Winning Stock Picking Ideas from Last Week's Employment Report - Screen of the Week
April 08 2014 - 3:08AM
Zacks
Every week the government and other entities release economic
reports that cover all areas of the economy - from retail sales to
housing, to international trade to consumer sentiment.
In fact, on virtually any given day there could be anywhere from
one to a handful of reports.
And while the financial media does cover them, they usually
focus on headline numbers without doing a deeper dive.
This is unfortunate because within these reports often exists
money-making details that can quickly be uncovered with just an
extra few minutes of reading.
For example, in the Employment Situation report, it details what
sectors saw the most new jobs or labor force expansion, and which
ones contracted.
I can remember countless times where that report got me into the
right sectors and industries at the right time before anybody else
was talking about them.
In fact, I still remember getting into housing in early 2012
while everybody else was staying as far away from it as possible.
But, after seeing construction jobs continue to rise in report
after report after report, I knew the housing market had turned.
And that was one of the first alerts to the housing recovery - for
those who knew where to look.
But the headline number and the obligatory one-or-two-sentence
write ups on many news sites missed the best part of the story by
not going the extra mile (or paragraph).
Well here we are again, with more stock-picking insight,
straight from last week's Employment Situation report. Last week it
showed that some of the biggest job creation came from these five
industries:
1) Professional and Business Services +57,000
(noted areas: computer system design, and architectural and
engineering services)
2) Food Services and Drinking Places +30,000
(up 323,000 over last 12 months)
3) Construction +19,000
(up 151,000 over last 12 months)
4) Health Care +19,000
(noted areas: ambulatory health services and home health care)
5) Mining and Logging +7,000
The reason why I like this report for stock picking is because
if an industry is hiring lots of new people, that must mean there's
lots of new activity to warrant it. And business activity usually
means more money and profits for those companies and their
stocks.
Screening
Once these reports point you in the right direction, you can
then plug in the appropriate sectors and industries to capitalize
on this information and find the best stocks within those
groups.
This is just one very specific way to do top down analysis. But
you can go to any screener (like the one on Zacks.com or the
Research Wizard) and locate the sector, then industry of
interest.
Then you should add in your favorite and most successful
stock-picking criteria to drill down to the best ones, such as
Zacks Rank 1s or 2s (Strong Buys or Buys); market-beating growth
rates; below industry valuations; upward earnings estimate
revisions, etc.
Here are 5 stocks from some of the industries singled out as the
biggest job creators in last week's Employment report:
RMBS Rambus
(Electronic Comp-Semi / Comp Sys Design)
BWLD Buffalo Wild Wings
(Food Services and Drinking Places)
VMC Vulcan Materials
(Construction)
CHE Chemed
(Health Care)
SWC Stillwater Mining
(Mining and Logging)
Profitable stock ideas can come at any time and any place. But
instead of waiting for the next great stock to fall into your lap,
you can actively search for them. And by reading a few extra
reports and then putting those ideas into a capable screener,
you'll soon be amazed at some of the new picks you come up
with.
And you'll feel pretty smart after finding them too.
The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use.
Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start
your trial to the Research Wizard today. And the next time you read
an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds
in, and see what gems come out.
Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard
today.
Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks
Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or
hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in
this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or
have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions
in options that are mentioned in this material.
Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks’ portfolios and
strategies are available at:
http://www.zacks.com/performance.
BUFFALO WLD WNG (BWLD): Free Stock Analysis Report
CHEMED CORP (CHE): Free Stock Analysis Report
RAMBUS INC (RMBS): Free Stock Analysis Report
STILLWATER MNG (SWC): Free Stock Analysis Report
VULCAN MATLS CO (VMC): Free Stock Analysis Report
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