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Top 10 Stocks Americans Want to Invest In

There’s a whole universe of stocks to invest in, but with a little bit of research, we can determine the top 10 stocks Americans want to invest in. Most of the names on this list are no surprise, although one or two may be a bit unexpected. Here are…

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This article was originally published by ValueWalk.

There’s a whole universe of stocks to invest in, but with a little bit of research, we can determine the top 10 stocks Americans want to invest in. Most of the names on this list are no surprise, although one or two may be a bit unexpected. Here are the top 10 stocks Americans want to invest in, based on internet search data. Invezz.com analyzed data from Ahrefs to come up with this list.

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Top 10 stocks Americans want to invest in

  1. Moderna

In tenth place is Moderna, which has made headlines for its COVID-19 vaccine, with 750,000 internet searches per month on average. The company is expected to release the final data on its vaccine trial in a matter of days. If the injection is just as effective as it appeared to be from the preliminary data, then things could start moving very quickly. Moderna will suddenly move from having no product sales to over $13 billion in revenue in 2021, according to Goldman Sachs analyst Salveen Richter. Americans are clearly interested in getting a piece of this company early in its life and capitalizing on one of the COVID-19 vaccines that's in the works. Modern has already said its vaccine is over 90% effective in preventing the coronavirus.
  1. Nio

Number nine on this list of the top 10 stocks Americans want to invest in is the Chinese EV maker Nio, which had 781,000 monthly searches on Ahrefs. Electric vehicle stocks in general have been hot this year, and Nio is one of many of them that have soared in recent months. Nio recently reported earnings results that beat consensus estimates. The EV maker's third-quarter revenue skyrocketed 146% to $628 million as it delivered more than 12,000 vehicles. Many investors are drawing comparisons between Nio and Tesla, especially because Nio's results show it is in about the same position now that Tesla was in four years ago.
  1. Facebook

Facebook has rallied nicely since the March selloff, climbing even higher than it was before the market rout. The social network has been a favorite of investors for years, having had 1.03 million monthly searches for its stock during the study period, so it's no surprise that it landed on the list of the top 10 stocks Americans want to buy. Perhaps one surprise is that Facebook is one of only two FANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, GOOGL/Alphabet) on this list. Tech stocks in general have skyrocketed this year as the COVID-19 pandemic increased adoption of remote options for work and school. Facebook has outperformed the S&P 500.
  1. Microsoft

Shares of Microsoft have surged this year alongside other tech stocks, and investors searched for the company 1.086 million times each month on average. The stock jumped on Tuesday after KeyBanc analyst Michael Turits touted the company's growing subscription software and cloud businesses. He set his price target at $250. Turits expects Microsoft to grow its annual revenue by 11% in the next few years, mostly thanks to its cloud and subscription software businesses. For the company's first fiscal quarter, it reported a 12% increase in revenue and 32% increase in earnings per share. Microsoft has benefited as demand for PCs and cloud computing services has been strong this year due to the pandemic.
  1. Advanced Micro Devices

Number six on this list of the top 10 stocks Americans want to buy is Advanced Micro Devices, which has also been a favorite for years amid the runup in semiconductor stocks. AMD had 1.1 million searches per month on average. The company wasn't really impacted by the March selloff much, but it has since rallied tremendously, approaching $90 after starting the year at around $50. CNBC reported that this year AMD is taking advantage of its huge stock rally to make a massive acquisition. The company reached an agreement to pay $35 billion for rival chip maker Xilinx last month. The semiconductor industry is going through a historic consolidation, and CNBC credits the sizable rally in the sector for that.
  1. Walt Disney Company

The House of Mouse has had a bumpy year since the March selloff, but it has since rallied to about where it was trading before the plunge. Disney received 1.2 million searches per month for its stock. One of the big reasons some have invested or are thinking about investing in Walt Disney this year is due to the launch of its streaming service, Disney+. Disney has had its share of challenges this year because of the pandemic, which forced the closure of its theme parks around the world. The tourism industry as a whole is in dire straits. The good news for Disney is that there's more to it than just theme parks, but still, the theme parks are a significant portion of its revenue.
  1. Boeing

It's interesting to think that Americans would be interested in buying Boeing, but it is on the list of the top 10 stocks with an average of 2.014 million searches per month. Boeing may actually be the subject of searches because of all the problems it has had this year due to the pandemic. The company has also struggled with problems in its 737 Max airplane, which has remained grounded due to an investigation. The good news for Boeing is that regulators are pushing toward clearing the 737 Max for takeoff once again after the problems with it have been fixed. However, the pandemic-related troubles won't be over for some time. Because air travel has plunged, many airlines have canceled their airplane orders, resulting in mass layoffs at Boeing. The company's stock plunged in the March market rout and has yet to recover.
  1. Amazon

