It’s been a topsy-turvy stock market since the Club’s August Monthly Meeting. The S & P 500 jumped 1.8% over the period, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.1% and 0.9%, respectively. But it hasn’t been a one-way climb for the stock market. Investor concerns around the longevity of the generative artificial intelligence boom , coupled with the market’s sensitivity to the Federal Reserve’s next policy move, have caused Wall Street to seesaw in recent weeks. Case in point: On Friday, the S & P 500 wrapped up its worst week since March 2023, dragged down by a weaker-than-expected August jobs report and Nvidia’s big decline (though the AI chipmaker has soared this week, erasing much of those losses). September’s rocky performance so far follows four consecutive winning months for the S & P 500. We’ve taken advantage of the market’s recent volatility. Since our last monthly gathering, the Club trimmed shares of Eli Lilly and Procter & Gamble and exited our position in the struggling Estee Lauder entirely. We used those funds to boost our positions in AI beneficiary Dover and clean energy play Nextracker despite the latter’s near-term challenges. We also initiated a stake in Home Depot on Sept. 4. The market’s recent jitters have pushed money into more defensive areas as investors seek well-capitalized companies that can endure a potential recession. Just look at portfolio names like Abbott Laboratories and TJX Companies . These were two of our top performers since the August Monthly Meeting. Meanwhile, other winners such as Amazon escaped last week’s sell-off in megacap tech, while Best Buy got a boost on a strong quarterly earnings report. Advanced Micro Devices joined the gainers list late Wednesday on a bounce back in chip stocks. Here’s a breakdown of what drove gains in each of these five stocks since the close of the Club’s August 14 meeting through Wednesday’s close. 1. Best Buy: up 17.7% Shares got a boost Aug. 23 after Fed Chair Jerome Powell delivered dovish policy remarks at the central bank’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. Best Buy can benefit from rate cuts because lower borrowing costs leads to more activity in the housing sector, which can increase demand for the company’s offerings like televisions and appliances. We capitalized on the move higher, making a small sale on Aug. 26 to protect against any disappointment at its upcoming earnings report. It did not disappoint. Indeed, most of the stock’s whopping double-digit advance came from the electronics retailer’s beat-and-raise quarter on Aug. 29 . Shares jumped more than 14% during the session. Although the stock is down roughly 3% since that initial pop, it’s held most of its gains on a string of positive Wall Street commentary. Bank of America, Telsey Advisory Group and DA Davidson each raised their price targets after quarterly results. We also updated our PT to $105 a share from $95. 2. Amazon: up 8.5% Shares of the e-commerce…
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