MarketBeat Week in Review – 3/20 - 3/24

Key Points

• The Federal Reserve raised interest rates and raised more questions than it answered. 
• The price action in equities this week is a reminder that the markets hate uncertainty.  
• Next week brings more information on the housing market and ends with the final reading on fourth quarter GDP.  
• Here are some of the most popular articles from this week.  

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell raised interest rates by 25 basis points this week. Investors were expecting the interest rate hike, but it’s created a situation where the Fed’s words and actions aren’t matching up. And that is creating uncertainty for investors. Next week the markets will get more information about the state of the housing market and the week will end with the final reading on fourth quarter GDP. Will March go out like a lion or a lamb for investors? We’ll find out together. In the meantime, here are some of the stories the MarketBeat analysts delivered for you this week.  

Articles by Jea Yu 

Even before the banking crisis, gold was behaving like the safe-haven asset it’s supposed to be. While some investors may be drawn to bitcoin, Jea Yu reminds investors that unlike bitcoin, gold has intrinsic value. And Yu gives investors two gold stocks that investors might use to hedge their banking stocks. On a less optimistic note, Yu was analyzing the recent earnings report delivered by United Airlines Holdings Inc. NASDAQ: UAL. The report went against other data that shows demand for airline travel is still strong. While it’s not conclusive by itself, tbe earnings report does add more uncertainty. It’s all enough to make you want a hug. And for many people – including teenagers and adults – that hug may come from a plush bear they created at a Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. NYSE: BBW location. And the company’s ability to expand beyond malls and pivot to a broader audience is bullish for the stock.  

Articles by Thomas Hughes 

Mullen Automotive Inc. NASDAQ: MULN continues to make news. And that means that Thomas Hughes is helping MarketBeat subscribers understand what the news means for them. As Hughes points out this week, Mullen has many potential catalysts in the works, but for now it remains a speculative stock. Hughes was also writing about the different reactions by investors to three major shoe companies. Investors are getting their “kicks” from the results by Shoe Carnival, Inc. NASDAQ: SCVL and Foot Locker, Inc. NYSE: FL despite tepid guidance. But investors are less excited about the earnings report from NIKE Inc. NYSE: NKE which may have been the best of the three, but investors were expecting more. In the end, it’s evidence that this isn’t a time for investors to settle, especially when Hughes points out three large-cap stocks that deliver both a strong yield and reliable dividend growth.  

An Articles by Sam Quirke 

When investors think about safe haven assets, things like gold and defensive, dividend-paying stocks come to mind. But as Sam Quirke writes, recently investors have been starting to flock into tech stocks. This may seem surprising at first, but Quirke points out that it’s actually a bit obvious. Quirke highlights one of the stocks that investors love, Microsoft NASDAQ: MSFT and explains why, when it comes to safe assets, investors have many reasons to choose MSFT stock.  

Articles by Chris Markoch  

Chris Markoch was focused on dividend stocks this week, but not the standard blue-chip stocks. Rather, Markoch wrote about some different ways of looking at dividend stocks. In one article, Markocb wrote about three small-cap stocks that pay large dividends. Markoch was also writing about a class of stocks known as dividend contenders that are attractively priced today for long-term growth later. And Markoch followed up on a recent article he wrote about Enphase Energy, Inc. NASDAQ: ENPH. The stock plummeted at the end of last week, but the drop was due more to market uncertainty than due to any substantive news. As Markoch writes, this reiterates his prior article that suggests investors are getting a second chance to get in on this renewable energy stock.  

Articles by Kate Stalter 

Kate Stalter was also writing about the resurgence of tech stocks. Specifically, Stalter was writing about three tech stocks that offer investors the opportunity for market-beating growth at a reasonable price. Stalter was also reminding investors that sometimes finding the best ideas means looking for stocks outside of the United States. With that in mind, Stalter gives investors three foreign stocks they can look at for a combination of price growth and dividend yield. And an emerging narrative is that if the pace of interest rates slows or if a pause is in play, could that be bullish for the stock of homebuilders? Stalter offers some of her thoughts on whether homebuilder stocks would rally on such news?  

Articles by MarketBeat Staff 

The flight to safety is on, and the MarketBeat staff was writing about the seesaw effect that is having some of the precious metals and cryptocurrency stocks that are going up as the prices of regional bank stocks are going down. And if that’s too risky for you, the team came up with three dividend stocks that offer investors a dividend yield that is higher than the 10-year treasury note. However, the team was also quick to point out that while some bank stocks are legitimately troubled, analysts are bullish about three regional bank stocks.