Blog Archives - Page 4 of 4 - C.J. Lawrence // Investment Management

May 14, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C. J. Lawrence Weekly – Profit Margin Expansion Suggests Current Business Cycle Has Legs

In the late stages of a business cycle it is typical to see profit margins contract in the face of rising input costs and strained revenue growth. But over the past decade, U.S. business efficiency improvements have helped companies avoid the deep margin troughs of past cycles, and sustain histori...

May 7, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C. J. Lawrence Weekly – Falling Down on the Multiple Staircase

S&P 500 earnings per share estimates (EPS) for 2018 have increased 8.8% since the beginning of the year, and look to be heading higher. 2019 estimates have climbed by about the same amount. The Index price, however, is not following suit, and is down slightly (-.38%) year-to-date. The road...

April 30, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C. J. Lawrence Weekly – Rising Rates Provide Headwind, not Barrier, for Stocks

Last week’s market action was noteworthy for its flowing cross-currents. Economic and corporate earnings reports were particularly strong, but for bulls, the equity market’s reaction was disappointing. The S&P 500 Index finished the week close to flat, versus the prior week’s close. Ma...

April 23, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C. J. Lawrence Weekly – Innovation at a Reasonable Price…IRP Investing

For decades, U.S. corporate research and development (R&D) spending was dominated by automotive and pharmaceutical companies. In the 1960s and 1970s, as the big-3 auto companies became embroiled in market share wars amongst themselves, and later versus foreign auto manufacturers, research and ...

April 17, 2018
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

Regs vs Tech: Then and Now…Lessons from the Past

One thing we have become accustomed to over the years is the fact that dominant companies, which we call Bulldogs at C.J. Lawrence, tend to get sued or attract regulatory scrutiny precisely because they are so successful. Microsoft was one of the first to attract such scrutiny back in 1992, when the...

April 16, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C. J. Lawrence Weekly – Cash Flow on the Rise

A once highly anticipated technology sales pipeline report was released on Wednesday with little fanfare. Worldwide shipments of traditional personal computers (desktops, notebooks, and workstations) in 1Q18 were equal to last year’s level, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) W...

April 9, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C. J. Lawrence Weekly – Dividend Growers Provide Stability in Choppy Markets

It’s difficult to identify a singular catalyst for the market’s recent volatility. Whether it’s politics, trade, or corporate stumbles, the equity markets’ reaction to events and news has been swift and pronounced. The large intraday swings in stock prices suggest that traders are shooti...

April 2, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – The Bears are Back. Contrarians Take Note.

Despite a strong close to last week, the S&P 500 Index finished in negative territory for the first quarter of 2018. The Index is down 1.2% year-to-date. Interestingly, the headline-challenged Technology sector index continues to lead the performance pack among the major sectors, followed by Con...

March 26, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – The Stumble-Prone Equity Market Remains on Solid Footing

2017’s prize-fighter equity market now looks like it may have a glass jaw. In 2017, the S&P 500 posted a positive return in each month of the year, and shrugged off negative news at nearly every turn. But already in 2018, the market has experienced two 6+% corrections. Events that would ...

March 23, 2018
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

Where to Hide In A Stormy Environment?

As we recover from the 4th snow storm in the North East, markets this week succumbed to its own perfect storm. Five factors brought down the market this week: First, there was some concern about this week’s Fed meeting and how the new Fed Chair Powell would perform in his first live press conferen...

March 19, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Tight Capacity Utilization Bodes Well for Select Machinery, Building Products, and Construction Equipment Stocks

Among the economic data released last week, both Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization came in well ahead of economists’ expectations. The Industrial Production reading, a measure of total U.S. factories, mines, and utilities output, rose 1.1% from the prior month, and 4.4% from last year...

March 12, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – New S&P Sector Construct Could Create Volatility this Summer

Followers of the CJL Weekly Market Comment are familiar with our practice of looking below the broader market indices to compare the fundamentals, price performance, and valuations of the 11 different S&P Sectors, 24 Industry Groups and, 157 Sub-Industries. This style of analysis dates back to t...

