MARKETPULSE
When the economy undergoes a sea change—as we think it now is doing—it isn’t something that hits you all at once. You don’t wake up and say, aha, we’re in a new world. Rather, it creeps up on you. In 1968, for instance, when inflation rose above 3 percent—the first time other than wartime it had done so that century—no one foresaw that it signified an epic economic shift. But it did. Actually, that particular history lesson…
FRONT PAGE
Pulling You Through: Safe, Sane, and Ready for Anything
We can’t stress it enough: the market will remain turbulent for a long time to come, and the best—we think only—way for investors to survive and thrive is by focusing largely on Growth Portfolio’s Low-Risk Hedges.
GROWTH PORTFOLIO
Why Defense Will Remain a Growth Industry: It Protects Our Access to a Host of Vital Natural Resources
We’re making a few changes to Growth Portfolio this issue. First, we’re adding Market Vectors Gold Miners, an Exchange-Traded Fund that holds gold and silver stocks, to our Low-Risk Hedge category, while shifting Wells Fargo into our Medium-Risk group. The weighting of our Low-Risk Hedges rises to 45 percent, from 42 percent. Our Medium-Risk category adjusts to 44 percent from 46 percent, and our High-Risk stocks to 11 percent from 12 percent. As noted in an…
INCOME PORTFOLIO
Earnings: Mostly Good News: Our Newest Financials Outperform the Sector, But We’re Selling Citi
In January and early February, as the economy threw off one disheartening sign after another that it was in trouble, many of our holdings issued their latest earnings reports. Following are some highlights. Among our “safe haven” picks, our three utilities—Exelon, FPL, and Dominion Resources—all turned in results that did not disappoint. The first two easily exceeded consensus estimates, and although Dominion came up a little short, it reaffirmed 2008 guidance and projected strong results for…
FUNDFOLIO
Once Again, Open Arms: As Money Flows Out from Funds, Many Re-Open Their Doors
The recent market correction has caused record outflows of money from mutual funds. As a result, many funds that a short time ago were flush with more money than they could spend now have many more potential investment choices. (Less money means they’re not limited to larger-cap stocks.) And some first-rate funds that had closed their doors to new investors are now reopening. Longtime TCI readers know we’ve sometimes had to drop a favored fund simply…
FUND FINDS
What They’re Buying
A Silver Company that Knows How to Produce: Tons of Sparkle in PAAS, a Royce Fund Pick
FAST TRACK
Fat Chance? We Think So: Isis Moves Ahead With a New Cholesterol-Fighting Drug
Cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death in the U.S. and a major problem worldwide. The disease, as everyone knows, goes hand in hand with high cholesterol levels—creating a huge market for cholesterol-cutting drugs. So far the focus has been largely on a class of drugs known as statins, led by Pfizer’s blockbuster drug Lipitor, which in 2007 generated around $12.7 billion. In all, some 25 million patients worldwide, including more than 13 million…
Jeffrey Hirsch: Putting Stock in Patterns
Maybe it’s the luck of the Irish, but on the last trading day before St. Patrick’s Day, the market tends to go up—only a little, true, but still outperforming the days before other holidays. This bit of lore is just one of the things you can learn by perusing the latest Stock Trader’s Almanac. Updated and published annually, this entertaining and informative handbook has been tracking seasonal patterns in the market’s behavior since being launched in…
SMALL CAP VALUE PORTFOLIO
Its Products Are Everywhere: Vishay Is the Quiet King of Electronics Components
Our small-cap value shares have taken a drubbing in recent months. Of course we’re not alone. Value stocks in general have been poor performers during the past 12 months. With small-cap value shares taking the biggest hit, our only consolation is that our picks have fallen less than half as much as the benchmark Russell 2000 Small Cap Value Index. The steep drop makes this an opportune time to review some of the basics of successful…
