Friday, April 13, 2018

The Big Drop Didn't Happen

When I was young and owned a Tandy 1000 EX and a 1200 baud modem, I would dial up into a BBS and play a popular game called "TradeWars".  Recent news brings up these old, fond memories.

My son and I were stockpiling cash for a possible tradewar, but it seems like it is fizzling out.  Regardless, I decided to highlight in light purple the stocks in my portfolio that are free and clear of China.  Cramer recently listed the sectors and some stocks that he considered safe in a tradewar:

1) Telcos (VZ)
2) Mall based retailers & apparel (I consider this a bit weak -MLD)
3) Cloud Kings
4) Cell Towers (AMT)
5) Health Insurers & Hospitals (ANTM, HUM, CNC, UNH, THC, HCA)
6) Domestic Oils (MRO, HES, PXD, APC)
7) Oil Refiners (MPC, VLO, HFC)
8) REITs
9) Utilities
10) Restaurants (EAT, WEN, SONC)
11) Brokerage Stocks
12) Cybersecurity (FEYE)
13) US Biz Helpers (ADP, CTAS)
14) Homebuilders
15) Military (RTN, HRS, NOC, LMT)

My son was set to buy up some Chili's stock with EAT, but after the tradewar fizzled, he opted for Verizon (VZ).  He has no irons in the Telecom fire, so he decided to snag it. 

I, on the other hand, decided to shore up some Procter & Gamble (PG) after their recent dividend increase.  They are one of the few stocks I don't have a 5% stake in and looks healthy from the fundamentals, and I need to average down my price on it.  Another stock I bought more shares of was Southern (SO), which also looks good going into earnings season.  They will be reporting out their dividend increase next week, so here's hoping.  The next purchase on my list will be NNN (provided the interest rates rise) with a possibility of PDCO for a new position.

In the meantime, I paid off my 401k home loan this month, which cranks up my net worth (not reported here), and allows me to increase my biweekly donations to my dividend retirement.  I have some cash still on hand, but I really don't wish to buy any stocks that can't report out good in this current economic environment.  In fact, if any of my stocks report out poorly, I may need to give them a second look.  The exception is GIS which already acquired massive debt, so I don't expect too many good surprises from them.  Everyone else better take off!