• Looking at Peter Drucker
    Posted by on June 4th, 2018 at 12:16 pm

    The subject of Peter Drucker recently came up. Here’s what I wrote about him upon his passing in 2005. This was one of my first blog posts to get attention.

    He was born in Vienna during the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph (his middle initial F. stood for Ferdinand). Keynes and Schumpeter were his economics professors. His first book was reviewed by Winston Churchill in the Times Literary Supplement in 1939. The 29-year-old proved to be more prescient than the Great Man.

    Mr. Drucker is one of those writers to whom almost anything can be forgiven because he not only has a mind of his own, but has the gift of starting other minds along a stimulating line of thought. There is not much that needs forgiveness in this book, but Mr. Drucker tends to be carried away by his own enthusiasm, so that the pieces of the puzzle fit together rather too neatly. It is indeed curious that a man so alive to the dangers of mechanical conceptions should himself be caught up in the subordinate machinery of his own argument. His proof, for example, that Russia and Germany must come together forgets the nationalism which has developed in Russia during the last twenty years and which would react very strongly against any new German domination of Russian life. But such excesses of logic are pardonable enough in a book that successfully links the dictatorships which are outstanding in contemporary life with that absence of a working philosophy which is equally outstanding in contemporary thought.

    Within three months, Poland’s fate was sealed. When looking at Drucker’s work, the most arresting fact isn’t how much he got right but rather how much he’s still misunderstood.

    Mr. Drucker thought of himself, first and foremost, as a writer and teacher, though he eventually settled on the term “social ecologist.” He became internationally renowned for urging corporate leaders to agree with subordinates on objectives and goals and then get out of the way of decisions about how to achieve them.

    He challenged both business and labor leaders to search for ways to give workers more control over their work environment. He also argued that governments should turn many functions over to private enterprise and urged organizing in teams to exploit the rise of a technology-astute class of “knowledge workers.”

    Mr. Drucker staunchly defended the need for businesses to be profitable but he preached that employees were a resource, not a cost. His constant focus on the human impact of management decisions did not always appeal to executives, but they could not help noticing how it helped him foresee many major trends in business and politics.

    He began talking about such practices in the 1940’s and 50’s, decades before they became so widespread that they were taken for common sense. Mr. Drucker also foresaw that the 1970’s would be a decade of inflation, that Japanese manufacturers would become major competitors for the United States and that union power would decline.

    For all his insights, he clearly owed much of his impact to his extraordinary energy and skills as a communicator. But while Mr. Drucker loved dazzling audiences with his wit and wisdom, his goal was not to be known as an oracle. Indeed, after writing a rosy-eyed article shortly before the stock market crash of 1929 in which he outlined why stocks prices would rise, he pledged to himself to stay away from gratuitous predictions. Instead, his views about where the world was headed generally arose out of advocacy for what he saw as moral action.

    As for me, I’m a bit weary of the Cult of Drucker, which is often quite different from the man. I often hear his disciples pontificate his “ideas,” which wind up being little more than Benjamin Franklin-style truisms—only covered in jargon and masquerading as ideology. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” becomes “pro-active management encourages and facilitates preventative-based strategies in order to ensure long-run objectives without negative and unforeseen downside effects.” So much Latin, and so little English. Such are the dangers in thinking outside one’s box.

    But how far can the study of management go? For all of management’s influence, the most difficult question is: Why is this enterprise worth managing? My fear is that Drucker’s legacy is so liquid that his mantle can be claimed by most anyone. The race has been on for quite some time. Right now, the yellow-jersey belongs to Newt Gingrich. The former Speaker of the House, who’s an admirer of Alvin Toffler and other future babble, has clearly adopted Drucker as a political ally.

    Too many of our business schools, academic centers, media moguls, and government leaders still rely on the Keynesian command-and-control bureaucratic model. They rely on almost nothing of Drucker and even less of the Austrian school and, as a result, routinely apply the wrong principles to structuring education, training, health care, and our role in international trade. Again and again they reject the marketplace. They reject the principles of management. They reject the essence of entrepreneurship. They reject the heart of Drucker and apply instead patterns and behaviors that simply don’t work.

    That is the ultimate critique of big-city schools. It’s the ultimate critique of government-run health care. It is the ultimate critique of the way the federal government and state and local governments mismanage resources. It simply doesn’t work.