The other FANG stock on this list of the top 10 stocks Americans want to invest in is Amazon with an average of 2.274 million searches for its stock per month. Like most other tech stocks, Amazon has soared this year, climbing from less than $2,000 at the beginning of the year to over $3,000. The steep increase in price may give many investors pause, although many analysts don't think Amazon is overvalued yet. The company has been a big beneficiary of the pandemic as people preferred to stay home and shop online instead of going out to stores. Some investors have started to rotate out of pandemic beneficiaries like Amazon and into stocks that have been losers in the pandemic in anticipation of recovery, especially following the news of Pfizer's and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines.
  1. Apple

Apple stock receives an average of 2.584 million searches for its stock every month. The number of searches has likely increased since the company revealed the iPhone 12 lineup. However, some analysts say the demand from the new iPhone models is already priced into Apple stock. Apple may be done with catalysts for its stock this year, and it could be carried around by market forces during the last month. The company's stock soared 80% through the first eight months of the year, although it has climbed a lot less since then. For now, Apple stock may hit the pause button until the next big round of catalysts arrives.
  1. Tesla

Number one on the list of the top 10 stocks Americans want to buy is Tesla with an average of 5.154 million searches for its stock per month. That amounts to 171,800 searches every day for Tesla stock. The shares have been on a tremendous run this year, especially since S&P announced plans to add them to the S&P 500 in late December. Tesla stock has climbed nearly 40% since the announcement was made, putting the company's market capitalization at more than $500 billion. Adding Tesla to the index will be tricky because of its massive size.
 
The post These are the top 10 stocks Americans want to invest in appeared first on ValueWalk.

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Wendy’s teases new $3 offer for upcoming holiday

The Daylight Savings Time promotion slashes prices on breakfast.

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Daylight Savings Time, or the practice of advancing clocks an hour in the spring to maximize natural daylight, is a controversial practice because of the way it leaves many feeling off-sync and tired on the second Sunday in March when the change is made and one has one less hour to sleep in.

Despite annual "Abolish Daylight Savings Time" think pieces and online arguments that crop up with unwavering regularity, Daylight Savings in North America begins on March 10 this year.

Related: Coca-Cola has a new soda for Diet Coke fans

Tapping into some people's very vocal dislike of Daylight Savings Time, fast-food chain Wendy's  (WEN)  is launching a daylight savings promotion that is jokingly designed to make losing an hour of sleep less painful and encourage fans to order breakfast anyway.

Wendy's has recently made a big push to expand its breakfast menu.

Image source: Wendy's.

Promotion wants you to compensate for lost sleep with cheaper breakfast

As it is also meant to drive traffic to the Wendy's app, the promotion allows anyone who makes a purchase of $3 or more through the platform to get a free hot coffee, cold coffee or Frosty Cream Cold Brew.

More Food + Dining:

Available during the Wendy's breakfast hours of 6 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. (which, naturally, will feel even earlier due to Daylight Savings), the deal also allows customers to buy any of its breakfast sandwiches for $3. Items like the Sausage, Egg and Cheese Biscuit, Breakfast Baconator and Maple Bacon Chicken Croissant normally range in price between $4.50 and $7.

The choice of the latter is quite wide since, in the years following the pandemic, Wendy's has made a concerted effort to expand its breakfast menu with a range of new sandwiches with egg in them and sweet items such as the French Toast Sticks. The goal was both to stand out from competitors with a wider breakfast menu and increase traffic to its stores during early-morning hours.

Wendy's deal comes after controversy over 'dynamic pricing'

But last month, the chain known for the square shape of its burger patties ignited controversy after saying that it wanted to introduce "dynamic pricing" in which the cost of many of the items on its menu will vary depending on the time of day. In an earnings call, chief executive Kirk Tanner said that electronic billboards would allow restaurants to display various deals and promotions during slower times in the early morning and late at night.

Outcry was swift and Wendy's ended up walking back its plans with words that they were "misconstrued" as an intent to surge prices during its most popular periods.

While the company issued a statement saying that any changes were meant as "discounts and value offers" during quiet periods rather than raised prices during busy ones, the reputational damage was already done since many saw the clarification as another way to obfuscate its pricing model.

"We said these menuboards would give us more flexibility to change the display of featured items," Wendy's said in its statement. "This was misconstrued in some media reports as an intent to raise prices when demand is highest at our restaurants."

The Daylight Savings Time promotion, in turn, is also a way to demonstrate the kinds of deals Wendy's wants to promote in its stores without putting up full-sized advertising or posters for what is only relevant for a few days.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In Recent History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month

Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In Recent History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month

Last month we though that the…

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Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In Recent History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month

Last month we though that the January jobs report was the "most ridiculous in recent history" but, boy, were we wrong because this morning the Biden department of goalseeked propaganda (aka BLS) published the February jobs report, and holy crap was that something else. Even Goebbels would blush. 

