Stocks may have cooled off a bit from last week’s breakneck pace, but the major indices are still managing to set new records almost daily. In addition, they head into Friday’s session with gains for the week.
The NASDAQ was back in the lead on Thursday by climbing 0.38% (or about 53 points) to 14025.77. Meanwhile, the S&P returned to the plus side for the first time since Monday with a rise of 0.17% to 3916.38.
Both of these indices are back at all-time highs.
The Dow was all by itself in record territory on Wednesday, but that didn’t last for long. The index still only slipped by 0.2% (or about 7 points) to 31430.70.
Today’s jobless claims report was a mixed bag, as approximately 793,000 filed claims last week. On the one hand, the result is better than the previous week’s upwardly revised total of more than 800K. On the other hand though, the print missed estimates, which snapped three straight weeks of better-than-expected results.
This was the latest bit of jobs data that suggests the economy is still stuck in a pandemic limbo despite the vaccine rollout and a decline in cases of late. The market sees this as yet another reason that stimulus is needed, which was highlighted yesterday by Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
He also said that the Committee would be “patiently accommodative” with monetary policy until job and inflation goals have been achieved. Mr. Powell continued that we’re still “a long way” from where employment needs to be, which seems to have been reinforced by today’s claims data.
The NASDAQ is up 1.2% for the week heading into tomorrow, while the Dow and S&P have risen 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively. Those are very solid advances, but they do pale in comparison to last week at this time when the indices were each up by well over 3.5%. Let’s see how things end up tomorrow...
Today's Portfolio Highlights:
Insider Trader: Insider buying is picking up pace... and so too is the buying in this portfolio. But first, Tracey needed to make some room. Today, she sold four names, including Hanesbrands (NYSE:HBI) for a 35.5% return in less than three months. Shares of this apparel company really took off after its quarterly report, and now it's time to cash in. The other sells were Coeur Mining (NYSE:CDE, +8.5%), Corporate Office (OFC, +3.3%) and Jack Henry (JKHY). The three new buys are:
• Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) – a building products company with four directors recently buying
• UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) – a health care services giant with one insider buying 1500 shares last week
• MannKind (NASDAQ:MNKD) – a small-cap drug company with three insiders buying late last month
The editor has plenty of cash on hand, so she’s putting 10% into each position. Tracey will be spending the rest of the cash soon since the insiders are starting to “wake up”. Read the full write-up for more specifics on all of today’s moves.
Surprise Trader: Generating energy from waste is a fantastic idea, but can it also generate cash? Dave thinks that Covanta (CVA) can, as evidenced by this Energy-from-Waste (EfW) company beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate in four out of the last five quarters. In fact, it topped by 233% last time. And now CVA has a positive Earnings ESP of 1300% for the quarter coming after the bell on Thursday, February 18. The editor added CVA today with an 11% allocation, while also selling the struggling Belden (NYSE:BDC) position. Read the full write-up for more on today’s moves.
Technology Innovators: Yesterday, this portfolio took a couple double-digit profits off the table, and today Brian filled one of those open spots by adding Avid Tech (AVID). This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) develops, markets, sells and supports a wide range of software and systems for creating and manipulating digital media content. The company has beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the past two quarters, including a surprise of 1300% in the quarter before last. Earnings expectations for 2020 are steady at 64 cents, but analysts see growth to 99 cents in 2021. Furthermore, estimates for the latter year have improved from 95 cents in the past 60 days, which is the kind of movement Brian likes to see. Get more specifics on this new addition in the complete commentary.
Blockchain Innovators: This portfolio had the top two performers of the day... and both were double-digit winners. The strong results came from Alpha and Omega (NASDAQ:AOSL) Semiconductor (AOSL, +17.9%) and Rekor Systems (NASDAQ:REKR, +16.4%). By the way, this service also has a couple of top performers over the past 30 days, including Exp World Holdings (EXPI, +93.2%) and iClick Interactive Asia Group (ICLK, +88.3%).
Until Tomorrow,
Jim Giaquinto
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