    To be sure, Gingrich’s ideas can stand or fall on their own—with or without the support of Drucker. But we ought to be clear that Drucker’s ideas have little to do with what Gingrich says. In fact, Drucker was never particularly interested in economics. Too much theory, not enough people.

    Drucker’s concern was studying institutions as institutions. That’s what he saw in 1939. The Nazis and Soviets had to come together. It was simply what they were. The institutions demanded it. For Drucker, it didn’t matter which institutions he looked at; governments, unions, corporations. He really didn’t find much use in analyzing the government. Drucker preferred the non-profit sector. He even looked at the Girl Scouts. To Drucker, an institution had an internal agenda simply because it is an institution.

    Drucker saw the driver of an institution as its management. His goal was to isolate management as a separate concept and study what made some managers good and others bad. While it sounds a bit platitudinal now, it was quite new then.

    Still, when reading Drucker I can’t help feeling undernourished. Consider this from Forbes a few years ago:

    In 1989 C. William Pollard, chairman of the ServiceMaster Co., took his board of directors from Chicago to meet Drucker. In a back room of Drucker’s utterly unpretentious home, the sage of Claremont opened the meeting by asking the group, “Can you tell me what your business is?”

    Each director gave a different answer. Housecleaning, said one. Insect extermination, said another. Lawn care, said a third.

    “You’re all wrong,” Drucker said. “Gentlemen, you do not understand your business. Your business is to train the least-skilled people and make them functional.”

    Groan. This is only the beginning of an exposure to Drucker. Soon, the “ideas” begin to flow freely. We’re now “knowledge workers.” And we’re moving to a “knowledge-based society.” But…what of it? Before we know it we’re “managing change,” yet I’m only interested in “making money.” Again, here’s Drucker:

    One of the most important jobs ahead for the top management of the big company of tomorrow, and especially of the multinational, will be to balance the conflicting demands on business being made by the need for both short-term and long-term results, and by the corporation’s various constituencies: customers, shareholders (especially institutional investors and pension funds), knowledge employees and communities.

    Call me unimpressed. I can’t say that I disagree with anything Drucker says, which is part of the problem. Truthfully, I think the study of management can only go so far. It’s important, but it’s easily overanalyzed. Just as the diplomat urges diplomacy and the general favors war, the management guru sees only the primacy of managers. To Drucker’s fans, it seems hard to conceive the fact that Grant crossed the James without the aid of a flow chart.

    Here’s a large section of Druckerama. Apparently, everything is transformational. Everyone is empowered. It all sounds so epic, yet at the same time so…bland. The themes have taken over the building and they’ve smothered the plot. What’s left is Drucker’s true legacy, his boundless enthusiasm. If only all managers had it. To Churchill, Russia may have been a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, but he saw Drucker clearly.

  • Morgan Housel’s “The Psychology of Money”
    Posted by on June 4th, 2018 at 11:08 am

    Morgan Housel is one of my favorite finance writers. He just went long-form with his “The Psychology of Money.” It’s long but worth it.

    Here’s the website and here it is in PDF.

  • Morning News: June 4, 2018
    Posted by on June 4th, 2018 at 7:17 am

    Coming Soon: “OPEC’s Worst Meeting Ever, Part 2”

    China Launches Probe of Foreign Chip Makers

    Global Airlines Slash Profit Outlook as Fuel Costs Jump

    Americans Will Pay a High Price to Save Coal

    Apple: iPhone X, Record Profits And A Much Higher Stock Price

    The State of Tech in 3 Graphs: Artificial Intelligence, The Cloud and Your Money

    The Case for Xiaomi, the $70 Billion Company—and for Xiaomi, the $30 Billion Company

    Fintech Unicorn TransferWise Strikes First Deal With a Major Bank to Offer Cheap Currency Transfers

    Cruise Is Adding A Lot Of Value To General Motors

    Sears Holdings’ Death Spiral Accelerates

    A Machinist Break-in at Boeing

    Commonwealth Bank to Pay Record Fine to Settle Laundering Suit

    Ben Carlson: Does Private Equity Deserve More Scrutiny?

    Roger Nusbaum: Barron’s Says It’s Time To Rethink Retirement Rules

    Jeff Miller: Is it Time to Worry About a Trade War?

    Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

  • Carriage Services to Host Conference Call
    Posted by on June 2nd, 2018 at 12:29 am

    Carriage Services (CSV) announced on Friday that it will host a conference call this Wednesday morning to discuss its recent balance sheet recapitalization. A press release will come out after Tuesday’s close. I don’t think there’s anything to fear although the shares pulled back 2.2% on Friday.

