January 4, 2024
By Peter Bower
Just as the Bull and his partners anticipated, the year started with a sell-off. Profit-taking started right away from last year’s big winners. Once the selling gained momentum, many more stocks were pulled down too. However, what have held up or even risen are companies that no one seemed to be interested in last year. In the frenzy for growth, good solid companies paying good dividends were shunned – dispossessed.
Now with all the new uncertainties in the year ahead, they seem like a safer place to be. So far, things are playing out as expected. How long this phase will last is difficult to tell, but clearly a changing of leadership in the stock market is taking place rapidly. Energy, utilities, and healthcare companies have rapidly emerged as the new winners. These are sometimes referred to as safe-haven stocks – lifeboats in a storm.
Toward the end of last year, conventional wisdom decreed that our economy would escape the long-forecasted recession. That might just be too easy. We might yet have a growth scare. Don’t believe it; the economy has good momentum and plenty of additional government support to keep growing. A growing economy leads to plenty of opportunities in the financial markets. They just may be in some recently unloved areas. Stay tuned and stay steady my friends.
The Lonely Bull
