After a fantastic year of gains in 2021, this year couldn’t have started out any worse.
First, rising inflation (40-year high), spooked the market.
Then the war on Ukraine, which exacerbated already high energy prices, weighed on stocks even more.
High inflation, of course, has prompted the Fed to raise rates (they hiked rates by 25 basis points in March, and then another 50 basis points on May 4th). And they have foreshadowed the likelihood of another 50 basis points at each of the next two FOMC meetings in June and July, before ultimately getting to a target of 1.9% by year’s end.
While the increase in rates will help tamp down inflation, which will benefit the economy, there’s a fear that increasing rates too high and too fast could cause a recession.
Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, just a couple of days ago, after remarking how strong the economy is, said there’s “nothing about it that says we’re close or vulnerable to a recession.”
Nonetheless, those fears persist, hence the sell-off.
But it should be noted that over the last 50 years, there’s never been a recession (aside from 2020’s pandemic-induced plunge), when the Fed Funds rate was under 4%.
So with officials pegging rates at 1.9% this year, and 2.8% next year, with no further rate hikes in 2024, we’ll still be a long way from 4%.
That being said, the market has been tough.
Even so, there are plenty of investors beating the market.
But too many are underperforming.
One of the reasons why so many people are not seeing the kinds of returns they want is because they don’t know of new stocks to get into. They find themselves in mediocre stocks because they don’t know of anything better instead.
I think for some, their knowledge or ‘universe’ of familiar stocks is relatively small and this limits their opportunity of getting into better ones.
Underperformers
More than half of the companies in the S&P are beating the index, with more than a third of the companies showing positive returns this year.
But that means nearly half of the stocks in the S&P are underperforming the Index, with roughly two thirds showing a negative return.
Even ‘good’ companies like Starbucks; they’re down -30.2%. Or Meta Platforms (i.e., Facebook); which is down -33.6%. Or Netflix; down -66.1%. So what gives?
I don’t single these out so you can feel bad if you have them. But instead, to stop and think about ‘why’ you have them.
Nobody invests so they can underperform the market. But if you are – why? You don’t have to. If you’re underperforming the market, that means you have more of these types of laggards in your portfolio than leaders.
How the Other Half Lives
Of course, there are a lot of big names beating the S&P too. Take Kroger, or Lockheed Martin, or Chevron for example. All are outperforming the S&P with gains of +23%, +25% and +42% respectively.
But now let’s move outside of the S&P.
Did you ever hear of a company called Vermilion? What if you did? It has outperformed the market by gaining +73.2% since the start of the year. Or Kosmos? They’re up +115.3%. Or Alpha Metallurgical? Up by +167%. (By the way, these are all Zacks Rank #1 stocks.)
There are hundreds and hundreds of stocks producing fantastic gains that many people may never have even heard of.
What about you? How many times have you heard about a stock or read about a stock that skyrocketed -- only to think to yourself; “if only I knew about that stock ahead of time, I would have been in that.”
Continued . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Look Inside All Zacks’ Private Portfolios. Only $1
Through good markets and bad, one unique stock-picking method has more than doubled the market’s average gain with an incredible +25.1% per year. A $10,000 investment in 1988 could have grown to $20 million today.
By closely tracking the most influential force impacting stock prices, the Zacks Rank has arguably become the most powerful predictive tool in the investing world.
Starting today, we’ll open the vault for one month so you can see all our real-time buys and sells. Total cost $1, and not a cent of further obligation.
Special opportunity ends at midnight Sunday, May 8.
See Stocks Now >>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expand Your Universe and Pick Better Stocks
Increasing your knowledge and awareness of new and better stocks is easier than you think. And you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
For example, did you know that stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buy have beaten the market in 28 of the last 34 years (an 82% win ratio), with an average annual return of 25% per year? That's more than 2 x the S&P. And consistently beating the market year after year can add up to a lot more than just two times the returns.
And did you know that stocks in the top 50% of Zacks Ranked Industries outperform those in the bottom 50% by a factor of 2 to 1? There's a reason why they say that half of a stock's price movement can be attributed to the group that it's in. Because it's true!
Those two things will give any investor a huge probability of success and put you well on your way to beating the market.
But you’re not there yet, as those two items alone will only narrow down a field of 10,000 stocks to the top 100 or so. Way too many to trade at once.
So the next step is to get that list down to the best 5-10 stocks that you can buy.
Stock Picking Secrets of the Pros
One of the best ways to begin picking better stocks is to see what the pros are doing – the pros who use these methods to select the best stocks to buy.
Whether you’re a growth investor, or a value investor, prefer fast-paced momentum stocks, or mature dividend-paying income stocks, there are certain rules the experts follow to maximize their gains.
This applies to large-caps and small-caps, biotech and high-tech, ETF’s, stocks under $10, stocks about to surprise, even options, and everything in between.
Regardless of which one fits your personal style of trade, just be sure you’re following proven profitable methods that work, from experts who have demonstrated their ability to beat the market.
