Good news for investors:  the economy seems to be recovering from Biden’s recession.  

The Fed is beginning to think it has raised interest rates enough to stop inflation – or, at least, they have stopped increasing rates for now.  Employment rates, while not down, seem to be shaky – some companies are hiring, but others are holding steady.  Housing prices are falling a bit.

With neither Democrats nor Republicans in full control of the government, neither party can get its spendaholic wish-list enacted.  For voters and their families, that may be the best news for their economic well-being.

Looking at the S&P 500, whether you look at the graph for the past month, the past three months, the past six months, or the past year, they all agree:  the market is up.  

While the market continues to have its ups and downs, when those four markers all agree, it is hard to argue against there being a trend.

And it is not just the S&P 500.  If you are keeping records tracking your own investments, you probably saw the total value of your investments reach an all-time high in November of 2021.  Then, as a result of the spending by President Biden and the Democrat Congress, your investments dropped down by October 2022 to about 70% of your all-time high.  But now, thanks to the GOP taking the House a year ago, in November of 2023 the total value of your investments has rebounded and is perhaps up in the 80-85% range.

It is always a good time to review your investments, sell the losers, and buy stocks that are hopefully going to be winners.  What stocks are they?  

Among the Tech stocks, the best choices are the most innovative stocks.  Do your research:  what is the biggest area of computer-tech growth?  What Tech products are most in demand?  AI is in the news all the time lately; who is most aggressively aiming at new-product introductions and innovative new ways to use AI in the products it is selling?

Also, companies have been purchasing fewer computers as a result of the economic downturn.  Who sells the high-quality computers of the types that businesses want for their staff?  What software from which companies will they want on those computers?

Increasing business activity means more product that must be moved from the factory to the end-user.  Which transportation companies should you invest in?  One trucking company recently went bankrupt; how are the others – trucking, air freight, and railroading – doing?  

And speaking of manufacturers, which industries besides computer companies are also going to be significantly pushing more product out the door?  Software can be “shipped” over the Internet, but groceries, clothes, building supplies, oil (fuel for transportation and fuel for heating and electrical power generation), manufactured goods, and whatever else you can think of will all be shipped in increasing amounts; but which are going to be the biggest sellers?

One clothing maker is fun to keep an eye on, whether you buy it or not.  Two years ago, the company that owned the “Bed Bath & Beyond” stores and the “Victoria’s Secrets” stores split each store off as a separate company, with separate stocks.  

Bed Bath & Beyond looked like it ought to have a good target market for its products, and be successful.  But it went bankrupt. Its Executive Management made the wrong choices, and stockholders lost everything.

Victoria’s Secrets had a daunting problem to resolve:  the Baby Boomers who had always been its target market are getting older, and are no longer buying what Victoria’s Secrets has to sell.  How do you do a total pivot, and aim your line of clothing at the preferences of the totally new market of Millennials, and those even younger?

Victoria Secret’s stock fell and fell, not only due to the company’s own marketing and product re-structure, but along with the rest of the stock market as a whole.  Everything seemed to be against them.  And yet, their stock price has held steady for the past six months.  It is too early to say they are out of the woods just yet.  But keep an eye on them.  With two strikes against them, they may still hit a home run.

Evaluating companies for their investment potential is what investors do.  Find your niche and learn it better than most other folks, and make money.

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