INVESTMENT COMMENTARY & Outlook
April 2025
We are immensely proud that our dividend and growth stocks posted strong fourth-quarter sales and earnings results. In fact, the sales and earnings growth for the S&P 500 were the strongest in the past few years, plus the S&P 500 is forecasted to continue to post earnings in excess of 10% for the remainder of the year. However, the sales and earnings forecasts for our dividend and growth stocks remain much stronger.
The latest quarterly back-testing of our 8-factor fundamental criteria in Stock Grader revealed that the top 45% of stocks should continue to lead the overall stock market.
Despite a positive earnings environment, many countries are in, or anticipated to be in, a recession, such as Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Mexico. When the tariffs were announced on “Liberation Day” in the White House Rose Garden, it created an international uproar. Specifically, the Trump Administration set a minimum tariff of 10% on all imports and is striving to punish approximately 15 nations that have been serial abusers of using tariffs to protect their domestic industries …