  • Lowest Unemployment Rate Since the 1960s
    Posted by on June 1st, 2018 at 9:57 am

    This morning, the government said that the unemployment rate for May was 3.8%. That’s the lowest rate since the 1960s. Well, technically, the lowest since December 1969. Looking at the decimals, the rate comes out to 3.755%.

    Of course, these long-term comparisons are a bit dicey. The U.S. economy is quite different from 50 years ago. One big difference is demographics, and therefore, the civilian labor force.

    The jobs-to-population ratio is now 60.4% but that’s lower than where it peaked 18 years ago even though unemployment was higher. Here’s the jobs-to-pop ratio, still well below its peak.

    Now here’s the regular unemployment rate.

    The good news is that wages are up 2.7% in the last year. The economy has now had a jobs gain for 92-straight months. The unemployment rate for women is now 3.6%. That’s the lowest since 1953.

  • CWS Market Review – June 1, 2018
    Posted by on June 1st, 2018 at 7:08 am

    “Don’t confuse brains with a bull market.” – Humphrey B. Neill

    It’s good to be back after taking a break for Memorial Day. It’s almost like the stock market went on vacation as well. Over the last 15 trading sessions, the S&P 500 has closed between 2,705 and 2,733 a total of 14 times. That’s a range of about 1%. It seems the market can’t get momentum in either direction.

    That doesn’t mean that nothing’s been happening. Wall Street has been worried about (in no particular order) trade, the mess in Italy, the bigger mess in Spain, the Fed, earnings and North Korea. I may have left a few things out.

    In this week’s issue, I’ll explain why I’m a little cautious going into summer. Fortunately, our Buy List continues to do well. We recently had good earnings reports from Hormel Foods and Ross Stores. Traders, however, punished the stocks in the short term. (Fine by me. Just makes ‘em cheaper!).

    But the best news came from Wabtec. The stock jumped after announcing a big merger with GE’s rail division. Wabtec is now a 20% winner for us this year. This deal is a huge opportunity for them. Later on, I’ll preview next week’s earnings report from JM Smucker. But first, let’s look at the stock market’s recent turn towards safety.

    Wall Street Turns Defensive

    Later today, the government will release the jobs report for May. Of course, this is just a guess as to what really happened. I don’t see how the government can claim to be even close to counting the number of jobs created in a month just 8.5 hours after the month ended. In Hawaii, the month ended just 2.5 hours before the jobs report came out.

    Still, the jobs report is a big deal. There’s a good chance the unemployment rate fell to a 50-year low. Yet despite better news on the jobs front, the market’s perception of the economy has changed over the past few weeks. In short, investors are less optimistic about the economy. It’s nothing to worry about, but I wanted to make sure you’re aware of what’s happening.

    Not too long ago, the futures market saw a 50-50 chance of the Fed’s raising rates four times this year. (We’ve already had one, and another is coming in two weeks.) Now, however, the chance of a fourth hike is fading fast. The Fed pretty much admitted this at its last meeting. The central bank said it has no problem with inflation running hot for a bit. I think this is the right call. Central bankers tend to overreact in the face of a little bit of inflation.

    Alongside this, the markets have become more defensive recently. Just two weeks ago, the yield on the 10-year Treasury got to 3.11%. On Thursday, it closed at 2.83%. That shows you how much people have shifted towards safer assets. The spread between the 2- and 10-year Treasuries has narrowed as well.

    This move has been mirrored in the stock market as sectors like REITs and Utilities have perked up. For the most part, these defensive sectors haven’t done that well this year. Instead, the big winners have been in Tech and Energy. That generally signals greater optimism for the economy, and, as an extension, a greater willingness to shoulder risk, so what we’re seeing is some of that trend unwind.

    Let me be clear that this doesn’t signal impending doom. Not at all. It simply means that investors are acting with greater caution, and that’s good for our type of investing. The fading need for higher rates has also dented many financial stocks. The banks tend to outperform when rates go up (or more accurately, when they’re perceived to be going up). This has given us some compelling buying opportunities.

    Some Buy List stocks that look particularly good at the moment include Signature Bank (SBNY), FactSet (FDS) and Church & Dwight (CHD). Later on, I’ll talk about Smucker (SJM). This could be our cheapest stock in the Buy List, but I want to see next week’s earnings report before I raise the flag on SJM. Now let’s take a look at two of our recent earnings reports.

