and low growth. Currently we find fairly competitive earnings growth in this sector. We look … Read more
Market volatility last week was the highest it has been in 2025. While it sent a portion of investors heading for the exits, many more looked to shift assets from large-cap technology stocks and cap-weighted ETFs into less volatile investments. For example, low beta stocks and low beta ETFs have seen increased interest as investors … Read more
I will often feature stocks rated buy or strong buy in highly rated sectors. This one is a departure. The healthcare sector is most commonly represented by the Select Sector SPDR Healthcare ETF, XLV. It faced a challenging year in 2024, underperforming the S&P 500 Index by a staggering 22.4%. This massive performance shortfall resulted … Read more
Conversations about Trump’s tariffs, despite two of them being placed on hold for now, continue to dominate market discussions. Although it could be different this time, historically these announcements cause volatility in the short run. But by about the time they become reality, if not before, their effects are absorbed by the market with barely … Read more
Following on last week’s top 10 list, this week’s blog focuses on ETFs related to the stocks in the list. We begin with lots and lots of data in the form of several tables, and end with our written analysis. Skip to the end if you prefer to jump to the conclusions we make on … Read more
Last year, I was asked by a local investing club to provide a list of ValuEngine’s top 10 stock picks for 2024. I screened our list for top-rated stocks with at least $10 Billion in Market Capitalization and excluded ADRs and stocks not ranked by any analysts according to our data feed. This top 10 … Read more
Taking Stock of the Utilities Sector First: Happy New Year to all ValuEngine readers, subscribers, clients, customers, and partners! The recent market pull back may have some investors scrambling to re-allocate their investments to reduce some risk. The utilities sector has historically been a focus for investors looking to lower volatility. In this blog we … Read more