Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 1.15.21 (plus Bank of America's Top Stock Picks)

Below is the weekly summation, the main positive being that, as of Wednesday, we'll be seeing the end of the daily dramas or, as Barry Ritholtz puts it, "welcome a return to boring." The big negative is that we continue to learn very disturbing things about all the bloodshed at the Capitol. It is everyone's hope that the end of 2021 will see a return to some semblance of calm and normalcy again. The bonus this Sunday is a page out of this week's U.S. News Invested in which they outline all the best stocks for 2021 that Bank of America (which owns Merrill Lynch) are recommending as buys.  Have a great week.  

Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 1.15.21

January 15, 2021 4:30pm by Barry Ritholtz

Succinct Summations for the week ending January 15th, 2021

Positives:

1. This Presidency is in its final days; I welcome a return to boring
2. Home mortgage apps rose 8.0% w/o/w.
3. Home refinance apps rose 20.0% w/o/w.
4. CPI rose 0.4% w/o/w.
5. Import prices rose 0.9% and export prices rose 1.1% w/o/w, above expectations.
6. Business inventories rose 0.5% m/o/m, above expectations.
7. Industrial production rose 1.6% m/o/m, above expectations.

Negatives:

1. We continue to learn a) how close we came to serious bloodshed in the Capitol; and b) that this might have have insiders as co-conspirators.
2. A free and open Democracy cannot continue when 20-30% of its population believe in nonsense spouted by fringe groups, conspiracy sites, Facebook, and Fox News.
3. Job openings came in at 6.527M in December, below the previous 6.632M.
4. Jobless claims increased 181k w/o/w from 784k to 965k.
5. Retail sales fell 0.7% m/o/m, below expectations.
6. PPI-FD rose 0.3% in December, below expectations.
7. Consumer sentiment is at 79.2 for January, below expectations.

1-15-21 US News Invested -- BofA's Top Stock Picks

 

January 15, 2021 View in Browser Invested Advice, rankings and stock market news for investors.

Happy Friday, investors. Online clothing reseller Poshmark made its stock market debut yesterday, finishing Thursday with an impressive 141% gain. TODAY'S FEATURED STOCK STORY Bank of America's 8 Best Stocks to Buy in Q1 The S&P 500 closed out 2020 at all-time highs on optimism surrounding additional government stimulus measures and a potential global economic rebound in 2021. Investors are mostly looking past horrible 2020 earnings numbers and focusing on the path forward for the economy, but there is still significant uncertainty surrounding when, if ever, certain businesses will fully recover to pre-crisis levels. Bank of America recently released its quarterly list of the top eight stocks to buy in the first quarter. These eight stocks are high-conviction investment ideas that have market-moving catalysts coming sometime in the next three months: 1. Citigroup (ticker: C). Analyst Erika Najarian says Citigroup is a particularly attractive value stock within an already undervalued financial sector that is poised to outperform in 2021. Bank of America is projecting both a macroeconomic rebound and a rebound in 10-year Treasury yields to 1.5% in the second half of 2021, both of which are bullish for Citigroup. 2. Foot Locker (FL). Nike is making strategic exits from stores such as J.C. Penney, Belk and Dillard's, which should create gross margin tailwinds for Foot Locker as a key Nike strategic partner. In fact, analyst Robert Ohmes says 70% of Foot Locker stores are located within two miles of a competing store that is either closing or Nike is exiting. Click here to continue.