Diamonds and Dogs

1/11/16

Smoke em if you got em. Tobacco and Philip Morris (PM) is the diamond of the day up 2.5% within 1% of its 52 week high. No real news on Phillip Morris or the tobaccos, but with the way the rest of the market is acting, investors are flocking to safe conservative dividend paying stocks for now. Phillip Morris also outperformed last year up 9% while the broader market closed unchanged. I would expect investors to take advantage of this sell off soon and rotate back into some of these beaten up stocks, but for now, boring is beautiful.

Looks like Under Armour has a woman problem. Tis the season to get back into shape, but the Fitbit (FIT) stock dropped 12% to a new 52 week low today and today's dog, Under Armour (UA) dropped 6% to a new recent low on a downgrade.  The analyst at Morgan Stanley lowered her price target from $103 to $62 due to the company losing ground to apparel rivals particulalry in the female departments for the first time in three years and average selling prices overall are falling at an accelerated pace. Not good signs. Under Armour has been struggling for a while down 33% from the September highs. Last week, Under Armour introduced their connected health electronics at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The HealthBox will monitor health, fitness, sleep, activity and nutrition through a wrist band, scale, and heart monitor. Let's hope Under Armour can get their mojo back.