God Bless America!

We’ve all heard it before. “You Americans are out of touch with the rest of the world”. We’ve heard stories of how people overseas despise the “Ugly Americans”….and more recently, we had a group of Olympic French fags in speedos talking trash about how they were going to smoke our USA mens swim team in the medley relay. HA!

(U-S-A!… U-S-A!…. U-S-A!)

EFA vs. SPY:

Remember back in 2003 when a lot of people started getting into international funds? At that time international mutual funds gained a lot of attention in a big way. They were all the rage. Pretty soon investors were pouring 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% of their money into international stock funds. I even heard one guy tell me that 75% of a U.S. investors money should be in overseas investments. After all, he reasoned, we are only about 25% of World GDP. Therefore it only makes sense that investors here in the U.S. should “diversify” in order to have a truly “global portfolio”.

(U-S-A!… U-S-A!…. U-S-A!)

About a week ago, on the first day of the “Orympics”, I saw for the first time, since October of 2003, the relative strength chart favor  [[SPY]] over [[EFA]] . How fitting. Don’t just take my word for it. Look it up. Test it. It’s true.

(U-S-A!… U-S-A!…. U-S-A!)

Also, on that very same day, August 8, 2008, when people were ooohing and aahhing over the opening of the Beijing Olympics, the U.S. Dollar made a significant shift in trend vs. the Euro—at least in the near term. True story.

(U-S-A!… U-S-A!…. U-S-A!)

At a time when people are negative on America and Americans, our stock market and the U.S. Dollar are showing signs of strength vs. other foreign markets and currencies.

Keep an eye on this trend that is developing. Investments and markets fall in and out of favor. The only thing that remains constant is:… change.

God Bless You and God Bless America!

If you’re looking to buy a solid healthcare stock, look no further than Johnson & Johnson [[JNJ]] , which closed yesterday at $71.20. It has been a rather boring stock of late, but as I highlighted in yesterday’s post, it is on the move and hitting new highs.

JNJ is a diversified healthcare company that had 40% of revenues from drugs, 36% from medical devices and 24% from consumer related products, in 2007.

Currently, they are in “growth strategy mode” and have committed to finding new growth opportunities in healthcare, of which they only have participated in, and sold products to only 30% of the total $4 trillion global healthcare market. So, 70% of the total market has not been tapped into by JNJ.

June quarter sales were up almost 9% to $16.5 billion, with the medical device business reporting over 12% revenue growth to just over $6 billion.

In addition,  they are sitting on about $13 billion in cash and are one of the few companies that have a AAA credit rating. Expect them to grow via acquisitions. 

This company is a cash cow, generating over $12 billion in free cash flow last year and has a low debt to equity ratio of about 19%. 

JNJ is a solid core holding for the healthcare allocation of a portfolio.

Disclaimer: Investing involves risk. Don’t forget—you can, and sometimes will, lose money faster than if you walked the streets of Mexico City, wearing a shirt made of $100 bills.

Close to breaking out. Check it out.

AGCO Corporation [[AG]] , forms a bullish triangle breakout at $59. Today, it reversed off a low of $53.52, the 50-day MA.

Hat tip to anjing bau on this one.

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson [[JNJ]] has broken out of a trading range from 62 – 69, and is headed higher. With the healthcare sector turning positive, I bought shares at $71.08 this morning.

The price objective is $91, with a stop loss at $63.

My favorite pie is apple. It’s a great dessert to top off a “man’s meal”, i.e., a big joozy ribeye steak– ‘medium rare’, corn on the cob, baked potato, and a bucket of beer. You just can’t go wrong with them fixin’s.

Apple Inc. [[AAPL]] , $176.86, is one of those stocks that is a favorite this summer among tech investors. Basically, it’s been working, when other ideas haven’t—and I don’t think you can go wrong buying APPL here, if you’re willing to hold on to it. 

I bought more last week at $163.45, and still own shares from November 2001 at $10.57 (split-adjusted). I’ve bought it steadily over the years to the point that It is, by far, the largest position in my portfolio (not my trading account). Obviously, it has paid me well to hold on to it.

We will see it back over $200 sooner than we might think. This stock is a keeper and one I want to own long-term and not trade out of.

My sources are telling me that there is a nice buzz going on at the company. Things are upbeat. Management is optimistic about trends in iPhone sales. Their estimate of 4.2 million units for the quarter might actually be pretty conservative. 3G demand is much stronger than expected. This is a catalyst that will propel the stock even higher from here. 

Disclaimer: Investing involves risk. Know what you’re buying. You could lose money, so be prepared to get your head handed to you on a wooden platter at any time, without notice. This is not an endorsement to buy Apple stock, but it is an endorsement of apple pie.

I’ll be out all day tomorrow, so here are some names for you to check out if you want to play some banks that are breaking out.

Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin Inc. [[ABCW]] , Banner Corporation [[BANR]] , BOK Financial Corporation [[BOKF]] , [[CBON]] , Central Pacific Financial Corp. [[CPF]] , Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. [[CTBI]] , First Midwest Bancorp, Inc. [[FMBI]] , Heritage Commerce Corp. [[HTBK]] , [[PCBK]] , PrivateBancorp, Inc. [[PVTB]] , Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc. [[SASR]] , Sterling Bancshares, Inc. [[SBIB]] , [[SCBT]] , Texas Capital Bancshares, Inc. [[TCBI]] , [[TONE]] , UMB Financial Corporation [[UMBF]] , West Coast Bancorp [[WCBO]] , [[WFBC]] , and Wells Fargo & Company Wells Fargo & Company Wells Fargo & Company Wells Fargo & Company [[WFC]] .

You’re welcome.

Please allow 5 – 7 business days for your invoices to arrive in the mail.

Disclosure: I own TCBI and WFC in my long term portfolio.