The best part about these strategies is that all of the hard work is done for you. There’s no guesswork involved. Just follow the experts and start getting into better stocks on your very next trade.
New Market Leaders
For most of us, our investments are the largest, most important chunk of money we’ll ever be responsible for in our entire life.
And if it isn’t now, it likely will be one day.
The leaders in the past (stock names we’re all too familiar with), will likely not be the leaders in the future.
But you can stay ahead of the pack by following some simple rules and methods that have proven to work.
And don’t be afraid to consider a stock you may never have heard of before. There was a time when some of the best stocks in your portfolio today, were brand new to you before you bought them. And now they’re one of your top performers.
The next time you read about or hear about a stock that’s skyrocketed in price; instead of thinking, ‘I could have been in that had I known about it’ – wouldn’t it be great to say, “I’m in it!”
Here’s an Easy Way to Start
I want to show you every stock we recommend in our private portfolios for the next 30 days. This is your invitation to an experience we call Zacks Ultimate.
Total cost? Only $1, no strings attached. I’m not kidding.
Check out our value stocks. Insider trades (the legal kind). Home run moves with triple-digit potential. Simple options plays. Income investments. Tech breakthroughs. And more.
The $1 Zacks Ultimate experience delivers picks to fit every investing style. If you’re not sure which types of investments are best for you, Zacks Ultimate can help you find out.
Our track record speaks for itself. Our recent recommendations include closed gains of +334.8% in Healthcare Innovators, +92.9% in Blockchain Innovators, +114.4% in Surprise Trader, and even +995.2% in Stocks Under $10.¹
Get started now and you’ll receive a special bonus. We’ve released our Ultimate Four Special Report.
Of all the stocks we recommend, these four have been selected to have the greatest upside and highest probability of success for Q2 2022.
Each has strong fundamentals and exceptional growth potential. Each is ideally suited to soar in current trading conditions.
Don’t miss this chance to be one of the early birds to catch these promising recommendations. The opportunity to download Ultimate Four ends at midnight Sunday, May 8.
Start Zacks Ultimate and see our Ultimate Four stocks now >>
Thanks and good trading,
Kevin
Kevin Matras serves as Executive Vice President of Zacks.com and is responsible for all of its leading products for individual investors. He invites you to start our see-all Zacks Ultimate $1 experience and download the just-released Ultimate Four Special Report today.
¹ The results listed above are not (or may not be) representative of the performance of all selections made by Zacks Investment Research's newsletter editors and may represent the partial close of a position.
Image: Bigstock
You Can Beat The Market, Even In Times Like This
After a fantastic year of gains in 2021, this year couldn’t have started out any worse.
First, rising inflation (40-year high), spooked the market.
Then the war on Ukraine, which exacerbated already high energy prices, weighed on stocks even more.
High inflation, of course, has prompted the Fed to raise rates (they hiked rates by 25 basis points in March, and then another 50 basis points on May 4th). And they have foreshadowed the likelihood of another 50 basis points at each of the next two FOMC meetings in June and July, before ultimately getting to a target of 1.9% by year’s end.
While the increase in rates will help tamp down inflation, which will benefit the economy, there’s a fear that increasing rates too high and too fast could cause a recession.
Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, just a couple of days ago, after remarking how strong the economy is, said there’s “nothing about it that says we’re close or vulnerable to a recession.”
Nonetheless, those fears persist, hence the sell-off.
But it should be noted that over the last 50 years, there’s never been a recession (aside from 2020’s pandemic-induced plunge), when the Fed Funds rate was under 4%.
So with officials pegging rates at 1.9% this year, and 2.8% next year, with no further rate hikes in 2024, we’ll still be a long way from 4%.
That being said, the market has been tough.
Even so, there are plenty of investors beating the market.
But too many are underperforming.
One of the reasons why so many people are not seeing the kinds of returns they want is because they don’t know of new stocks to get into. They find themselves in mediocre stocks because they don’t know of anything better instead.
I think for some, their knowledge or ‘universe’ of familiar stocks is relatively small and this limits their opportunity of getting into better ones.
Underperformers
More than half of the companies in the S&P are beating the index, with more than a third of the companies showing positive returns this year.
But that means nearly half of the stocks in the S&P are underperforming the Index, with roughly two thirds showing a negative return.
Even ‘good’ companies like Starbucks; they’re down -30.2%. Or Meta Platforms (i.e., Facebook); which is down -33.6%. Or Netflix; down -66.1%. So what gives?
I don’t single these out so you can feel bad if you have them. But instead, to stop and think about ‘why’ you have them.
Nobody invests so they can underperform the market. But if you are – why? You don’t have to. If you’re underperforming the market, that means you have more of these types of laggards in your portfolio than leaders.
How the Other Half Lives
Of course, there are a lot of big names beating the S&P too. Take Kroger, or Lockheed Martin, or Chevron for example. All are outperforming the S&P with gains of +23%, +25% and +42% respectively.
But now let’s move outside of the S&P.
