My guess is this week will be much like last week, and the week before that, and the week before that, and the week before that, etc. etc. etc. The market has no appreciable reason to do anything other than what is has been doing for seven weeks now – step forward lightly.
Now, my only caveat to the above is the market is due for a rebalancing. For this to happen, though, something currently unknown will have to appear. That could be a statement from “The Bernank,” a statement from one of the Fed Presidents (New York Fed President William Dudley speaks at Queens College in Flushing, NY), or some less-than-stellar economic data. I guess the housing report today does not qualify.
I have set up my watch lists for my R&D stocks – Energy (NG support), Auto (fuel cell/EV), and Telecomm (smartphone verticals, including mass-media entertainment) – lots of value waiting for exploitation. The trick now is to ascertain which ones will move, when, and how much.
- Every year, growing numbers of Americans are “cutting the cord” on the cable TV providers… leaving a vulnerable $2.2 trillion industry up for grabs. As we speak, tech giants like Apple and Google are battling for control.
The mass-media entertainment industry is huge, so huge that opportunity is abundant. Keep in mind, though, opportunity is found in the little guy, not the Apples and Googles of the world.
- At a press event on the 18th floor of New York’s Waldorf Towers, Salt Lake City-based U.S. Digital Television (USDTV) unveiled a new subscription service that allows American households to receive popular cable channels via local television antennas.
The above is a privately held company, so it has not value to me now. The value, though, is in the fact that it points to one path in the future of mass-media entertainment. Small independents, at least for a time, will innovate and prosper. I did some preliminary research and did not find much out there, but that does not necessarily mean there is not something to find. I will keep looking.
Switching gears to the Energy sector …
- There is no question about the amount of wealth pouring into the energy sector: With $348 billion in capital expenditures in 2013 alone, solid energy firms stand to profit for years to come.
- There is enough natural gas produced in the United States every month to heat 25 million homes for a year. Even more, with improved technology America has offset 20-plus years of decline in oil production in a few short years, with over 7 million barrels of oil produced every day.
Much of the money noted above is going into the buildup of NG infrastructure, which makes me particularly excited about the prospects I am finding in the NG aspect of the Energy world. Oh, and speaking of the world. I know China is not on my radar regarding my current topic, but it is on my radar for tracking the global economy, so the news below is good news indeed.
- China’s offshore share market put on 5.7 percent in its best day in two years after the Communist Party in Beijing last week unveiled bold economic reforms in which it said the market would play a decisive role.
Although many pundits still tell us the market is riding high on the belief that the Fed will not begin tapering until the spring of next year, I would argue the news just mentioned is more meaningful to the market both in the near term and in the long term. Witness today’s jump in the Asian markets after the specifics of the Chinese reforms have started coming out.
Back to technology and another look at the reality of the global economy …
- Sony (SNE) sold over 1M PlayStation 4 video-gaming consoles in the U.S. and Canada within 24 hours of the device being launched in the countries on Friday. The record start bolsters Sony’s strategy of using the PS4 to help turn around its loss-making consumer-electronics division. It also represents the opening salvo of this holiday season’s console wars, with Microsoft (MSFT) due to begin selling its Xbox One product on Friday.
The above is both a technology story and a retail story. Despite what the breathless media and the negative pundits say, global consumers are spending money on discretionary items. It will be interesting to watch the holiday retail season unfold.
Trade in the day; Invest in your life …
