The Terrible Ten

“The Magnificent Seven” was the most popular sobriquet among stock market strategists, portfolio managers and reporters in 2023.  Stocks such as Google, Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple dominated performance and volume charts.  Almost unnoticed, Broadcom pushed its way to 4th in Market Cap in the Nasdaq and more than doubled in price last year … Read more

Turning the Page to 2024

Farewell and thank you to 2023 which exceeded almost everybody’s expectations after a dismal 2022 and predictions of a dire recession.  This blog was more positive than most, projecting a 5% to 10% gain for the S&P 500 vs. the actual price gain of 23.9%.  Now it’s on to 2024.  Let’s start with our quarterly … Read more

Screening for Timely and Liquid Stocks with Yield and EPS Growth

ValuEngine’s ratings from 1 (Strong Sell) to 5 (Strong Buy) are based upon our predictive model’s assessment of which stocks will appreciate most in price during the next 12 months on a percentage basis.  As such, it will sometimes favor small stocks with a lower base for its highest ratings.  Also, since it is price-appreciation … Read more

2023 Midyear Review of Index ETFs and Smart Beta Strategies

Approaching 2023, the experts were in near unanimity that the fourth quarter of 2022 was little more than a dead cat bounce and that once the inevitable recession hit, the bear market would quickly take the S&P 500 Index to new lows.  Instead, the first six months have seen the Nasdaq-100 ETF, Invesco QQQ rise … Read more

Ill-Defined Outcomes – Results of a Research Study on Downside Mitigation ETFs

2022 provided a litmus test for ETFs designed to shield Investors from the full impact of a major stock market decline. The bad news is that half of them failed.  The good news is that three of them actually did perform in line with their objectives. These are the results of a recent study that I co-authored … Read more

5 US Stocks to Consider Now for Conservative Portfolios

Looking at this week’s list of stocks rated 5 (Strong Buy) from ValuEngine for year-ahead performance, I note that there are a number of relatively well-known large cap and midcap stocks that meet my minimum criteria as appropriate for conservative institutional-quality portfolios. As we will see, all five are in popular large cap and midcap … Read more

Rotating Regimes – What to Plan For in 2023

In general, the 2022 US Stock Market was a conflagration that wiped out almost everything in its path with the exception of a few industries and ETFs.  The ETF reports on ValuEngine for ETFs that follow market benchmarks provide a side benefit in writing market analyses.  They are a window to implicit forecasts for 3-, … Read more

ESG & ETFs: Between BlackRock and a Hard Place

An excellent ETF.com article was posted on September 22.  “NYC Comptroller: Blackrock ESG Standards Alarming” highlighted a very public effort by Brad Lander to shame Blackrock into being more environmentally conscious.  New York City Comptroller Brad Lander demands the company bolster its climate disclosures and publish a plan that establishes its commitment to net-zero greenhouse … Read more

Communications Services – 4 Years After Its Debut

In 2018, the General Industry Classification System (GICS) that defines the sector and industry groups of the S&P 500 made major changes to better reflect the changing global stock market environment.  The primary change was the creation of the Communications Services sector and elimination of a separate Telecommunications Services Sector.   All of the approximately 5,000 … Read more

3rd Quarter US Benchmark ETF Update

The third quarter was a tale of two halves.  The market staged what turned out to be a bear market rally throughout July and the first two weeks of August.  Then it was as if somebody blew a whistle.  The next six weeks saw the bear return with a vengeance.  The ETF reports on ValuEngine … Read more