10 Stocks Warren Buffett Just Bought and Sold

From this week's U.S. News Invested and for those of you who follow Warren Buffett, here are his latest purchases and, by extension, recommendations for the rest of us.  

Wall Street ends mixed after punishing week

All three indexes opened on the upside, the Dow up over 250 points before almost immediately starting a steady decline falling nearly 900 points by 1:30 before rising again through the remainder of the session to close almost flat. All three indexes were into heavy losses until about 1:30.  All three indexes closed almost flat.  So volatility remains the dominant force. It’s the seventh straight week of losses for the S&P and Nasdaq, the eighth for the Dow. Ross Stores today added to the gloomy retail forecast and the consensus of waning consumer purchasing power and subsequently got beaten down over 22 percent. Traders are now pricing in a ½ point rate increase for not just June but also now July.  Volume was close to recent averages at 13 billion. 

Wall Street ends lower as Cisco and Apple sink

Another day of rampant volatility with the Dow opening near 500 points down and then swinging wildly back and forth all day long between near break-even and some 400 down (and even briefly being near 100 up right around 2 pm) before closing down 236, a loss of over 300 in just the final hour.  It was the same rerun – fear of inflation and rising interest rates – but also today a big slump in Cisco as well as continued declines in Apple that contributed to the chaos. The volatility is expected to continue until inflation starts to slow and that is not expected to happen until at least late summer.  

Wall Street ends sharply lower as Target and growth stocks sink

Wow, after so much optimism yesterday everything just fell through the floor today. Even after yesterday’s very positive retail sales report everything went just so sour after Target collapsed losing an earth-shattering 25% of its capitalization in a single day. But there were clues yesterday with retail giants from Costco to Dollar Tree (including Target) falling between 1 and 3% and Walgreens a precipitous 11%.  The devastation continued today throughout the retail sector which dropped over 8% in a single day as investors panicked over the prospect of eroding consumer purchasing power. The market in trying to assess how bad it’s going to get just fled to the exits, the Dow down nearly 1200 points, the Nasdaq down 566, even the S&P with rare triple-digit losses.  

Wall Street ends sharply higher, fueled by Apple

The retail sales report showed that April was strong so it was a straight shot up today as all the popular stocks that had been fueling the market rallies for months and had recently been beaten down were today taken as opportunities to buy the dip.  And no whipsaws today, just straight up – 431 on the Dow, 321 on the Nasdaq. The big mega-tech stocks all gained between 2 and 5 percent and news of industrial production being up lent more credence to the belief that Q2 will see more growth and a recession will be avoided. Traders still widely expect another ½ point hike in June. Today the S&P is now down only 14% for the year vs yesterday’s 16% and the Nasdaq is off 23%.  Volume again was below average at 12 billion. 

S&P 500 ends lower as Tesla falls, while energy rallies

The Dow started down almost 300 points before steadily rising all day to a point nearly 600 points above its low before falling again around 2:30 pm and losing all the gains save 26 points before close.  If that wasn’t bad enough, the Nasdaq got whipsawed like crazy 4 times swinging back and forth between near breakeven and a near 200 point loss, being for a fourth time near breakeven as late as 2:30 pm before plummeting again to close down 142.  It seems investors were testing the waters all day to see whether Friday’s big rally ws sustainable or if there was more capitulation to be worked out.  

How to Pick Stocks: 7 Things All Beginner Investors Should Know

This week's U.S. News Invested provided an excellent "back to basics" review of investing fundamentals, offering guidance on the most important issue all investors must conquer:  How To Pick Stocks.  Enjoy the read and don't forget Monday afternoon's AAII webinar on combining growth and value strategies for maximum portfolio performance.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.