Sector Views: Monthly Stock Sector Outlook

We left our sector ratings unchanged for February. Communication Services, Industrials and Health Care remain Outperform, based on their generally solid fundamentals and potential ability of the first two to benefit from artificial intelligence adoption. Consumer Discretionary, Real Estate, and Utilities remain Underperform, based partly on the pockets of consumer stress we're seeing, especially among lower-income consumers, as well as challenging fundamentals (such as a mixed outlook for the office sector).

Do you have or is there a stock market ping list? What should I write in the Search bar to find good info?

Point to consider: Ukraine and Russia will be unable to have their usual large crops for world distribution. Between severe drought and warfare, both will under produce for the world market. Good year and this month to start putting in a Victory Garden or have large pots on your balconies or terraces. Diana in Wisconsin maintains a Garden ping list.

As I think any rational and proper retail investor should be - the overwhelming proportion of my portfolio is pretty boring index-based ETFs and the name of the game is to think longterm, don’t time, don’t panic (or irrationally exuberate).

I’m no fund manager.

But I do like to tinker with some individual equity investments - and I generally use these sorts of broad outlook pronouncements not to chase the near-term winners, but rather, to track and do a bit of bargain hunting in the underperform segments for potential bargains.

Not gonna make me a billionaire; the rare 10 baggers are usually a combination of luck and sweat.... but I think the successful retail investor is wise to seek good value at low prices and be satisfied with simply eking out some overperform *over the multiyear term*.

the financial “geniuses” at schwab don’t know anything more than anyone else who bothers to keep up with the news ...

Schwab makes money whether people buy or sell and regardless of what the buy or sell ... ask yourself: “how many schwab employees have become fabulously wealthy by following their own advice”?

don’t get me wrong, schwab is a GREAT financial outfit to use for buying, selling and holding your financial securities, but i do get a kick out of their complaints that my portfolio is not “balanced” ... it’s not balanced because i went all in on energy stocks when the bottom fell out of the market early in the covid panic when the market was giving away valuable companies ... since then, my oil stocks have increased in value by a factor of four AND still throw off great dividends ... you don’t get rich with “balanced” portfolios, but you do get rich if you recognize once in a lifetime opportunities and act boldly, namely when everyone else is panic-selling, you buy, and when everyone else is frenzy-buying, either sit tight or sell ...

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