This Ain’t Your Daddy’s Stock Market
What was Wall Street expecting?
Did analysts really think that Jay Powell was just going to skip this month’s rate hike?
I mean, sure, banks are collapsing all over the place. And, yes, we’re fast approaching the debt ceiling… AGAIN.
But, hey, cereal is $7 a box. So like the cost of Cap’n Crunch, rates have gone up yet again.
You can see in the chart below how well the news went over with investors…
[CHART: S&P 500 dropping]
As Andy put it in Thursday’s Digest… “This isn’t your daddy’s stock market. It’s a mess.”
The good news is there’s still plenty out there worth buying. Take Shift4 Payments (FOUR), for example…
Despite slipping along with the broad market this week, shares of the payment processor are still up 15% year to date.
The company is showing solid financial strength, with payment volume up 66%… gross profit up 78%… and EBITDA more than double what it was a year ago.
Andy outlined some of the company’s newest initiatives in his Alpha Money Flow update here.
But here’s the part that’s especially worth noting:
All this growth – and all the sales that will come in the future years of these contracts – creates much more than a one-time pop in sales. These are sustainable sales that will be around for many more quarters.
Shift4 Payments stands to reward its investors for many years to come.
Andy feels the same is true of this month’s Manward Letter recommendation, hot off the presses here.
The company, Iron Mountain (IRM), is a REIT… but it’s unlike any REIT you’ve probably heard of…
With roots that go all the way back to the mid-1930s.
Yet despite its long history, this unique company is precisely the type of stock you want to own in the current environment. It even pays a substantial (and rising) dividend.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the just-released May issue of Manward Letter here.
And don’t forget to watch Alpesh’s latest market update, which features a look at his favorite bellwether indicators, as well as the tale of what happened when he went head-to-head with ChatGPT.
You’ll find links to all of that (and more) in our Trading Summary below.
Have a great weekend.