New Records Ahead of New Trade Deal and New Earnings Season

SPECIAL ALERT: The latest episode of the Zacks Ultimate Strategy Session will be available for viewing no later than this Wednesday, January 15. Kevin Matras, Sheraz Mian, Tracey Ryniec, Jeremy Mullin, Madeleine Johnson and Dan Laboe will cover the investment landscape from several angles in this informative event.

Don’t miss your chance to hear:  

▪ Tracey and Madeleine Agree to Disagree on why retail isn’t dead, including a breakdown of the rise of retailers such as LULU in 2019 and what they’re doing right, and what retail trends investors can expect in 2020
▪ Kevin Matras answers your questions in Zacks Mailbag
▪ Sheraz and Dan choose one portfolio to give feedback for improvement
▪ And much more

So be sure to mark your calendar then log on to Zacks.com and bookmark this page.


Stocks just put together a couple new records to start this busy week, which includes the unofficial kick off to earnings season and the signing of a trade deal with China.

Last week, the NASDAQ completed a fifth straight week in the green, and on Monday it took a big step toward a sixth. The index jumped 1.04% (or a little more than 95 points) to 9273.93.

All of the FAANGs were up today, led by a 3% rise for Netflix on the day the streaming giant received 24 Academy Award nominations. That’s more than any of the ‘traditional’ movie studios.

However, the biggest news may be that Alphabet is on the cusp of becoming only the fourth trillion-dollar company!

Meanwhile, the S&P rose 0.70% to 3288.13. This index and the NASDAQ both finished at new closing highs.

The Dow couldn’t make any history on Monday, but still managed to advance 0.29% (or about 83 points) to 28,907.05. The index briefly crossed over 29,000 on Friday before falling back.

All of the indices closed near their highs of the day.

The plan for this week is to sign the Phase 1 trade deal on Wednesday, which would mark the first real progress in this approximately two-year trade conflict. A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He will be in Washington this week.

News that the U.S. would remove China from the currency manipulator list was the latest bit of encouragement that this agreement will actually take place.

Also this week, big banks like JPMorgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and others will be reporting their quarterly results, which kicks off earnings season. The first three of those companies report tomorrow.

Today's Portfolio Highlights:

Technology Innovators: This full portfolio made a swap on Monday as Brian ran out of patience with HealthStream (HSTM) and, therefore, sold it to “cut our losses and move on”. The new buy is SVMK (SVMK), or better known as Survey Monkey. The company develops survey software, which enables organizations to collect and analyze feedback and insights that can help solve business problems, enhance customer experience, improve employee productivity, and much more. The editor likes its chart and believes it will get over $20 to new 52-week highs. In other words, Brian plans to ‘buy high and sell higher’. Read the full write-up for a lot more on this new addition.

Marijuana Innovators: It was a good day for marijuana stocks, so it was also a good day for this portfolio. It had TWO double-digit winners on Monday with Canopy Growth (CGC, +12.5%) and Tilray (TLRY, +11.7%). Needless to say, these were the best two performers of the day among all ZU names. The service also had a third stock on the list with GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH) rising 8.9%.

Black Box Trader: The portfolio swapped four names in this week’s adjustment. The stocks that were sold included:  

• Cosan Ltd. (CZZ, +3.7%)
• Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MLCO)
• Target (TGT)
• Photronics (PLAB)

The new buys that replaced these names are:

• Berry Global (BERY)
• Commercial Metals Co. (CMC)
• Graphic Packaging Holding Co. (GPK)
• Matador Resources (MTDR)

Read the Black Box Trader’s Guide to learn more about this computer-driven service designed to take the emotion out of investing.

Until Tomorrow,
Jim Giaquinto

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