Stock and Mutual Fund Picks for Class
 

Hello,

I have to pick 2 stocks and 2 mutual funds for personal finance class on Jan. 14th.

Any suggestions? I'm looking at morningstar.com and a few forums, but its a bit overwhelming.

Thanks. ;)

I think the results will be measured at the end of the semester (4/30/04).

Lucent. I think it will do good.

Lucent is on a suprising rebound.

Cisco is past the point that many places have put sell order for.
Sell orders were set at 23, it's beyond that.. ..it could be touchy.

IDCC has rebounded very well, and will continue to grow. They own the copyrights to the protocols to cell phone communications.

HL is good if you think the economy will be unstable in the comming months.

Unless gateway turns their act around, stay the hell away from them.

-SF

i say take a look at ballard power systems, unless you need substantial growth in a few months. They produce and research fuel cell systems.

I like Lucent for the long term but short term is questionable. They just lost out on a contract with Verizon (one of their biggest customers which accounted for like 20+% of their income last year). While Verizon will still be buying a lot of product from Lucent, this loss hurts them.

Business spending is still a little shaky. Big expenditures for infrastructure equipment will take some time to ramp up. When you start to see increased hiring, you will see increased business spending.

I like consumer electronics companies in the short term. Consumers are spending money and confident. TVs, stereos, home theatre systems, etc are hot right now and their manufacturers are able to charge premium prices for them with lots of profit built in.

Oil companies might be a good possibility for the short-term. Gas and oil prices remain high. Oil and gas stock prices generally depress when there is an economic rebound, but natural gas prices remain very high. Devon Energy or Anadarko Petroleum might be ones to consider. These two companies have both had depressed stock prices recently but are fundamentally sound.

I took a personal finance class a couple semesters ago and we did the same excersize. Pixar did very well for me, but I chose pretty much at random, and I have no idea how it's doing now. Sadly, I stopped checking the stocks as soon as I was finished with the class. :o

I'd say Nortel, but they're not really making that big of a rebound. I'm still reeling from my father's stupid financial decisions to keep BUYING the stock as it hit rock bottom. Thankfully, its recovering a bit.

Since you're going to be evaluated in the short-term(a few months) It's somewhat of a crapshoot as to what stocks will go up. Basically just go to a website like cnnfn.com etc and look at what their analysts are picking to make gains in the short-term.

AMD is about to blow away earnings on Tuesday... mark my words :cool:

Thinking a little more about it, given the newly introduced prescription plan for the elderly, pharma companies that have a big focus on elderly conditions (high blood pressure, cardiovascular drugs, arthritis, etc) will be good bets in the short term.

are you looking for short term earnings or long term security, if short term is good for you, look at some penny stocks (under 20 cents)

watch them for a few weeks until you learn there moving range, buy low sell high,

Vanguard 500 Index fund is an easy choice. It's my main fund investment at the moment, too.

I've recently been finding that Morningstar (see link for example) seems to get it wrong too often. OTOH, check out The Motley Fool, which I'm currently checking out.