Trump Tones Down Tariff Talk

After a full week of oftentimes manic reactions to the idea of tariffs, President Trump watered down his plans just enough to give the market another day of gains. Canada and Mexico will be exempt from the 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports, while other countries could apply for exemptions.

The market would prefer no tariffs at all, but it decided to take what it could get on Thursday. The major indices were struggling mid-day, but eventually turned higher for modest advances on the day. The S&P was up 0.45% to 2739, while the NASDAQ rose 0.42% to 7428 and the Dow advanced 0.38% to 24,895.2. Now we head into Friday’s session with a good chance of securing weekly gains.

The Employment Situation report could surely have a say as to how stocks end the week. The data will be released tomorrow morning and expectations are for the economy to have added about 205,000 new jobs in February.

The only move in the portfolios on Thursday came from Technology Innovators. Brian Bolan found a tech name that gets most of its revenue from the burgeoning Big Data space. Learn about this buy and more in the highlights section below:

Today's Portfolio Highlights:

Technology Innovators: Big Data is just going to get bigger and bigger, so Brian Bolan decided to pick up a stock that gets most of its revenue from this growing space. Aquantia (AQ) develops advanced, high-speed communications ICs for Ethernet connectivity, primarily in the data center. The editor was really impressed when the stock quickly recovered from a penny miss in its most recent report. Meanwhile, AQ also wants to get into the autonomous driving space, where Brian says it could be a formidable player. He thinks this stock will eventually make it to $21. Read the full write-up for a lot more on this new addition.

Home Run Investor: Collegium Pharma (COLL) may have lost money in its most recent quarterly report, but the specialty pharma company beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate once again. Perhaps the biggest news, though, was that prescriptions for its pain killer Xtampza ER grew by 37% in the fourth quarter. Shares of COLL soared by 17.6% on Thursday, giving Home Run Investor the top performing stock from all the portfolios for the day.

Options Trader: "Before I continue, let me first say that, in spite of the breathless ‘reporting’ on this (tariff) subject since (President Trump) mentioned it on Thursday of last week, the market is actually higher. The incessant predictions of doom and gloom from the media on how this would derail our economy as we enter into a protracted trade war, shows, once again, how wrong the media can be as they jump to conclusions and rush to judgement. (Sigh)

"In all fairness, we still have to see what this will finally look like in 15 days, but so far, the market seems to like what it hears.

"It’s been a wild rise over the last month and a half. But the market is back within striking distance of its all-time highs. And given the strength in the economy, I expect we’ll see brand new highs sooner rather than later." -- Kevin Matras

All the Best,
Jim Giaquinto

Recommendations from Zacks' Private Portfolios:

Believe it or not, this article is not available on the Zacks.com website. The commentary is a partial overview of the daily activity from Zacks' private recommendation services. If you would like to follow our Buy and Sell signals in real time, we've made a special arrangement for readers of this website. Starting today you can see all the recommendations from all of Zacks' portfolios absolutely free for 7 days. Our services cover everything from value stocks and momentum trades to insider buying and positive earnings surprises (which we've predicted with an astonishing 80%+ accuracy). Click here to "test drive" Zacks Ultimate for FREE >>

 
Zacks Investment Research