Why Water and Hydrogen Stocks Are Hot Plays: Industry Needs Growing Amounts of These Essential Elements
In the preceding article we looked at industrial commodities whose supply is inherently limited—once they’re used up, that’s it. There are other critical substances, though, with constraints of a different kind. Hydrogen, for instance, is the most abundant chemical in the universe, and there’s no danger of running out. The problem is that isolating hydrogen from the compounds that contain it, including water, is both expensive and dependent on huge inputs of energy. And speaking of…
INCOME PORTFOLIO
Strengthening Our Financials: JPMorgan Chase Stands Out for Its Fiscal Restraint, Strong Results
It’s not surprising, in light of the ongoing subprime crisis that has been shaking and shaping the markets since mid-summer and shows no signs of abating anytime soon, that we remain preoccupied with our financial holdings. One, Citigroup, has been right in the thick of the turmoil. In early November, shares of the stock lost a big chunk of their value after several downgrades and speculation on a possible dividend cut. Then, following an emergency Sunday…
FUNDFOLIO
Managers Who Really Manage: the Special Joys and Risks of “Stock-Picker” Funds
In our August issue we added mid-growth fund Janus Orion to FundFolio. Since then it has been a terrific performer, up 15.5 percent and outperforming both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100. It’s a quintessential stock-picker’s fund, meaning the decisions of the manager are key. So the news that Janus Orion’s highly successful manager, Ron Sachs, is leaving—to head the fund family’s larger Janus Twenty fund—certainly raises the question of whether we want to…
FUND FINDS
Like Heebner, We’re Packing Up AvalonBay, But Southern Copper and Hewlett-Packard Remain Buys
FindFinds is a unique portfolio because of its “dual key” nature. We don’t just select stocks that we ourselves like—we continually scan the holdings of top-performing funds, adding those picks that best meet our own criteria. And in monitoring the portfolio, we keep tabs on both the holdings themselves and on whether they remain favorites of the funds that alerted us to them. If a fund sells a position, we don’t automatically do the same,…
FAST TRACK
Whirlpool Runs Out of Gas: It Joins Our Shorts As Sales Suffer from the U.S. Housing Downturn
Dropping home prices and a weakening overall economy are making U.S. consumers feel less wealthy. In particular, they’re becoming increasingly stingy when it comes to discretionary spending to upgrade their homes—putting purchases of new ranges and ovens, dishwashers and washing machines, squarely on the back burner. A company already suffering from this downturn and likely to continue to feel the heat is Whirlpool, the world’s largest appliance maker. Capitalized at $6 billion, this Michigan-based company sells…
SECTOR SENSE
Tech’s Global Dominators: Cisco and Intel Have Built-in Protection Against a U.S. Slump
The tech sector: is it time to love it or leave it? Technology stocks have been hot, helping lead the way as the market recovered from its mid-summer correction. But we don’t think it’s a temporary fling. Along with energy and commodities, computers and related technology are essential to developing economies around the world. For investors, the key is to stick to tech companies with a strong global presence and that sell the products and…
MARKETPULSE
Marketpulse
Flight from the Dollar, All’s Right in Rio, Apple Appeal, Chindia, Masterkey
SMALL CAP VALUE PORTFOLIO
NovaGold’s Bright Prospects: It’s That Rare Small-Cap Gold Play that Meets Our Value Criteria
Rising pressure on commodities (see p.1), not to mention the Federal Reserve’s rate cuts to stabilize the credit market and stave off recession, make it all but certain that inflation will become a growing reality as time goes on. A weakening dollar will further exacerbate the problem (see p.10). And once out of the bag, inflation is notoriously tough to restrain. In inflationary times, gold and gold stocks are among the surest winners. Benefiting from this…
