What a week! Market breadth has been horrible, sentiment has been very sour, and the Dow Industrials have dropped nearly 1,000 points in just two sessions. Despite the awful market conditions, there have been quite a few safe havens in which to park money in the stock market. Case in point: Altria (NYSE: MO), a stock that has shown dominant relative strength and is actually higher than its close last Thursday. We did witness turnaround Tuesday, and since the uptrend may still be intact, we’ll see if there is some follow-through.
Take a look at the chart below, and you’ll see the RSI is clocking in at an overbought reading and the MACD is still on a strong buy signal. The momentum indicator at the bottom shows there was a nice chance to buy on a slight dip earlier this month, but the strongest stocks rarely give you a chance to get on board (so if you missed it, don’t fret). Since hitting a low in January, the uptrend line shows higher lows and higher highs. Additionally, Altria offers a very nice dividend alternative to bonds.
If the market continues its precarious ways, we like Altria as a solid defensive name.
