Dave Gonigam – July 7, 2012
On Wednesday, Americans paused to fire up the grill. On Thursday, large sections of the country cooked under an oppressive sun. And on Friday, stocks got roasted on the coals of a lousy unemployment report.
If you’ve been anywhere near a computer, radio or TV in the last 24 hours, you know about the jobs numbers and how they tanked the market yesterday. So we direct your attention this morning to a few things that might have flown under your radar in this week’s 5 Things You Need to Know.
A hidden drag on your portfolio: Oil producers. Combine the shale boom with lousy demand and a slowdown in China and Europe… and Chris Mayer concludes “the high oil price of recent times sowed the seeds of its own demise.” Be wary of oil producers, he cautions — but there are sectors within the energy space that will still perform… and sectors outside of energy that will flourish.
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A metal in demand for the next quarter-century: Copper. Another expert stepped forward this week to forecast epic demand for the red metal… and his outlook “dovetails with what I’ve been hearing from experts across the mining industry,” says Byron King. While copper currently languishes near the level where it sat two years ago, Byron identifies two reasons it can’t stay down forever.
A dying bit of Americana: Small banks. Many of them sailed through the crisis of 2008… but they’re being undone by a passel of new regulations that only the biggest banks can afford to comply with. So far this year, 90 banks are selling out to competitors. “But the small banks will go out with a bang,” says Chris Mayer — “one that investors can capitalize on.”
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Odds that you live in a “Constitution-Free Zone”: Two in three. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has an expansive notion of what makes up “the border” — as many people find to their dismay, stopped on an interstate in New England, or even riding the train from New York to Chicago. If you thought “internal checkpoints” were something out of East Germany, here’s a cold splash of water.
A five-syllable word worth drilling into your memory: “Phytochemicals.” They’re naturally occurring compounds in plants. Many of them have the potential to combat diseases as serious as cancer or a stroke. And because they’re not drugs, they’re not regulated by the FDA — so they can come to market quickly. “Market forces are like water flowing downhill,” explains Patrick Cox. Best position yourself at the bottom of the hill with three phytochemicals that could make early investors very wealthy.
Patrick thinks all three of them have the potential to change the world… but there’s one in particular he’s eager to tell you about.
Cheers,
Dave Gonigam