The GMD Commentary: Sunday, December 3, 2017

The Global Macro Digest ® Week in Review:

Other than the Nasdaq, it was another good week for U.S. stocks.

U.S.:

DJIA UP 2.86%

Nasdaq DOWN -.60%

S&P500 UP 1.53%

#Banking and other #financial services stocks have been doing very well lately.  In addition, defense and aerospace industry stocks have risen, although not generally as much as financial services companies.  Financial services companies benefit from a rising interest rate environment such as we are in now.  As a result, one of the two companies that I added this week to my list of featured stocks for your consideration is a financial services company.

Among those industry groups that have been laggards are precious metals and mining. This group has been struggling for many months.  In addition, healthcare stocks, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals have done poorly.  Of course, there are exceptions.  Some individual stocks in these industry groups have performed quite respectably, but generally they have not done well.

Energy:

Oil prices have been trending upward over the past few weeks. Nevertheless, oil prices slipped this past week. Both Brent North Sea and West Texas Intermediate were DOWN -.20% and DOWN -1.00% respectively.

Shares of some energy companies have begun to rise in response to rising crude prices.

Overseas:

Japan’s Nikkei rose on the week. Meanwhile, other overseas markets had a difficult time.

The Nikkei was UP 1.19% this week.

The Shanghai Composite was DOWN -1.19%

Hang Seng DOWN -2.65%

Germany’s DAX DOWN -1.52%

FTSE 100 DOWN -1.47%

#China bears special watching.  The Shanghai Composite Index has recorded losses in nine of the past twelve weeks.  Total losses over this period have not been that great, but there does seem to be a negative pattern developing.  I am going to monitor this closely.  Also, you can expect to see relevant articles posted on my website and on my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn fan pages.

Hong Kong has performed better over this period, even though it was down this week.

The Global Macro Digest ® Featured Stocks:

In the U.S., Wednesday was a difficult day for the Nasdaq. There was a report that one analyst expects semiconductor prices to soften. As a result, semiconductor stocks fell sharply. Some would say that the market overreacted.  All the analyst said was that we cannot expect 2018 to be as good as 2017.  But that was enough to set off a stampede which dragged down the entire Nasdaq. The Nasdaq fell 1.27% on Wednesday, recovered somewhat on Thursday (UP .73%), but then slipped more on Friday (DOWN -.38%). I have linked a relevant article here.

Last week I featured four stocks:

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MRVL)

Micron Technology (MU)

EPAM Systems (EPAM)

WNS (Holdings) Limited (WNS)

They all had a difficult week.  Nevertheless, I am not ready to abandon these stocks. They have excellent growth prospects and very respectable analysts’ ratings.  Even so, I will have my stop losses in place and I hope that you do to.  Most important, I do not have tolerance for losses.

In addition, I am going to add two stocks, one from the financial services sector:

MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG)

Westlake Chemical Corporation (WLK)

Finally, there are articles on my website and on my Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook pages that discuss all of these companies.

Remember: DYOD. Do your own due diligence.

Special Note: The Disclaimers and Disclosures are an essential part of this Commentary. Be sure to read Disclaimers and Disclosures which are linked here.

And be sure to visit The Global Macro Digest ® Main Page for many articles that I hope you find interesting. And feel free to contact me directly at GlobalMacroDigest@yahoo.com.

Follow me on Twitter for timely alerts: @DigestMacro.

Copyright 2017 by The Global Macro Digest. © All rights reserved.

Related

JOIN THE DISCUSSION