CLIENT TALKING POINTS
Up And To The Right?
Anyone who has been a perma-bear or has suggested going to 100% cash has been wrong. Plain and simple. The Dow Jones Industrial Average continues to make new highs every day this week, which is an impressive feat unto itself. Next in line for the all-time high prize is the S&P 500, which could get there today. It's almost like a perfect storm is happening right now: you have the US dollar getting stronger and driving commodity prices down which help drive consumption and stocks keep going up and to the right. Just when you thought good couldn't get better, it does. Hence why we continue to be bullish on US equities.
TOP LONG IDEAS
ASCA
We believe ASCA will receive a higher bid from another gaming competitor. Our valuation puts ASCA’s worth closer to $40.
FDX
With FedEx Express margins at a 30+ year low and 4-7 percentage points behind competitors, the opportunity for effective cost reductions appears significant. FedEx Ground is using its structural advantages to take market share from UPS. FDX competes in a highly consolidated industry with rational pricing. Both the Ground and Express divisions could be separately worth more than FDX’s current market value, in our view.
HOLX
HOLX remains one of our favorite longer-term fundamental growth companies given growing penetration of its 3D Tomo platform and high leverage to the 2014 Insurance Expansion from the Affordable Care Act.
Asset Allocation
| CASH | 24% | US EQUITIES | 24% | |
| INTL EQUITIES | 24% | COMMODITIES | 4% | |
| FIXED INCOME | 0% | INTL CURRENCIES | 24% |
THREE FOR THE ROAD
TWEET OF THE DAY
"US Dollar +3.6% since December FOMC 6% unemp tgt. Markets move first, fundies follow, now down to 7.7% on Feb report." -@Chicagostock
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening." -Marshall McLuhan
STAT OF THE DAY
U.S. economy adds 236,000 jobs in February. Unemployment falls to 7.7%, the lowest level since December 2008.