March 5, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Bond Yield Forecasts Still Not Competitive with Earnings Yield on Stocks

Our CJL Market Monitor reading weakened in February, understandably, as interest rates rose and previously positive market technical measures reversed course. The Monitor remains narrowly in BUY territory with a +1 reading, on a scale of -6 to +6. The two components that lost ground in February incl...

February 26, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Technology Continues to Deliver

The 4Q17 earnings season for the S&P 500 is 91% complete and the results, to date, are impressive. Earnings per share for the S&P 500 are coming in 14.7% ahead of last year’s level. 72% of reporting companies have delivered earnings results that were ahead of analyst expectations, a 5-year...

February 20, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Financials Sector is the Baby that Should be Put Back in the Bath

We made the point in a recent Weekly Market Comment that the shrinking US publicly traded company share count could be a contributing factor to the equity market’s long bull run. The same phenomenon can also contribute to stock price volatility on a short-term basis, as witnessed during the last t...

February 12, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Volatility Returns (Chairman, James Moltz)

This week we are pleased to offer thoughts on the market from our Chairman, James Moltz. Jim launched the Weekly Market Comment at the original CJ. Lawrence back in the early 1970s and authored the piece for several decades. We are fortunate to have his perspectives and are grateful for his lead...

February 6, 2018
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

Corrections vs Crashes – What are We Watching?

What are we watching this morning? Despite being fundamental investors, we need to turn to technicals today to understand if a correction is “normal” or something more ominous. We look to the structure of the sell off, ie is it orderly etc. We need to make sure price discovery is achieved and ma...

February 5, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – The Tug‐of‐War Between Lower Valuations and Faster Earnings Growth Still Skews Towards Growth

There are multiple reasons cited for last week’s equity market blow off. It’s difficult to know which event set the downdraft in motion but the rapid rise in interest rates, after several years of historically low rates, is a good place to start. The U.S. Benchmark 10-Year Treasury Yield finishe...

January 29, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Want to Buy Stocks? Get In Line.

Positive 4Q17 earnings results, an improving economic backdrop and outlook, rising corporate profit forecasts, and increasingly bullish sentiment have added fuel to an already roaring stock market fire. The S&P 500 Index tacked on another 2.2% last week, putting the index price up 7.5% year-to-d...

January 22, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Inflation Counter‐Forces in the New Economy

In the previous millennium, strategists and economists would sometimes gauge inflationary pressures by measuring and comparing the prices of New York City taxi medallions versus the price of a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. The price for a NYSE seats, which allowed the limited number of holder...

January 17, 2018
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

The Death of “New Normal” – Preparing for Normal

The term, New Normal became the new paradigm in business and economics to describe the financial environment in the wake of the 2008 crisis and the global recession that followed. Mohammed El-Erian, the then head of PIMCO, first used the term in 2010 in a lecture titled “Navigating the New Nor...

January 16, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Want Blockchain Exposure? Buy a Basket “OF MAGIC”

Until last week, Kodak was an imaging company struggling to manage the transition from film and hardware to digital and software. The 130-year-old company, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2012, had lost 80+% of its market value since re-emerging as a public company. But on Tuesday, Kodak announced ...

January 12, 2018
Blog , News & Media

Upcoming Webinar – C.J. Lawrence Portfolio Strategy & Outlook 2018

On Tuesday, January 23 at 12:00 PM EST, C.J. Lawrence will host a live 60-minute webinar with C.J. Lawrence’s senior partners and portfolio management team – Bernhard Koepp, Terry Gardner, Jr., – to discuss the latest market outlook and investment thesis for 2018. This webinar will set the...

January 8, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – CJL Market Monitor Continues to Favor Stocks

As investment managers, we sleep with one eye open and the other on our Market Monitor. The C.J. Lawrence Market Monitor was created in the early 1980s to measure the attractiveness of the stock market. It calibrates the relative appeal of stocks versus fixed income and tests the internal technical ...

