Category: INO.com Contributors

Here's Why Stocks Rallied Last Week

Posted on by Wayne Burritt

I don't know about you, but right now, I'm breathing a little sigh of relief.

And with good reason. Finally last week, we got some good news out of stock market action. And pretty much across the board, the news was positive. Here’s what I mean:

Stock

Source

As you can see from this set of multiple weekly charts, stocks booked some decent action last week. In fact, the Dow was up 6.2% for the week. Meanwhile, the S&P 500, a good proxy for the broader stock market, was up 6.6%. Also, last week, the Nasdaq was up 6.8%, and the Russell 2000, a good indicator of what all stocks are doing, was up 6.5%.

You have to admit that's broad positive action across all equity asset classes. And it's welcome news considering what the markets have been up to over the past two months. Continue reading "Here's Why Stocks Rallied Last Week" →

Strong Jobs Report Supports Continued Monetary Tightening

Posted on by The INO.com Team

A Bloomberg survey of economists indicated that the medium estimate for jobs added in May would show that approximately 318,000 new jobs were added. Additionally, the survey also predicted that the unemployment rate would fall to 3.5%. A Wall Street Journal survey of economists forecasted that employers would add 328,000 jobs in May. The survey also anticipated that the unemployment rate would fall to 3.5%. Both surveys underestimated both the number of jobs added in May 2022 and the unemployment rate.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest jobs report, which said, “Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 390,000 in May, and the unemployment rate remained at 3.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, and in transportation and warehousing. Employment in retail trade declined.” Continue reading "Strong Jobs Report Supports Continued Monetary Tightening" →

EU Cuts Off Russian Oil Making These ETFs Top Buys

Posted on by Matt Thalman

When the European Union voted to cut off Russian crude on May 31st, it was essentially a green light to buy oil stocks and, thus, a number of oil-focused ETFs. But before we dig into a few options that you should look at, let's talk about why this move is good for the oil industry and not necessarily your wallet.

The European Union voted to ban nearly all Russian oil from entering Europe. The details of the agreement essentially cut Russian oil imports into Europe by 90% over the next six months. The 27-country bloc relies on Russian oil for roughly 25% of what they consume. The ban directly applies to Russian oil that is delivered by sea, which means landlocked countries and Hungary, which receive the oil via pipelines, will still be permitted to access the commodity.

The goal of these sanctions is to cripple the Russian economy and force them to stop the war in Ukraine; however, Russia has already stated that they have other buyers of their oil in Asia, particularly China and India. Many believe Russia will be able to sell its oil to other countries but at a discount. Which will hurt Russia but may not have as much of an effect as the EU and other allied countries would like to see. Continue reading "EU Cuts Off Russian Oil Making These ETFs Top Buys" →

Three Silver Miners On The Sale Rack

Posted on by Taylor Dart

While the gold price has managed to hold onto most of its Q1 gains amid the market turmoil, the silver price has not fared nearly as well. In fact, the metal is sitting at a (-) 5% year-to-date return after briefly being up 16% for the year at its March highs. This retracement in the silver price has put a severe dent in margins for silver producers, explaining why the silver miners have significantly underperformed the metal. However, with the Silver Miners Index (SIL) now down nearly 50% from its Q3 2020 highs, this negativity related to weaker margins looks to be mostly priced in, suggesting it’s time for investors to be open-minded to a bottom in the higher-quality names. Let's take a look at a few of the top names sector-wide below:

Silver Daily Chart

Source: TC2000.com

Many investors prefer to invest in SIL or the physical metal when it comes to gaining exposure to silver, but neither the ETF nor metal pay dividends and the former is full of poorly run companies with razor-thin margins. For this reason, investing in SIL is even worse than investing in the Gold Miners Index (GDX), where at least the latter has a decent portion of solid companies which balance out the laggards. Given the low quality of SIL, the best way to invest in silver is by selecting the best names sector-wide, and three names that stand out are Continue reading "Three Silver Miners On The Sale Rack" →

It's Time To Arm Your Portfolio

Posted on by Peter Tsimicalis

Today, in 2022, there are 27 ongoing armed interstate and civil conflicts occurring; while there is a moral and ethical perspective to be had while analyzing the state of military affairs in the world, there is also an economic one. Fun fact: It costs $100,000 per year to maintain each soldier within the United States Armed Forces, and this number will only continue to increase as the push from the supply side and pull from the demand side increase this input. As it is already a fact that inflation and the commodity price rally have pushed costs higher from the supply side, one can make a good bet on the fact that the need for armaments will also increase as the volume and magnitude of conflicts grow.

In this arena, a name stands out from the rest...

The Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) is one of the largest defense contractors in the world. Some of their recent notable projects include; the F-35 Lightning 2, the F-22 Raptor, and the Stalker VXE Unmanned Aerial System. Their subsidiaries include helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky, R&D agency Zeta Associates, & technical services provider Sytex inc. Lockheed Martin is one of the few contractors trusted by the US armed forces and NASA, as it, through the Skunk Works division, has been working on black projects for the US armed forces since World War Two. Some of their previous successes include the SR-71 Blackbird and the U-2 Spy Plane. Continue reading "It's Time To Arm Your Portfolio" →