☕ Dinosaur juice still pays!

Howdy! 👋 

It's Friyay, and markets look modestly better in the early going than they did yesterday. 

Thank goodness. 

I don’t know about you but it’s frustrating to see all the volatility lately even though we know it's part of the journey. Not to mention an opportunity. 

Wall Street and a bazillion clickbait artists, pontificators and furus would have you believe that there’s plenty of reasons to believe that sitting on the sidelines is the better option.  

Only it’s not. 

If you’re a trader, that’s one thing. But if you’re an investor, entirely another. And if you watch TV and CNBC’s markets in turmoil specials, still a third. 

Click to enlarge image.

Tip o’the hat to Dividendology and Charlie Bilello on X who put this together and who is a kindred spirit on many of today’s market issues. 

Anyhooo.... 

I’ll keep it super short today for two reasons: a) there’s not a lot happening that we haven’t already talked about and b) my oldest has a rare day off so we’re going to take a long-overdue father/son motorcycle ride to grab cheeseburgers that just happen to be a few hundred miles from here. 

1. Oil sees a >10% weekly gain due to escalating Middle East tension – dinosaur juice is very much relevant – although the naysayers will tell you otherwise – and it’ll be that way for some time. Position wisely as not all dinosaur juice stocks are the same.  
2. Lockheed and RTX post strong earnings – reinforcing my frequent point about where defense spending is heading. Unfortunately, war, terrorism and ugliness remain growth industries. 
3. Albertsons dropped ~22% yesterday after posting soft earnings and cutting its guidance... Contrast that with a choice like Walmart which has consistently increased their dividends for over 50 years, low beta, multiple high margin business areas, vertical cost control, super high customer loyalty. The OBA Family has known that for years and, of course, has had the opportunity to achieve some really terrific results as a result. If you’ve got that covered, great. If not and you’d like to know more, I’ll be here. 
4. Bank of America has just raised its dividend by 14% to $0.32. Great for dividend investors but I prefer a different divvy payer entirely – one of the largest banks in the country, sitting on a mountain of excess capital, that just authorized a fresh $50 billion buyback on top of its own dividend hike. Not to mention, it has outperformed BAC across a 3-year, 5-year and 10-year time period. But that’s just me. 
5. Intel delivered a strong beat on top and bottom-line, driven by a big surge in its data center and AI business. I’m happy for all Intel investors but as I noted to Varney Monday, I’m still keen to short it for the simple reason that you don’t suddenly get rid of bad management even if you have the government involved.  

There are always two ways to play the game.  

You can … 

• Get in before the crowd = bigger returns  
• Control risk ahead of time = less stress  
• Build confidence = hold strong when others panic  

Or…  

• Wait & react in which case you lose.  

Action beats reaction every time but especially over time. 

Now and as always, let's MAKE it a great day and finish the week strong. 💯 

Kickstands up. 

You got this – I promise. 

Keith 😀