As usual, at this time of year, I review the stock suggestions I made from the year prior to the one just past. In this case, 2007 suggestions. The reason I do not consider the 2008 predictions is that this suggests a short-term orientation to the stock market, something I have long argued is foolhardy.
In any case, I won't be reviewing my picks in the sort of detail I did last year; only to say that most suggestions or predictions were made in an August 13 2007 posting. My suggestions were to avoid real estate stocks in general, home-builders and earlier in July suggested avoiding sub-prime lenders. Good calls.
The other calls did not work out so well: I said I liked some of the big banks: Wells-Fargo and US Bancorp (two good picks in a bad sector), but I also liked Citigroup and Wachovia (two bad picks in a bad sector).
I liked emerging markets (beaten up badly) - and still do. I think picks like DEM, EEB and EEM look like they'll be excellent wealth-makers into the future. Put that down as a prediction to be checked upon in 2011.
Carrying forward, I also liked the engineering companies and industrial infrastructure since many will have wonderful opportunities both in emerging markets, and in developed markets since the infrastructure needs rebuilding. Put that down as a re-iteration to be checked upon in 2011. Some names in that sector that were trashed include GE (arguably, due to their financing activities, however) and Fluor Corp, while, Siemens and Jacobs Engineering suffered declines closer to market averages.
Well, that's about it - not a great year for stock investors. As always, however, the Confused Capitalist looks forward to better times in the future.
What a wonderful world we live in and what a wonderful opportunity to be alive. See you all later in 2009 ...
For now, take care ...
JW
The Confused Capitalist
