My latest presentation; Tech stocks lead market; Why we remain constructive; Ted Weschler's letter; World wife carrying championship
1) A major story is about to go from "behind the scenes" to "center stage" in the U.S...
And for a very brief window of time, you have an opportunity to get your money into position before this point of mass awareness.
It all has to do with a secretive government initiative that has sweeping implications for our everyday lives, U.S. national security, and even our country's future as a superpower.
This initiative involves an absolutely critical industry currently worth more than $4.5 trillion per year – but it's projected to reach nearly $10 trillion per year within the next decade.
Watch my brand-new presentation on the whole thing – with the details on the exact steps to take to get your money in position to take advantage – right here.
2) The S&P 500 fell 4.9% last month... but it's still up 11.7% year to date.
As you can see in the chart below, the index's gains have been almost entirely driven by the largest 50 stocks – especially tech stocks (the QQQ is shown in the chart) – while the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index and the S&P Small-Cap Index are both roughly flat this year...
Fortunately for our subscribers, after last year's bloodbath among tech stocks, we saw that many were ripe for a rebound and pounded the table on the tech giants – writing the following to Empire Financial Partnership members in a monthly e-mail on November 7:
We're particularly bullish on tech giants, which have, on average, been cut in half and collectively lost nearly $5 trillion in market capitalization from their peaks, as this table shows:
These are seven of the greatest businesses of all time, which you can now buy for far less than investors were enthusiastically paying roughly a year ago. As a group, we think they will far outperform the S&P 500 going forward.
Since that day, these seven stocks have indeed far outperformed the S&P 500... led by our favorite, Meta Platforms (META), which has more than tripled:
Meta, Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Netflix (NFLX) remain open recommendations in Empire Stock Investor... and we're also holding the first three in Empire Investment Report.
Even after their big runs this year, we have no interest in selling any of them... but we're definitely looking for new opportunities among smaller stocks and/or those in out-of-favor sectors.
When it comes to stocks to buy, right now you can get lifetime access to Empire Stock Investor – and lifetime access to two more of our publications – and choose to have lifetime access to Empire Investment Report by joining our Empire Junior Partnership... It's an incredible deal for getting access our research here at Empire.
Learn more about it by clicking here.
3) Looking ahead, we continue to be constructive on stocks for the rest of the year for two main reasons...
First, as I have discussed many times in previous daily e-mails, the economy remains quite strong, with robust GDP and corporate profit growth and unemployment near all-time lows.
Second, inflation continues to trend in the right direction. The U.S. core PCE price index – the U.S. Federal Reserve's preferred gauge to measure inflation – continues to fall, rising by only 3.9% in August 2023. That's the least since May 2021, and in line with market expectations:
As a result, investors are currently pricing in an 82% likelihood that the Fed again holds interest rates steady at its next meeting. We believe, in fact, that the Fed is finished raising rates... and that once investors realize this, stocks will take another leg higher.
And if we're wrong and the Fed does raise rates – which could pressure stocks – it will likely be because the economy is even stronger than we expect, which is almost always good news for stocks over the longer term.
In summary, while it's not a pound-the-table buying environment, our macro outlook is moderately favorable... so we're focusing on good stock picking.
4) This is super interesting – a letter from Ted Weschler, one of two people Warren Buffett picked as his successors to manage Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK-B) stock portfolio, explaining how he turned $70,385 in 1989 into $264.4 million today, solely through good stock picking:
5) On my wife's birthday today, this cracked me up...
I have begged Susan to do this with me (video clip here), but so far to no avail!
Best regards,
Whitney
P.S. I welcome your feedback at WTDfeedback@empirefinancialresearch.com.