| October 30, 2013 | | | | | |
 | | | | The Return of the "Boring Stock" Trade | | | - You snooze, you lose on consumer staples gains
- The Dow reaches for relevance again
- Plus: Why would anyone buy Chinese stocks?
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| | | Greg Guenthner coming to you from Baltimore, MD...
 | | Greg Guenthner | After a brief hiatus, boring stocks are back.
Consumer sentiment might have dropped this week—but that hasn't stopped consumer stocks from moving to the head of the class. Big dividend payers like Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson are getting plenty of love from investors, while many of the momentum names that pushed the market higher last month haven't budged…
While financial and materials stocks have lagged, consumer staples and cyclical names are surging. The big, safe stocks everyone wanted earlier this year are suddenly back in focus. Staples have gained more than 2.4% on the week, while cyclicals (shopping and entertainment names) have gained 1.5%
So is this shift a sign that investors are beginning to get a little cautious? Maybe. But it's also a good sign that the Dow is making up lost ground.
I've alerted you to the lagging Dow's back-and-forth action since the summer. While small-cap and mid-cap names streaked to new highs, the industrials seemed to want little to do with the broad market rally. Until now…
After a 111 point gain yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is back within spitting distance of its all-time highs. Another decent gain today would put the Big Board back on top.
While the S&P is getting a little overheated right now, [PRO readers are getting my full analysis of the S&P today] the Dow has picked up the slack. That's healthy market action as we race toward the end of a wild trading month…
| | |  | | | | Rude Numbers | Targets, Predictions and Wild Guesses
| | | | $886,000 | is how much a student made off a forgotten $27 Bitcoins speculation in 2009. The man used some of the profits to buy an apartment in Oslo, Norway. Speaking of Bitcoin… | | $213 | will buy you one Bitcoin today—up from $145 just four weeks ago… | | 259 million | people are now Linkedin members. That's a 38% year-over-year increase, making the site one of the largest social networks in the world. | | $9.7 billion | in losses were booked by the federal government on the nearly $50 billion bailout of automaker General Motors. | | $2.5 trillion | is currently under hedge fund management. Despite all the under-performance, that's an all-time high for the industry. | | | | | | | | Rude Trends | When to Buy... When to Sell
| | | "Why would anybody even consider investing in Chinese stocks given that governments involvement in every aspect of business there?" asks a curious reader regarding the Muddy Waters report that took down Chinese ADR NQ Mobile. "China's record of fudging numbers is well known."
Sure. But last I checked, the government's snout was digging around in almost every aspect of business here in the U.S., too…
The latest NFIB Small Business Optimism Index remains near historic lows. I know the government shutdown was a couple of weeks ago—but have we really forgotten how dysfunctional things have gotten in the U.S.?
"Prospects for politicians and policymakers 'getting it right' are low, and job creators are rolling their eyes and shaking their heads thinking, 'This is certainly not the way to run the largest enterprise in the world,'" says NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg. "Between botched healthcare implementation and one manufactured crisis after another, consumers and small business owners are likely to remain pessimistic, accepting the notion that growth is going to be sub-par and that their government is likely to continue in dysfunctional mode for months to come."
Let's face it-- this is a country that's very different from the original idea of America. Luckily, there's a tool citizens like you have to protect yourself. Here it is…
[IMPORTANT: I am travelling the rest of this week. There will be no Rude Awakening Thursday or Friday. We'll resume our regular schedule on Monday morning, November 4.]
[Ed. Note: Send your feedback here: rude@agorafinancial.com - and follow me on Twitter: @GregGuenthner]
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