What happened? Let's take a closer look.

On the surface, it was (almost) another blockbuster jobs report, certainly one which nobody expected, or rather just one bank out of 76 expected. Starting at the top, the BLS reported that in February the US unexpectedly added 275K jobs, with just one research analyst (from Dai-Ichi Research) expecting a higher number.

Some context: after last month's record 4-sigma beat, today's print was "only" 3 sigma higher than estimates. Needless to say, two multiple sigma beats in a row used to only happen in the USSR... and now in the US, apparently.

Before we go any further, a quick note on what last month we said was "the most ridiculous jobs report in recent history": it appears the BLS read our comments and decided to stop beclowing itself. It did that by slashing last month's ridiculous print by over a third, and revising what was originally reported as a massive 353K beat to just 229K,  a 124K revision, which was the biggest one-month negative revision in two years!

Of course, that does not mean that this month's jobs print won't be revised lower: it will be, and not just that month but every other month until the November election because that's the only tool left in the Biden admin's box: pretend the economic and jobs are strong, then revise them sharply lower the next month, something we pointed out first last summer and which has not failed to disappoint once.

To be fair, not every aspect of the jobs report was stellar (after all, the BLS had to give it some vague credibility). Take the unemployment rate, after flatlining between 3.4% and 3.8% for two years - and thus denying expectations from Sahm's Rule that a recession may have already started - in February the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 3.9%, the highest since February 2022 (with Black unemployment spiking by 0.3% to 5.6%, an indicator which the Biden admin will quickly slam as widespread economic racism or something).

And then there were average hourly earnings, which after surging 0.6% MoM in January (since revised to 0.5%) and spooking markets that wage growth is so hot, the Fed will have no choice but to delay cuts, in February the number tumbled to just 0.1%, the lowest in two years...

... for one simple reason: last month's average wage surge had nothing to do with actual wages, and everything to do with the BLS estimate of hours worked (which is the denominator in the average wage calculation) which last month tumbled to just 34.1 (we were led to believe) the lowest since the covid pandemic...

... but has since been revised higher while the February print rose even more, to 34.3, hence why the latest average wage data was once again a product not of wages going up, but of how long Americans worked in any weekly period, in this case higher from 34.1 to 34.3, an increase which has a major impact on the average calculation.

While the above data points were examples of some latent weakness in the latest report, perhaps meant to give it a sheen of veracity, it was everything else in the report that was a problem starting with the BLS's latest choice of seasonal adjustments (after last month's wholesale revision), which have gone from merely laughable to full clownshow, as the following comparison between the monthly change in BLS and ADP payrolls shows. The trend is clear: the Biden admin numbers are now clearly rising even as the impartial ADP (which directly logs employment numbers at the company level and is far more accurate), shows an accelerating slowdown.

But it's more than just the Biden admin hanging its "success" on seasonal adjustments: when one digs deeper inside the jobs report, all sorts of ugly things emerge... such as the growing unprecedented divergence between the Establishment (payrolls) survey and much more accurate Household (actual employment) survey. To wit, while in January the BLS claims 275K payrolls were added, the Household survey found that the number of actually employed workers dropped for the third straight month (and 4 in the past 5), this time by 184K (from 161.152K to 160.968K).

This means that while the Payrolls series hits new all time highs every month since December 2020 (when according to the BLS the US had its last month of payrolls losses), the level of Employment has not budged in the past year. Worse, as shown in the chart below, such a gaping divergence has opened between the two series in the past 4 years, that the number of Employed workers would need to soar by 9 million (!) to catch up to what Payrolls claims is the employment situation.

There's more: shifting from a quantitative to a qualitative assessment, reveals just how ugly the composition of "new jobs" has been. Consider this: the BLS reports that in February 2024, the US had 132.9 million full-time jobs and 27.9 million part-time jobs. Well, that's great... until you look back one year and find that in February 2023 the US had 133.2 million full-time jobs, or more than it does one year later! And yes, all the job growth since then has been in part-time jobs, which have increased by 921K since February 2023 (from 27.020 million to 27.941 million).

Here is a summary of the labor composition in the past year: all the new jobs have been part-time jobs!

But wait there's even more, because now that the primary season is over and we enter the heart of election season and political talking points will be thrown around left and right, especially in the context of the immigration crisis created intentionally by the Biden administration which is hoping to import millions of new Democratic voters (maybe the US can hold the presidential election in Honduras or Guatemala, after all it is their citizens that will be illegally casting the key votes in November), what we find is that in February, the number of native-born workers tumbled again, sliding by a massive 560K to just 129.807 million. Add to this the December data, and we get a near-record 2.4 million plunge in native-born workers in just the past 3 months (only the covid crash was worse)!