    Earnings from Hormel Foods and Ross Stores

    We had two Buy List earnings reports last Thursday, May 24. Hormel Foods reported in the morning, and Ross Stores reported after the close.

    Let’s start with Hormel (HRL). Wall Street had been expecting 45 cents per share from Hormel. I said in our last issue that that was probably a bit too high. I was right, but only by a penny. For this fiscal Q2, the Spam stock earned 44 cents per share.

    I’m not too concerned about a one-penny miss. The business still looks pretty good. Bear in mind that Hormel’s profits were up 13% over last year’s Q2. I also said that I didn’t expect to see Hormel adjust its full-year earnings forecast. I was right again. They still expect to see full-year earnings between $1.81 and $1.95 per share. (Their fiscal year ends in October.) For net sales, Hormel expects $9.7 to $10.1 billion.

    Let’s look at some comments from the company:

    “Our team delivered record earnings per share of $0.44 which was in line with our expectation and keeps us on track to maintain our full year earnings guidance,” said Jim Snee, chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer. “We were particularly pleased with the bottom-line performance from Refrigerated Foods as our experienced team grew our value-added profits while navigating through volatile markets. Our balanced business model helped mitigate higher freight costs and a difficult commodity environment.”

    “We delivered record sales led by our Refrigerated Foods and International segments. Strong top-line growth from brands such as Hormel® Natural Choice® and Hormel® Bacon 1TM and international sales of products such as Skippy® peanut butter was complemented by the strategic acquisitions of Fontanini, Columbus Craft Meats, and Ceratti,” Snee said. “Our core center store portfolio of brands such as SPAM®, Dinty Moore®, and Herdez® also showed strong growth this quarter.”

    Yes, I know. It’s typical corporate boilerplate. But still, it’s true.

    By segment, their refrigerated foods group sales rose by 14%. Grocery products were down 1%. Jennie-O Turkey got clobbered. Sales fell 4%, but segment profits were down 34%. Apparently, there’s an oversupply of birds.

    Tax reform was a big help for Hormel last quarter. The effective tax rate was 20% compared with 33.2% a year ago. For its outlook, the company said:

    “We are reaffirming our sales and earnings outlook for fiscal 2018,” Snee said. “Our balanced business model allows us to manage through volatility and deliver consistent earnings growth. We continue to execute our value-added growth strategy in Refrigerated Foods and expect our retail and foodservice branded businesses to offset higher freight costs and lower pork commodity profits. Our expectation is for strong year-over-year earnings growth for International and for Grocery Products to return to its growth trajectory. While we are starting to see early signs of a recovery in the turkey industry, we expect Jennie-O Turkey Store to continue showing earnings declines for the remainder of this year.”

    Overall, the earnings report was pretty much what I had been expecting. Unfortunately, the stock dropped about 5% on the morning of the earnings report. As you know, we don’t get too worried about short-term moves. Sure enough, HRL rallied after Thursday. I’m actually lifting my Buy Below price to $37 per share. They also announced a recall of some Spam, but that seems to be a small issue relative to Hormel’s overall business.

    Ross Stores Earns $1.11 per Share for Fiscal Q1

    After the close on May 24, Ross Stores (ROST) reported fiscal Q1 adjusted earnings of $1.11 per share. Earlier, the company had projected earnings of $1.03 to $1.07 per share. They made 82 cents per share for last year’s Q1.

    There were a few accounting items to adjust for. Ross said they were helped in Q1 by 17 cents per share due to tax reform plus two cents per share thanks to “the favorable timing of packaway-related expenses that we expect to reverse in subsequent quarters.”

    Q1 sales rose 9% to $3.6 billion, and comparable-stores sales were up 3%. Ross had been expecting 1% to 2%. I knew that forecast was too low. The company said it was hurt by poor weather during the quarter. I’m usually pretty skeptical of weather as an excuse. Ross’s operating margin fell to 15.1%. That’s still pretty good.

    For fiscal Q2, Ross expects earnings of 95 to 99 cents per share. They see same-store sales growth of 1% to 2%. That’s pretty low. The good news is that Ross raised its full-year guidance. The old range was $3.86 to $4.03 per share, and the new range is $3.92 to $4.05 per share.

    Like Hormel, this report looked fine to me. Also like Hormel, Ross got hit after the report, and again, I’m not at all worried about Ross Stores. I’m raising my Buy Below to $82 per share.

