November 21:

As long as interest rates remain low and the economy is fundamentally sound and growing, nothing of note is likely to cause overly significant market instability. Because equity values are generally stretched, individual stocks and sector oriented funds are the best bet. That said, consider the following stocks for growth: WIRE, DQ, PDCE, BLDR, DFIN, and MC. For dividends and growth: CTRA, GLP, HESM, NEWT, PSX, and XOM. The hottest sector oriented funds over the last 3 months are: XSD, PSI, SMH, SOXX, and FTXL.

Don’t expect the infrastructure bill passage to do more than marginally contribute to market tailwinds. Inflation should start to taper soon and because it is a supply-side problem, nothing the FED can do will help much. Worse, the FED could be increasing the future risk of stagflation once it begins raising short-term rates. In the meantime, things appear relatively benign. Good investing!

November 27:

New Covid variant suddenly changes things. The impact should be less than the first go-around, at least one would hope. This is because a new vaccine turn-a-round should be much faster now. Looks more like Covid variants are becoming like flu variants. Markets have gotten used to the flu.