The stock market has been on a tear the last few years.
But if you’ve been on the sidelines watching all the gains, it might be time to take a chance on the market.
So what stocks should you be watching?
Here are some of the hottest sectors on the market, as well as some of the best stocks to buy now.
The best stocks to buy now.
Stocks to buy now: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A, BRK.B)
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A , NYSE: BRK.B ) is a holding company that owns many companies, including the well-known insurance company Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
However, its real value is in its cash. The company owns a whopping $100 billion in cash and short-term investments. It also holds $116 billion in marketable securities, not including its investments in ETFs.
For investors looking for a few safe stocks, BRK is right up there.
It currently yields 3.6%, but one could get even more in dividends by selling BRK.B.
Even after the sell-off on Wednesday, BRK is still up 16.8% since the start of the year.
Financial
Stocks in this sector have had a strong run. For example, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA: XLF ), which measures the performance of the financials sector, has gained nearly 31% over the last 12 months.
And the sector isn’t done yet. It was just the 10th best-performing sector in 2017, according to our technical analysts.
If you haven’t already invested, now might be a good time to do so. Financials should continue to do well as interest rates rise. But one company that stands out as an example of this is Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB ).
Fifth Third Bancorp is a regional bank with a $70.6 billion market cap. It focuses on serving small to mid-sized businesses.
Technology
If you want to take a punt on technology stocks, Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU ) is a good choice.
The company produces the memory chips used in all types of devices. As a result, its revenue is closely tied to the price of memory chips.
While this market is still recovering from the Chinese “threat,” MU stock has been a bright spot in the market. Its earnings more than doubled between 2016 and 2018.
This growth was driven by the booming memory chip market and growing demand for data storage.
Fast-growing companies such as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), Alibaba (NYSE: BABA ), Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU ) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB ), SOLO stock, and SENS stock, continue to invest in data centers and cloud services.
Diversified
This is the perfect time to jump into diversified-focused stocks.
You can make money in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, commodities, and even gold and silver.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
Some very savvy investors have their eye on stocks to buy.
I won’t name names, but there are some who have predicted the current bull market has a little ways to go.
In my opinion, those are the very same traders who have done phenomenally well over the past few years.
Preferred stocks have been on fire lately.
This is a classic “buy low, sell high” situation.
There are basically two main types of preferred stocks, called preferred shares and preferred stocks.
Sectors on the rise
Financial stocks are on fire.
Investors are looking for the next stocks to drive returns, and banks have been on fire.
The group has delivered a roughly 11% return year-to-date, while the broader S&P 500 has risen less than 2%.
That’s thanks to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, which boosts banks’ profitability.
The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA: XLF ), a proxy for the sector, has soared 12% this year, making it one of the top performing ETFs in the entire market.
It’s one of three big financial stocks I’m avoiding here.
The market continues to price financial stocks as if they’re still the strong market leaders of the past decade. But I’m not willing to pay the price for these stocks.
Why should you invest in stocks?
Stocks give you the power to invest in companies that will grow your money and generate a lot of money for you.
The stock market makes it possible to make money off your money.
And — in my experience — the stocks that beat the market consistently make the best investments.
The broad index of U.S. consumer discretionary stocks, or discretionary, has a good record of beating the market.
This sector, which includes retail, media, real estate, and other non-cyclical industries, has provided an average return of 10.57% per year since 1997. That compares to the S&P 500’s average return of 9.3% over the same period.
(Article published by beststocks.com)