    Earnings Preview for Smucker

    On Thursday, June 7, JM Smucker (SJM) will release its fiscal Q4 earnings report. This is for the months of February, March and April.

    The company had a good quarter for Q3, and thanks to tax reform, it also raised full-year guidance. The company now sees adjusted EPS for this year ranging between $8.20 and $8.30 per share. That’s a big increase from the previous guidance of $7.75 to $7.90 per share. Smucker also gave a one-time bonus of $1,000 to nearly 5,000 employees. That’s good to see. We should never forget the people who are behind the great results.

    The full-year guidance implies a Q4 range of $2.17 to $2.27 per share. Wall Street expects $2.20 per share. Either way, the stock is going for a pretty decent P/E ratio.

    Smucker has been behaving horribly for us this year, but that’s why I like it right now. I apologize for the sinking price, but these are the times when patient investors do well. SJM is a good stock. I’ll be curious to see if they have anything to say about fiscal 2019. I’ll probably lower our Buy Below next week, but I want to see the earnings first.

    Buy List Updates

    There hasn’t been much news lately for our Buy List stocks, but I wanted to pass along two items.

    The first is that Stacey Cunningham was named the first female president of the NYSE in its 226-year history. She had been the COO. The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). I’ll add what should be good news to all young people. Ms. Cunningham started out as an intern in 1994.

    But the biggest news story for us is that GE will merge their rail business with Wabtec (WAB). We knew this was coming; we just didn’t know when. The problem is that GE is in a very difficult position. Its business is not going well, so the company needs to sell off some businesses to raise cash. This places Wabtec is a good spot.

    This is a very big deal. GE will sell its business to WAB for $11 billion, and GE will stay on as a part owner. GE will get $2.9 billion in cash and own about 40% of the company. WAB shareholders will own 49.9% of the business. Both companies believe the combined entity will cut costs by $250 million per year.

    Shares of WAB got a nice bounce on this news, and it’s now our #1 performer this year. This week, I’m lifting my Buy Below on Wabtec to $102 per share.

    That’s all for now. The May jobs report will be coming out later today. On Monday, we’ll get the factory-orders report for April. The ISM non-manufacturing report comes out on Tuesday. Then on Thursday, we’ll get the latest jobless-claims report. It continues to be near a multi-decade low. Be sure to keep checking the blog for daily updates. I’ll have more market analysis for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review!

    – Eddy

    Syndication Partners

    I’ve teamed up with Investors Alley to feature some of their content. I think they have really good stuff. Check it out!

    A Super Cheap Way to Protect Yourself from Risk Overseas

    One of the questions I get a lot when I speak at events like the MoneyShow and TradersExpo is about the benefits of looking at large options trades. Large trades using options, typically called block trades, are often executed by big firms with a lot of capital and resources.

    As such, block trades can be very valuable indicators of what the smart money is doing with their time and money. Block trades can potentially show you how funds are using covered calls, what stocks have breakout potential, or even what pension funds are using to protect themselves.

    It’s true, block trades can be professional hedges or they can be speculative bets. Sometimes, it’s not all that obvious what you’re looking at. But, there are often clues. For instance, hedges tend to be long puts or long put spreads (buying a put vertical spread) in index ETFs.

    That’s not to say that there aren’t large downside bets in index ETFs which are speculative. However, those downside bets tend to be a bit more creative than outright put or put spread purchases. Index puts can be expensive, so speculative options buyers will be looking to keep costs low. On the other hand, hedges are meant strictly for protection, and many firms or funds are willing to pay up for protection (or they have no choice).

    Of course, if hedgers can find a way to protect themselves cheaply and effectively, they’ll definitely go that route. Take for example a big trade from last week in SPDR Euro Stoxx 50 ETF (NYSE: FEZ) options. Click here for more.

    3 High-Yield Income Stocks for Conservative Investors

    When it comes to income stocks, my investment strategy is aggressive. By aggressive I mean that I search out the highest yield stocks I can find where my research shows that the dividends should be secure.

    I understand that with this type of high-yield stock, even the best stock research won’t let me avoid the occasional dividend cut. For balance, my overall strategy includes owning dividend stocks that are more conservative. These are shares of companies that will sustain and grow dividends through the worst market cycles.

    You may be asking, what makes one high-yield stock safer than shares of other, comparable companies. While the business operations of each company are unique, there are certain attributes that will tell you whether the revenues and cash flow of a company could be at risk with a disruption in business conditions, such as the 2007-2008 financial crisis, or an economic recession.

