Cloud-computing stocks have been active recently, and yesterday the bulls turned to data-warehousing company Teradata.
» Read MoreBruce Levis, managing director at McQueen, Ball & Associates, says that the market has yet to hit bottom, but offered a few sector selections that could benefit investors.
Levis recommended health care and consumer staples sectors, rather than the tech names.
“There are some tech names that are interesting, but the health care and consumer staples sectors play up the dividend growth theme, which is important in a volatile market.”
In Thursday's edition of CNBC 101 -- a regular mini-lesson on developments in the markets -- Bob Pisani spoke of a reported new ETF from bond-fund giant Pimco.
"I've been waiting a long time" for an ETF [exchange-traded fund] from Pimco, said Pisani, who writes the Trader Talk blog on this site.
Reportedly, Pimco is creating an ETF to track the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index.
"This is an important thing that's going on," declared Pisani. He conceded that "It's a little late to do this" -- after all, such a new issuing will compete with two already-established ETFs, the iShares Lehman Aggregate and the Vanguard Total Bond fund .
But he noted that Pimco is also a "huge mutual fund company," with more than $200 billion in mutual assets. And such a new ETF will keep more of its fund investing "in-house."
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Other Top ETFs:
- SPDRs
- UltraShort Real Estate ProShares
- SPDR Gold Shares
More from Bob Pisani:
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Robert Dodd, analyst at Morgan Keegan, offered CNBC his take on the world’s largest credit card companies, MasterCard and Visa.
Don Wordell has some mid-cap ideas to help position your portfolio for recovery.
His four-star RidgeWorth Mid-Cap Value Fund is up an average of 12.29 percent per year for the last five years.
"Our process revolves around three things: Yield, valuation and fundamentals," he told CNBC.
Recommendations:
His first pick is Mattel.
"They have the licensing arrangement for 'The Dark Knight,'" he said. "That's a tremendous blockbuster movie that's going to drive toy sales."
And that's not all.
"They have great brands: American Girl, Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, and then, they've got the new Elmo Live toy coming toward the end of the year," he said. "We really are excited about the opportunity for Mattel."
Also on Wordell's list is Hanover Insurance Group.
"(They're) selling their life insurance business to Goldman Sachs, which is feeing up about $200 million in excess capital that they can then redeploy in higher- ROE [return on investment] businesses by making acquisitions or buying back some stock," he said. "We really think a stock trading at a discount to book value here is just a compelling opportunity."
Disclosures:
Disclosure information for Don Wordell was not immediately available.
Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services, sees more upside to oil prices. He told CNBC that he believes oil prices could return to the $130- to $135-per-barrel level.
See Barratt's energy-market insights.
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Oil Producers:
- Exxon Mobil
- Chevron
Refiners:
- Valero
- Marathon
Energy ETF:
- Energy Select Sector SPDR
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RNC Genter Capital Management's Dan Genter thinks the market has found a bottom. Dave Rovelli of Canaccord Adams isn't so sure. But both men have some ideas for investors about where to go from here.
Rovelli says Thursday morning's report on higher-than-expected initial claims for unemployment benefits was "a disaster," tying the hands of Federal Reserve policymakers who cannot now raise interest rates to counter inflation.
Recommendations:
Rovelli's one recommendation is in the field of alternative energy.
"First Solar: Great earnings -- they beat on the top line and the bottom line -- we love this stock," he said.
Genter has far more ideas for investors than Rovelli. "In the techs...I'd stay more in the semis, and look...at Intel or an Analog Devices type of issue."
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RNC Genter Capital Management's Dan Genter thinks the market has found a bottom. Dave Rovelli of Canaccord Adams isn't so sure. Both men have some ideas for investors about where to go from here.
"I think we have a floor below us that's somewhere around 5 or 6 percent below where we are right now," Genter told CNBC. "You have to buy into this market; you have to get a ticket on this ride, or you will eventually be left behind sometime in `09, but I think you have to be very selective in the sectors and the stocks you go into."
(See Part 2 for Rovelli's outlook and picks .)
Recommendations:
So Exxon Mobil has just broken its own record again, reporting a mind-boggling $11.6 billion profit on $138 billion in sales.
While it would be easy to protest -- and some will -- and easy to simplistically label it a windfall -- and many will -- the fact of the matter is that Microsoft is three times more profitable than Exxon.
Instead of only looking at the absolute numbers, professionals assess the degree of earnings power a company has via profit margins (net income divided by total sales). By that measure, Exxon doesn't even land on the medal platform of the the mega-cap corporations.
Herewith, the profit margins of the some of the biggest, using latest quarterly results:
- Exxon 8.4%
- Microsoft 27%
- Google 23%
- Johnson & Johnson 20%
- Apple 14%
- GE 10.8%**
- WalMart 3.2%
So the next time Congress thinks about hauling in the big oil CEOs to grill them about ruthless profiteering and gouging the American people, ask them to also invite Bill Gates, the world's 3rd-richest man -- and have him do some 'splainin'.
And dont even get me started on marketshare!!
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More CNBC Investor Intelligence:
- Complete CNBC Earnings Coverage
- Dow Oil & Gas Index
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Disclosures:
** GE is corporate parent of CNBC.
Options are playing on early morning earnings action, according to Rebecca Darst of Interactive Brokers.
Insurers ...
Disney, Starbucks, Visa, Tyco Electronics, Electronic Arts: earnings season is in full swing and investors are wondering how to read the news.
Steven Wieting of Citigroup and Dirk Van Dijk of Zacks Investment Research offered CNBC their insights.
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