The offset? A record 1.2 million foreign-born (read immigrants, both legal and illegal but mostly illegal) workers added in February!

Said otherwise, not only has all job creation in the past 6 years has been exclusively for foreign-born workers...

Source: St Louis Fed FRED Native Born and Foreign Born

... but there has been zero job-creation for native born workers since June 2018!

This is a huge issue - especially at a time of an illegal alien flood at the southwest border...

... and is about to become a huge political scandal, because once the inevitable recession finally hits, there will be millions of furious unemployed Americans demanding a more accurate explanation for what happened - i.e., the illegal immigration floodgates that were opened by the Biden admin.

Which is also why Biden's handlers will do everything in their power to insure there is no official recession before November... and why after the election is over, all economic hell will finally break loose. Until then, however, expect the jobs numbers to get even more ridiculous.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/08/2024 - 13:30

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Shipping company files surprise Chapter 7 bankruptcy, liquidation

While demand for trucking has increased, so have costs and competition, which have forced a number of players to close.

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The U.S. economy is built on trucks.

As a nation we have relatively limited train assets, and while in recent years planes have played an expanded role in moving goods, trucks still represent the backbone of how everything — food, gasoline, commodities, and pretty much anything else — moves around the country.

Related: Fast-food chain closes more stores after Chapter 11 bankruptcy

"Trucks moved 61.1% of the tonnage and 64.9% of the value of these shipments. The average shipment by truck was 63 miles compared to an average of 640 miles by rail," according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics 2023 numbers.

But running a trucking company has been tricky because the largest players have economies of scale that smaller operators don't. That puts any trucking company that's not a massive player very sensitive to increases in gas prices or drops in freight rates.

And that in turn has led a number of trucking companies, including Yellow Freight, the third-largest less-than-truckload operator; J.J. & Sons Logistics, Meadow Lark, and Boateng Logistics, to close while freight brokerage Convoy shut down in October.

Aside from Convoy, none of these brands are household names. but with the demand for trucking increasing, every company that goes out of business puts more pressure on those that remain, which contributes to increased prices.

Demand for trucking has continued to increase.

Image source: Shutterstock

Another freight company closes and plans to liquidate

Not every bankruptcy filing explains why a company has gone out of business. In the trucking industry, multiple recent Chapter 7 bankruptcies have been tied to lawsuits that pushed otherwise successful companies into insolvency.

In the case of TBL Logistics, a Virginia-based national freight company, its Feb. 29 bankruptcy filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia appears to be death by too much debt.

"In its filing, TBL Logistics listed its assets and liabilities as between $1 million and $10 million. The company stated that it has up to 49 creditors and maintains that no funds will be available for unsecured creditors once it pays administrative fees," Freightwaves reported.

The company's owners, Christopher and Melinda Bradner, did not respond to the website's request for comment.

Before it closed, TBL Logistics specialized in refrigerated and oversized loads. The company described its business on its website.

"TBL Logistics is a non-asset-based third-party logistics freight broker company providing reliable and efficient transportation solutions, management, and storage for businesses of all sizes. With our extensive network of carriers and industry expertise, we streamline the shipping process, ensuring your goods reach their destination safely and on time."

The world has a truck-driver shortage

The covid pandemic forced companies to consider their supply chain in ways they never had to before. Increased demand showed the weakness in the trucking industry and drew attention to how difficult life for truck drivers can be.

That was an issue HBO's John Oliver highlighted on his "Last Week Tonight" show in October 2022. In the episode, the host suggested that the U.S. would basically start to starve if the trucking industry shut down for three days.

"Sorry, three days, every produce department in America would go from a fully stocked market to an all-you-can-eat raccoon buffet," he said. "So it’s no wonder trucking’s a huge industry, with more than 3.5 million people in America working as drivers, from port truckers who bring goods off ships to railyards and warehouses, to long-haul truckers who move them across the country, to 'last-mile' drivers, who take care of local delivery." 

The show highlighted how many truck drivers face low pay, difficult working conditions and, in many cases, crushing debt.

"Hundreds of thousands of people become truck drivers every year. But hundreds of thousands also quit. Job turnover for truckers averages over 100%, and at some companies it’s as high as 300%, meaning they’re hiring three people for a single job over the course of a year. And when a field this important has a level of job satisfaction that low, it sure seems like there’s a huge problem," Oliver shared.

The truck-driver shortage is not just a U.S. problem; it's a global issue, according to IRU.org.

"IRU’s 2023 driver shortage report has found that over three million truck driver jobs are unfilled, or 7% of total positions, in 36 countries studied," the global transportation trade association reported. 

"With the huge gap between young and old drivers growing, it will get much worse over the next five years without significant action."

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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