Stocks to Keep an Eye on Following Memorial Weekend

Every year, on the last Monday of May, the United States honors its heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the United States Armed Forces. And how does a nation celebrate its martyrs who fell defending the core principles of liberty, democracy, and free markets? You guessed it; by exercising the freedom to choose and lead the good life.

Moreover, with the long weekend coinciding with the onset of summer, most Americans look forward to spending time outdoors. And that can only mean one thing: increased consumption. Think camping, cookouts, weekend trips, and home improvement projects.

All that activity translates to increased expenditure for businesses in relevant categories. A few have historically witnessed boosted top-line performance and an uptrend in stock prices at this time of the year.

Moreover, with still enough pent-up demand from the pandemic to go by and a jump of 0.8% in spending in April, with personal consumption expenditure beating estimates to rise 0.4% for the month despite 10 consecutive interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, history seems more than likely to rhyme, if not repeat itself.

Here are a few stocks that could benefit from the holiday tailwind.

Tesla, Inc. (TSLA)

The global e-mobility pioneer’s automotive segment includes the design, development, manufacturing, sales, and leasing of electric vehicles as well as sales of automotive regulatory credits.

Although the company has recently increased the price of the vehicles in the U.S., China, Canada, and Japan, they remain lower than at the start of the year due to several rounds of price cuts worldwide.

In the recent earnings call, TSLA’s maverick CEO Elon Musk signaled that the automaker will be targeting larger volumes of sales versus higher margins but said he expects the company “over time will be able to generate significant profit through autonomy.”

Moreover, since TSLA’s energy generation and storage segment includes the design, manufacture, installation, sales, and leasing of solar energy generation and energy storage products such as the Solar Roof and Powerwall, the stock could also be a home-improvement play this Memorial Day.

In 2022, TSLA’s price return during the fortnight around Memorial Day amounted to 4.3%, compared to 3.4% for the S&P 500.
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