Latest Stock Buy or Sell? Make More Informed Decisions!

Today, Brian Belski and Shannon Saccocia, CIO, Boston Private commented about whether NFLX-Q, IYF-N, PANW-N, UBER-N, LOW-N, ONON-N are stocks to buy or sell.

BUY

He likes it long term. He bought it for growth in industrials. Shares have been weak since the election, but he would be adding on current weakness. Trump is expected to end the EV tax credits, which is pressuring these shares, but this sentiment shall pass. Will Lyft continue to compete with them? He doesn't know.

BUY

It makes sense in terms of global unrest and cybersecurity concerns.

BUY

She expects financials to thrive in 2025.

BUY

They boast 70 million ad subscribers. They have tackled every single challenge in the past and thrive. They can be profitable and can afford to explore new areas like live sports.

COMMENT
US treasury secretary and other appointments.

Thought this would be one of the first named to establish a degree of confidence in the marketplace. Now it will be one of the last chosen. Market is still very troubled by the deficit outlook, and there's still a lot of pressure on interest rates. Until we get some clarity on who's running Treasury, that will likely persist. Funding the deficit is going to be a really big thing. Is Trump going to have his thumb on the scale in terms of doing things in a way that's better for capital markets, and not necessarily for the greater good? Yet to be determined.

Looks as though Trump's really trying to shake things up with some of his appointments. The guy who's been appointed to run the Department of Energy is a climate-change skeptic. The Department of Government Efficiency that Musk is involved with seriously intends to clean things up this time. Last time, Trump didn't do any of that.

Trump seems to be appointing yes-men and yes-women. Anyone who's not going to do that hasn't got a chance.

COMMENT
S&P 500 -- given up a lot of the gains made right after the Republican victory.

Yes, though not all. There was a gap in the surprise we got on election night. Last week, markets came back and tested the upper range of the gap up. If it doesn't hold, we're going to go back and wipe out all the gains. From the series of higher highs and lows that we've seen for months and months, these November lows are pretty key.

By the time Trump's in the White House if these levels don't hold, particularly the November lows, look out below. He's not predicting, just saying we need to watch. If you're concerned, the early November lows would be the levels to manage your risk against.

See the Educational Segment.

COMMENT
Latest move up in bond yields.

It's a problem. Today, with over $37T of outstanding federal debt, at an average rate of a little over 3%, that's about $1T. The longer interest rates stay high, and the more inflation that's in the system to keep interest rates higher, the higher the cost of debt is going to be. The only way to get rid of it is to balance the budget and stop spending. That's not on the agenda at all.

Elon Musk is going to try to wipe out a few trillion dollars with his Department of Government Efficiencies, and Larry wishes him well. But what Larry learned when he did his due diligence on the government in Ottawa is that you can't take things away from people, because they get mad at you. That will be the biggest challenge. It will move the needle a little bit, but not enough, and certainly not enough to support all the tax cuts Trump wants.

BUY ON WEAKNESS
Good time to enter in light of recent Chinese stimulus?

Short answer is yes, he likes it. He was selling into strength a few months ago. Now he's looking to reload. On a 5-year chart, you can see the massive bottoming pattern. Won't see numbers like the previous highs again. Probably worth $125-150 over the next few years, if they can stimulate the consumer and the consumer responds.

Chinese consumers have tons of savings, so the potential is there. Buy on pullbacks. One of the best value retail names out there. But you have to be OK with China exposure.

DON'T BUY

His least favourite BMO ETF, terrible way to get exposure to US equities. Not because it's BMO or because of the structure, but because it's the Dow. DJIA is weighted by the size of a company's stock, so higher prices get more weight than lower. Terrible index. 

He'd much prefer an ETF that's in the S&P 500 or an equal-weight US market exposure.

DON'T BUY

One of very few growth stories in Canada. Huge success over the years. Trades at over 50x earnings. If you look at the chart between 2022-2023, the stock drew down in the neighbourhood of 20%. Challenge is that if we go through difficult market conditions, the high-multiple stocks correct more.

For years and years, has missed growth, revenue, and earnings numbers. Overcrowded. Fully priced. You could buy on pullbacks, but it could easily correct 25% in a matter of weeks or months.

WATCH

Uranium is very likely the most important metal to transition from burning carbon to doing less of it in the future. He's hugely bullish on it, though he has no way to forecast the price. Germany turned off all their nuclear generators, and now they're burning more coal than they ever have in history. Lots of geopolitical risk, as a huge amount of uranium comes out of Russia and Kazakhstan. Trump making friends with Putin matters, as does the pace of the world building out nuclear.

Concerned that lots of good news already priced in. Be cautious shorter term. Have to see if people are comfortable with smaller nuclear units in their backyards. If you buy, buy on dips.

SELL ON STRENGTH

He did his deeper dive. He's going to sell on strength. Not willing to sell here, but he's not adding. Very discouraged by the company's recent moves.

BUY
Retired, no pension, relies on dividends for income. ZWB or ZPAY?

A put/write covered call income-focused strategy using options can generate extra income. ZWB is covered call banks. If you're bullish on the market, ZWB will give you more upside than ZPAY. If you're conservative on the market, and you think there's going to be more volatility, ZPAY will do better for you.

Right now in his dividend fund, he owns ZPAY but not ZWB. 

WAIT
Retired, no pension, relies on dividends for income. ZWB or ZPAY?

A put/write covered call income-focused strategy using options can generate extra income. ZWB is covered call banks. If you're bullish on the market, ZWB will give you more upside than ZPAY. If you're conservative on the market, and you think there's going to be more volatility, ZPAY will do better for you.

Right now in his dividend fund, he owns ZPAY but not ZWB. 

WAIT

Can't write covered calls on really short-term assets that don't have volatility. If there's no volatility, there's no options market. Not sure if they're doing that in this ETF, he'll have to unpack this a bit more. What he can see so far is that it's losing $$.