The Santa Claus Rally Is Pushing These Portfolio Stocks Higher
Plus updates on Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.
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* The Santa Claus Rally is unfolding as expected, and we're sticking with our game plan.
* Apple Watches are back on the shelves, Apple working on a workaround.
* As AI migrates to devices, our attention will be on the upcoming CES.
* Amazon gets a nod from Wedbush, this move should expand its advertising business.
We are halfway through the seven days known as the Santa Claus Rally and so far the market is notching the expected seasonal strength we expected. That is pushing our holdings higher with the shares of Bank of AmericaBAC , McDonald's MCD , Marvell MRVL , Qualcomm QCOM , and United Rentals URI outpacing the S&P 500. However, trading volumes are thin as expected and will most likely be even more so tomorrow ahead of the holiday weekend that has the US stock market closed on Monday, January 1.
We are also seeing the S&P 500's RSI inch higher just as the Fear & Greed Index has creeped into Extreme Fear with a reading of 78 out of a possible 100. We will continue to stick with our year-end plan - enjoy the Santa Claus Rally, not put fresh capital to work in the near term, and continue to identify well-positioned companies poised to generate above-market EPS growth in the coming quarters.
Portfolio Tidbits
Action Alerts PLUSholdingApple AAPL shares are moving higher on news it can resume selling its watches after a U.S. appeals court paused the ban on the sale of the devices after Apple filed an emergency motion with the court. Despite the reprieve, Apple is planning a long-term software fix to allow for sales of some of its Watch models in the U.S. amid an ongoing patent dispute with Masimo MASI .
Reports indicate MicrosoftMSFT is preparing AI-focused Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 with Arm ARM chips. We see this as part of the expected move to on-device AI, something that is expected to facilitate consumers upgrading computers, smartphones, and other connected devices. The upcoming 2024 Consumer Electronics Show that will run from January 9-14 will shed much more on this product transition.
Wedbush names Amazon AMZN as one of its top consumer internet platform picks for 2024. That follows our naming the company as the stock to own heading into the 2023 holiday season, and it didn't disappoint with its 28% gain over the last several weeks.
This week Amazon announced its Prime streaming service will get ads starting January 29. While this move follows in the footsteps of other streaming services, including Netflix NFLX , we have a different animal with Amazon.
Prime Video comes bundled with a person's Prime membership and that person has a choice to view the ads, which should bolster Amazon's advertising business. Prime members wishing to keep their viewing experience ad-free can pay an additional $2.99 per month. Either way, we are looking at an incremental revenue stream for Amazon.
Action Alerts PLUS is long BAC, MCD, MRVL, URI, QCOM, AAPL, MSFT, AMZN.