January 2, 2018
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – 2017 Scoreboard Highlights Consistent Technology Leadership

When we wrote the year-end market summary last year, we noted the high level of sector rotation that took place on a quarterly basis throughout 2016. In 2017, leadership was instead remarkably consistent. Of the major S&P 500 sectors, Technology led all others in three out of four quarters and f...

December 28, 2017
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

“US GDP Moves Above Potential” – Implications for Markets

Using Reinhart and Rogoff’s work, suggesting that it normally takes a decade for an economy to reach potential output growth following a financial crisis, our former CJL colleague, Ed Hyman, at Evercore ISI points out that the US economy has finally broken out of its decade of sub-par growth (see ...

December 20, 2017
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

“A Perfect Year” – Outlook for 2018

As of this writing, 2017 is the first perfect year where the S&P500 had a positive return every month for the entire year. 2017 also coincides with the US Output Gap swinging back to the long-term trend line which we haven’t seen for a decade meaning that the economy is back on track. Economie...

December 18, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Time to Rotate to Value Stocks?…Not So Fast

The likely passage of the U.S. tax reform bill, a bump up in the U.S. Fed Funds target rate, and better than expected economic data have all contributed to a reevaluation of equity investor sector and style weightings. As discussed in last week’s note, we got a glimpse of rapid sector rotation two...

December 11, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Cash Can be King Even When You’re Bullish

Whether it’s the machines at work, or faster fingered traders, when the market shifts, it happens fast. The week after Thanksgiving provides a good example of how quickly sentiment can change, and how dramatically and demonstrably the market reacts to those shifts. For months, pundits have been ca...

December 7, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

Great News for New York’s Special Needs Families – 529 ABLE Program Goes Live

With surprisingly little fanfare, New York State recently launched its own state-sponsored 529 ABLE program. This is terrific news for New York State resident special needs families. The legislation, signed into law in December of 2015, allowed for the creation of a savings and investment program, ...

December 4, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Improving Earnings Growth Forecasts Suggest the Bull May be Sharpening His Horns

Friday’s stock market roller coaster ride ended on a down note, but finished well off the lows of the day. Speculation about what former National Security Director, Michael Flynn, might say to the U.S. Special Prosecutor investigating his pre-inauguration activities, reversed the equity market’s...

November 27, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Sector Watch: Consumer Staples’ Premium Valuation at Risk

The Consumer Staples sector has historically been viewed as a safe port in a market storm and a key component sector to diversified portfolios. The thesis has held that the consistency of sales and relatively high dividend yields of sector constituents are the defensive characteristics sought by inv...

November 20, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Talking Turkey – Deflation at Dinner

The recently released Producer Price Index (PPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) diverged in their October readings. The PPI rose to an annual rate of 2.8%, the highest annual rate since February of 2012. The CPI, on the other hand, barely rose for the month, and the annual rate bumped down to 2.0% f...

November 14, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – China’s and India’s Economic Growth Prospects are Good for Equity Prices

As the US House of Representatives and Senate work through the machinations of domestic tax reform, President Trump has been visiting the globe’s fastest growing region, discussing trade relations, and meeting with regional heads of state. His visit to China looks to have delivered few tangible ne...

November 7, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – U.S. Economy is Supportive of Accelerating S&P 500 Top-Line Growth

It was not surprising that the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee decided to leave interest rates unchanged last week, but the pressure seems to be mounting for a December move. The third quarter GDP result of 3.0% was followed, last week, by an impressive ISM Non-Manufacturing Index reading of 60.1...

October 31, 2017
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

American Renaissance in Manufacturing: Fact or Fiction?

Those of you who still read the daily newspapers in print, will have noticed a small article buried away in the back pages of the Wall Street Journal on October 3rd which did not get enough attention in my opinion. The title was “Manufacturing Hits a 13-Year High”. This fact did not escape our g...

October 30, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – REIT Underperformance Likely to Persist

“Bond proxy” equities struggled last week as the benchmark U.S. 10-Year Treasury Bond yield climbed to 2.42% (from 2.06% in early September) reinforcing fears among bond proxy holders that rising interest rates will compete more competently for income seekers. For the week, the Telecom, Real Est...

