Seeker Newsletter - Week of Oct 5th 2020

Good Morning,

Is it just me or is anyone else excited that September is in the rear view mirror? September has historically been the worst performing month for stocks, and that was no different in 2020.

Let’s see if we can keep the momentum from last week and have October be a bounce back month for the markets.

Stock Market Update

As Q3 is now closed, we are approaching our next earning season. Another season that is closing in is the election season, which is now less than 30 days away. A wrench was thrown in last week when President Trump was diagnosed with with COVID-19.

It will be interesting to see how the markets react to any health updates from the President’s health team. We did get word that the President did receive a steroid, which is typically reserved for critically ill COVID-19 patients, which sounded a little concerning.

According to many polls, a Biden win in November plus a Democratic Congress seems more likely, but we all remember how 2016 played out so I am not predicting anything, but health is ultra-important, so we will see how the President does this week.

In terms of jobs, we saw another dip when a weaker than expected jobs report when we saw 661,000 jobs added compared to a street estimate of 800,000, which was a sizable miss. The unemployment rate now stands at 7.9%.

We now enter the fall months, which means holidays are on the horizon. This could be a saving grace for many retailers and a last stand for others. The homebuilding sector still remains strong, as builders cannot build homes fast enough.

Let’s take a look at how the major averages have performed year-to-date as well as the last week.

YTD/Previous Week:

Dow: -3.0% Dow: +1.9%

S&P 500: +3.6% S&P 500: +1.5%

Nasdaq: +23.4% Nasdaq: +1.5%

As I mentioned above, we finished the last week of September with a bang and all major averages finished in the green. The Dow Jones is now just 3% from turning green for the year, which would allow all three major averages to be in the green for the year.

However, we are approaching an election, the President is ill, and Q3 earnings season is on its way.

In terms of technicals, the S&P 500 chart is starting to look interesting. Let me show you first the chart and then we can discuss.

Let’s begin with the RSI. The Relative Strength has ticked higher from the lows from last week, but still only sits at 49.7. The MACD is about to see a bullish crossover (see circle on chart), which could spark a move higher.

In terms of the moving averages and support levels, the S&P 500 is trading slightly above the 50 day moving average. The index has found this to be a worthy support level in recent history. In addition, the $3,325 level appears to be a formidable support level.

The Nasdaq fell over 2% on Friday, which was led by many of the FAANG names. Technology has been in a volatile range of late, but some large pullbacks are presenting some dent entry points for long-term investors.

Seeker Portfolio

The Seeker Portfolio was started at the beginning of August and I have now funded $23K to this real-time portfolio. The idea of this portfolio is for subscribers to be able to follow along as I construct a new portfolio. This past week I did not make any new buys.

RECEIVED $3.01 in dividends from our S&P 500 ETF (IVV), which is not an investment for Dividends, but more for market growth. Reinvested these dividends to add partial shares.

RECEIVED $11.20 in dividends from our Dividend Growth ETF (DGRO)

RECEIVED $14 in dividends from our Public Storage (PSA) shares

RECEIVED $6.80 in dividend from our Iron Mountain (IRM) shares, which were reinvested to add 0.25 shares

Here is an updated look at the current portfolio:

Solid week for our portfolio this past week, with the portfolio up nearly 3% on the week. The leaders for the week were largely REITs. AVB, PSA, SPG, and STOR all saw moves greater than 6% on the week.

The portfolio is projected for annual dividends of $981 and the dividend yield stands at 4.12%.

Watchlist

Here are a few names I will be watching this week: DIS, LOW, JNJ, ABBV

The Walt Disney Company continues to be intriguing and one of the most impacted companies from this pandemic. The stock has seen a pullback since the prior earnings release boost and recently announced major layoffs in California related to the Disneyland closure. Disney would be intriguing back under $115 for long-term investors.

Lowe’s is another name that I am watching closely this week. The housing market is expected to remain strong with low interest rates and the demand being MUCH higher than supply. Housing sales combined with home improvement will continue pushing this home improvement store higher. The new leadership team continues to make positive changes as they chase the Home Depot.

Announcement

I hope you all enjoyed the newsletter this week. When I started my newsletter, I set out a goal to reach 500 subscribers, and we have reached that in 2 months.

In setting this goal, not only did I want to build a newsletter following, but I also wanted to prove the value to my subscribers, and based on the feedback I feel that is exactly what we have been doing.

Moving forward, we will be moving to a paid version of the newsletter. I will still be providing a scaled down FREE version of the weekly newsletter. However, investors and subscribers will receive so much more with the paid version. A paid newsletter member will receive the following

• FULL Weekly Newsletter

• Watchlist

• 2 Quick Picks each week

• Educational write-ups

The paid subscription will be ONLY $10/month.

Note: The paid version will begin NEXT week.

I hope you all stick with me as I have some truly exciting stuff to continue adding for subscribers moving forward, including Price Targets!

If you have any questions as all, please shoot me an email at [email protected].

Regards,

Mark