Right now, the economy and stock market enjoy heads of steam all their own. The momentum should carry them onward and upward for the first half of 2017, and hopefully longer, no matter what our impulsive, unpredictable new president may do, asserts Stephen Quickel, editor of US Investment Report.
That being so, investors should “make hay while the sun shines.” We need to behave more aggressively than in the last few years.
Instead of cashing out at each downside market jiggle, and often staying in cash for months, fearful of rushing back in prematurely, we need to stay more fully invested more of the time.
Idle cash accumulated from stop-loss sales should be reinvested quickly (but not blindly) to take advantage of the rising economy and share prices—albeit with stops in place.
In highly favored technology sectors, we like Paycom Software (PAYC), which is expected to grow earnings by 35% a year, though you might wait for its high valuation ratios to come down.
We also favor Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), a previous winner in our model portfolio which is expected to end its recent earnings slump in 2017 following the Apple (AAPL), long a staple among our stock picks, has just spurted ahead again. Once as high as $132, it slumped to $90 in 2015 on growth skepticism.
Next stop? Our latest price target is $140 as Apple continues to bring forth winning products and innovative user features. This year, we look for major impact from what’s been described as the “radical redesign” of its 10-year-old iPhone series.
At AAPL’s enormous size, of course, it takes a huge increase in revenues for the world’s largest, most successful company to rack up big percentages gains in earnings and share price.
But of Apple is elephantine in size, it is still driven by ample the brainpower, has beaver-like determination to succeed, and in the stock market can still run like a gazelle.