Did you ever hear of a company called Vermilion? What if you did? It has outperformed the market by gaining +73.2% since the start of the year. Or Kosmos? They’re up +115.3%. Or Alpha Metallurgical? Up by +167%. (By the way, these are all Zacks Rank #1 stocks.)
There are hundreds and hundreds of stocks producing fantastic gains that many people may never have even heard of.
What about you? How many times have you heard about a stock or read about a stock that skyrocketed -- only to think to yourself; “if only I knew about that stock ahead of time, I would have been in that.”
Continued . . .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Look Inside All Zacks’ Private Portfolios. Only $1
Through good markets and bad, one unique stock-picking method has more than doubled the market’s average gain with an incredible +25.1% per year. A $10,000 investment in 1988 could have grown to $20 million today.
By closely tracking the most influential force impacting stock prices, the Zacks Rank has arguably become the most powerful predictive tool in the investing world.
Starting today, we’ll open the vault for one month so you can see all our real-time buys and sells. Total cost $1, and not a cent of further obligation.
Special opportunity ends at midnight Sunday, May 8.
See Stocks Now >>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expand Your Universe and Pick Better Stocks
Increasing your knowledge and awareness of new and better stocks is easier than you think. And you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
For example, did you know that stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buy have beaten the market in 28 of the last 34 years (an 82% win ratio), with an average annual return of 25% per year? That's more than 2 x the S&P. And consistently beating the market year after year can add up to a lot more than just two times the returns.
And did you know that stocks in the top 50% of Zacks Ranked Industries outperform those in the bottom 50% by a factor of 2 to 1? There's a reason why they say that half of a stock's price movement can be attributed to the group that it's in. Because it's true!
Those two things will give any investor a huge probability of success and put you well on your way to beating the market.
But you’re not there yet, as those two items alone will only narrow down a field of 10,000 stocks to the top 100 or so. Way too many to trade at once.
So the next step is to get that list down to the best 5-10 stocks that you can buy.
Stock Picking Secrets of the Pros
One of the best ways to begin picking better stocks is to see what the pros are doing – the pros who use these methods to select the best stocks to buy.
Whether you’re a growth investor, or a value investor, prefer fast-paced momentum stocks, or mature dividend-paying income stocks, there are certain rules the experts follow to maximize their gains.
This applies to large-caps and small-caps, biotech and high-tech, ETF’s, stocks under $10, stocks about to surprise, even options, and everything in between.
Regardless of which one fits your personal style of trade, just be sure you’re following proven profitable methods that work, from experts who have demonstrated their ability to beat the market.
The best part about these strategies is that all of the hard work is done for you. There’s no guesswork involved. Just follow the experts and start getting into better stocks on your very next trade.
New Market Leaders
For most of us, our investments are the largest, most important chunk of money we’ll ever be responsible for in our entire life.
And if it isn’t now, it likely will be one day.
The leaders in the past (stock names we’re all too familiar with), will likely not be the leaders in the future.
But you can stay ahead of the pack by following some simple rules and methods that have proven to work.
And don’t be afraid to consider a stock you may never have heard of before. There was a time when some of the best stocks in your portfolio today, were brand new to you before you bought them. And now they’re one of your top performers.
The next time you read about or hear about a stock that’s skyrocketed in price; instead of thinking, ‘I could have been in that had I known about it’ – wouldn’t it be great to say, “I’m in it!”
Here’s an Easy Way to Start
I want to show you every stock we recommend in our private portfolios for the next 30 days. This is your invitation to an experience we call Zacks Ultimate.
Total cost? Only $1, no strings attached. I’m not kidding.
Check out our value stocks. Insider trades (the legal kind). Home run moves with triple-digit potential. Simple options plays. Income investments. Tech breakthroughs. And more.
The $1 Zacks Ultimate experience delivers picks to fit every investing style. If you’re not sure which types of investments are best for you, Zacks Ultimate can help you find out.
Our track record speaks for itself. Our recent recommendations include closed gains of +334.8% in Healthcare Innovators, +92.9% in Blockchain Innovators, +114.4% in Surprise Trader, and even +995.2% in Stocks Under $10.¹
Get started now and you’ll receive a special bonus. We’ve released our Ultimate Four Special Report.
Of all the stocks we recommend, these four have been selected to have the greatest upside and highest probability of success for Q2 2022.
Each has strong fundamentals and exceptional growth potential. Each is ideally suited to soar in current trading conditions.
Don’t miss this chance to be one of the early birds to catch these promising recommendations. The opportunity to download Ultimate Four ends at midnight Sunday, May 8.
Start Zacks Ultimate and see our Ultimate Four stocks now >>
Thanks and good trading,
Kevin
Kevin Matras serves as Executive Vice President of Zacks.com and is responsible for all of its leading products for individual investors. He invites you to start our see-all Zacks Ultimate $1 experience and download the just-released Ultimate Four Special Report today.
¹ The results listed above are not (or may not be) representative of the performance of all selections made by Zacks Investment Research's newsletter editors and may represent the partial close of a position.