    Here are the financial items you should review and understand to determine the security of dividend payments.

  • Morning News: June 1, 2018
    Posted by on June 1st, 2018 at 7:05 am

    U.S. and Brent Crude Part Ways, Leaving Market Flummoxed Over Oil Prices

    5 Things to Watch in the May Jobs Report

    Maybe the Fed Didn’t Gut the Volcker Rule After All

    U.S. Opens Criminal Probe Into Trading in Fannie, Freddie Bonds

    Google Emerges as Early Winner From Europe’s New Data Privacy Law

    California Seeks To Regulate The Internet In A Drive To Resurrect Net Neutrality

    Citi, Deutsche Face Cartel Charges in $1.9 Billion Share Sale

    Deutsche Bank’s U.S. Operations Deemed Troubled by Fed

    Samsonite CEO Packs His Bags a Week After Short-Seller Attack

    Mark Zuckerberg Hammered by Shareholders Over Scandals

    50,000 Las Vegas Workers Are Ready to Go on Strike Over Fears of Robots Taking Their Jobs

    Goldman Sachs Banker Arrested for Insider Trading

    Blue Harbinger: What Are Your Odds Of Trading Success?

    Michael Batnick: What Are Your Thoughts On?

    Howard Lindzon: How to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky)

    Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

  • Morning News: May 31, 2018
    Posted by on May 31st, 2018 at 7:14 am

    Oil Prices Steady After Big Drop on OPEC Talks

    In a First For Germany, Hamburg Bans Diesel Engines on 2 Roads

    Hong Kong’s Stock Market Is Running Short of Integrity

    Brazil Oil Worker Strike Gains Steam in Another Blow to Government

    Fed Issues Draft to Revamp Volcker Rule in Dodd-Frank

    Kinder Morgan Starts Over

    Tesla Model 3 Gets CR Recommendation After Braking Update

    Buffett Proposed $3 Billion Uber Investment But Deal Crumbled

    Amazon Geoblocks Australia From U.S. Site as Tax Change Kicks In

    What Makes This CRISPR Stock Better Than the Rest?

    Singapore Airlines Will Relaunch the World’s Longest Flight, Which Will Cover More Than 10,000 Miles and Last 19 Hours

    Joshua Brown: It Works As Advertised & The New And Improved Retirement Pyramid!

    Jeff Miller: Ignore the Employment Report Punditry!

    Ben Carlson: Animal Spirits Episode 31: Stocks Are Not Bonds

    Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

  • Morning News: May 30, 2018
    Posted by on May 30th, 2018 at 7:26 am

    A Stopgap Government in Italy

    Brazil’s Crippling Trucker Protests Enter Day 9, Despite Suggestions Of A Deal

    Canada to Buy Kinder Morgan Pipeline for $3.5 Billion

    What Does The Partial Rollback Of Dodd-Frank Mean For The Largest U.S. Banks?

    U.S. Consumer Confidence Increases, Bolstered by Labor Market

    Justice Department Approves Bayer-Monsanto Merger in Landmark Settlement

    Microsoft Just Surpassed Alphabet’s Market Cap For The First time in 3 Years and The Race To Become The First Trillion Dollar Company Is Heating Up

    Salesforce Blows Past Earnings Targets and Forecasts a Stronger-Than-Expected Year

    Digital Advertising Firm Didit Close to Acquiring Gawker.com

    ‘Digital’ License Plates Are Coming, But At A Stiff Price

    Did We Say $1.5 Million? We Meant $10.9 Million. Firms Fix CEO Pay Flubs

    The Feds Just Charged a ‘Blockchain Evangelist’ Who Raised $21 Million While Claiming to Work With Disney and Apple

    Nick Maggiulli: Easy in Theory, Difficult in Practice

    Michael Batnick: How About Now?

    Cullen Roche: Why A Euro Break-Up Doesn’t Scare Me

    Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

  • Strong Defensive Day
    Posted by on May 29th, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    If you’re ever curious if a particular stock is a “defensive” stock or not, a simple test would be to see how it did on May 29, 2018. If it beat the market, then yes, it’s very likely a defensive stock.

    The stock market took a tumble today thanks to worries about Italy. The Dow is currently off about 400 points. Most of the damage has spared defensive stocks. By this, I mean sectors like REITs, Utes and Consumer Staples. Hormel is actually up today.