After Tuesday, Another Uncertainty Bites The Dust

Nov. 06, 2012 5:40 AM ET, , , 1 Comment
David Brown
722 Followers

The market remains sensitive to weak forward outlooks and continues to punish those stocks that miss on revenues and beat on earnings. Today, Express Scripts (ESRX), Zillow (Z), and BroadSoft (BSFT) bore the brunt of that attitude, down -14%, -21%, and -11% respectively after-hours.

But not all is morose. EOG Resources (EOG) and CVR Energy (CVI) delivered great earnings reports and raised their forward outlooks, and the market responded positively, though not in as dramatic a fashion as the disappointments.

Hopefully, with the election behind us tomorrow, investors can remove another item of uncertainty from the equation, giving more weight to the most important factors like company performance and economic growth. However, what's been touted as the closest election in 36 years might very well drag on in a Bush-Gore style of recounts.

Most importantly, whoever is elected needs to be able to work with the members of Congress and show unity in decision-making. If investors see this as a possibility, we might get some bullish activity through the end of the year and perhaps beyond, if the "fiscal cliff" isn't kicked down the road.

The election looms as the weightiest announcement this week, as economic reports are thin.

Who'll benefit if Obama or Romney wins? While politicians are famous for compromising on their election platforms once elected, there are a few sectors that seem likely to benefit, depending on who is elected. In Healthcare, it seems traditional companies would likely do better under another Obama administration, while something like Pharmaceuticals might respond favorably to a Romney victory. Energy seems to be a good place to be, as both men are supportive of our energy independence. Finally, we see finance sector as likely doing better under Romney. The rest, who knows?

That's why we continue to seek out the most

This article was written by

722 Followers
David L. Brown is a director and the chief market strategist at Sabrient Systems, LLC, an investment research firm. He is former NASA scientist and retired CEO of Telescan, Inc. and a lifelong investor who designed and developed the critically acclaimed stock search program, ProSearch, and the market timing indicator, the Brown Breakout Ratio (BBR). He was named Stock Traders Almanac's Man of the Year for 1988 for "[showing] the average investor how to spot the stocks that the hottest money managers are buying." He has edited several market letters, including the Undervalued Growth Report, a real-money portfolio which he published for 10 years with a record of nearly 20% compounded annual returns and no loss years. He has documented his investing expertise in four books on investing, including All About Stock Market Strategies (McGraw-Hill, June 2002) and Cyber-Investing: Cracking Wall Street with your Personal Computer (John Wiley & Sons, 1994, 1997). The latter was named Book of the Year in 1997 by PBS's Inside Money. He has taught finance and security analysis courses at the University of Houston. He holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Houston and a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of the Author's Guild.

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