It's definitely summer time and the markets are making up their mind as to where they want to go. We're definitely looking at a drop going into Labor Day, and then post Labor Day we'll see the yearly "Post Labor Day Pop" upward followed by a hard sell off.
There are a few stocks such as GRMN and NVDIA that have historically trended up in August, but the charts are dictating otherwise. Once again, market uncertainty reigns.
The US economy is showing signs of uncertainty as well. Corporations are keeping more cash than in the past, reportedly as a result of "scars" from the recession. Several companies also are reluctant to hire employees to fill empty positions. It was reported that US home sales, factory orders, and consumer spending are weaker than estimated. On a positive side, Exports have grown this year, but YTD have missed their estimated rate of growth by 0.1%.
Despite all of this uncertainty, corporate earnings continue to be strong. Many corporations are maintaining strong profits, and many are growing even in this uncertain climate. If I were a long term investor, I would definitely be loading up on stocks of strong companies with a weak stock price (GE, IBM, GOOG, etc).
Finally, of the stocks I watch, NVDA reports earnings on August 12th and SHLD reports earnings on August 19th. Both of these stocks historically head up going into their earnings reports.
No comments:
Post a Comment