October 25, 2017
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

Applying The Long Wave in the Age of Disruptors – What Does This Mean for Stock Picking?

In the early 1920s, Russian Economist Nikolai Kondratiev developed the concept of the long wave when applying technological change to traditional economic cycles. He observed that these periods of long waves can range from forty to sixty years and consist of alternating intervals between high sector...

October 23, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Goldilocks’ Porridge Made With Copper and Gold

A useful ratio in gauging global growth prospects versus global fear is the copper-to-gold price ratio. The ratio has become increasingly relevant over the past fifteen years as China, now the dominant swing factor in the global growth equation, has emerged as a massive copper consumer. At the end o...

October 21, 2017
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

Embracing Market Volatility – Can You Stomach 20% Annual Market Volatility? You should…

As we reflect on the 30th anniversary of the 1987 crash in the context of an 8-year bull market for stocks, it is worth highlighting that investing based on traditional measures of volatility, like the CBOE VIX index, are not always a good indicator of future market returns. There has been a lot of ...

October 19, 2017
Blog , The Trusted Navigator - Bernhard Koepp

“Finding The Optimal Balance – Lessons From a NYC Commuter”

Navigating these markets is much like my 30-minute bike commute to work every day through the streets of Manhattan (see video above in 6 min version). Every twist and turn is a split-second reassessment of risk versus reward. Your mind is constantly evaluating speed, risk, braking, volatility, potho...

October 16, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – 2018 Earnings Estimates May Be Too Low

Third quarter earnings season kicked off last week with good reports from most of the big banks. JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America all topped analysts’ top and bottom line forecasts. Despite the “beats”, the stocks of those companies experienced muted responses to their reports. ...

October 9, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – “Financials Add Fuel”

Financial stocks re-exerted leadership last week. After a strong 1Q17, the sector had faded into the middle of the performance pack among the broader S&P sectors. The S&P Financials Index is now up 13.1% for the year, ranking it 6 out of the 11 sectors. As we have noted in previous Weekly Co...

October 4, 2017
Blog , The Portfolio Strategist - Terry Gardner

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – “The Great Unwind Begins”

With the arrival of October comes the beginning of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to unwind its’ massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet. The Fed’s chair, Janet Yellen, has expressed her desire to keep the process running quietly in the background. The markets are hoping it plays out that way. Neve...

September 27, 2017
Blog

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – “The Prospect for Corporate Tax Reform May Be Keeping Bears in Their Dens”

The Prospect for Corporate Tax Reform May Be Keeping Bears in Their Dens Senator John McCain’s indication that he would not support the Graham-Cassidy Health Care Bill threw more sand into Washington D.C.’s gears last week. Week-end jockeying may make the bill more palatable to hold-outs, but th...

September 25, 2017
Blog

C.J. Lawrence Weekly – “Inflation & the Rule of 20” – September 18, 2017

Higher gas prices and housing costs helped push last month’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading to 0.4%, versus the 0.3% most economists were expecting. Interestingly, it was the medical cost category that restrained the index, growing at the slowest pace since 1965, according to the U.S. Bureau...

January 20, 2017
Blog

OPEC Discord and the Oil Shale Breakout Created the Surplus: Now… What is Turning It Around?

In this special report we are delighted to provide you with thoughts on the global energy markets from legendary energy analyst, and former C.J. Lawrence Inc. Vice Chairman, Charley Maxwell....

November 14, 2016
Blog

Election Tea Leaves

A global grass roots political upheaval is spreading. Brazil has ousted its president and Venezuela is an inch away. Brexit was a core “no more” vote against immigration. The U.S. was a surprise double header with Republicans taking both the White House and the Congress. France seems certain to ...

February 4, 2016
Blog

The Road from Nadir to Zenith

In this special report we are delighted to provide you with thoughts on the global energy markets from legendary energy analyst, and former C.J. Lawrence Inc. Vice Chairman, Charley Maxwell....

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