Stocks rallied to close the week after a smaller-than-expected rise in consumer prices for October fueled hopes of cooling inflation. The S&P 500 closed the week more than 5% higher, logging its best weekly performance since June. Meanwhile, the Dow added 4%, and the Nasdaq Composite stacked on around 8%.  

Since the U.S. government officially introduced the first-ever tax credit for energy storage projects, the industry has had remarkable positive business developments. Our first buy recommendation for today is a company gaining traction as plans for much-needed upgrades to the nation’s aging power grid unfold.  

NextEra Energy (NEE) is the world’s largest producer of solar and wind energy. They’re owners of Florida Power & Light and some other utilities and businesses that do wholesale energy. They’re also the sponsor of NextEra Energy Partners, which is primarily renewable energy focused. Renewables are a big part of NextEra’s business. NextEra has emerged as the world’s most valuable utility, largely by betting on utilities, especially wind.  

NextEra had about 30 gigawatts of wind and solar farms at the end of last year, enough to power 17 million homes. And it’s expanding significantly, with contracts to add another 10 gigawatts of renewables. 

For decades, NextEra Energy has been reducing emissions through developing renewable energy and modernization of its generation fleet. The company’s goal is to reduce the CO2 emissions rate by 67% by 2025 from a 2005 baseline. This equates to a nearly 40% reduction in absolute CO2 emissions, despite the company’s total expected electricity production almost doubling from 2005 to 2025. Working toward this goal, as of year-end 2021, NextEra has reduced its CO2 rate by 62.2%  and the absolute CO2 tons by 20% while their generation increased by 67.5%. That’s pretty impressive.  

NextEra Energy has more energy storage capacity than any other company in the U.S., With more than 180 MW of battery energy storage systems in operation. The company leads the industry with storage innovations such as its Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center – the largest combined solar-plus-storage facility in the country. This cutting-edge project incorporates a 10-MW battery storage project into the operations of a 74.5-MW solar power plant.

NextEra has a solid track record of success. Between 2006 and 2021, their adjusted earnings per share grew at a compound annual growth rate of 8.4%, while dividends grew at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4%, that’s incredible growth over 15 years. Over the past five years, the stock is up 137% on a total return basis. That type of performance is not typical for a utility company which indicates that NextEra truly is an outlier in the industry. 

The undisputed global leader when it comes to identity security, CyberArk (CYBR), has been gaining attention on Wall Street. The stock is up 26% over the past six months and could continue to gain heading into 2023. Regardless of any short-term earnings volatility, the potential for long-term, steady growth is too great to ignore.  

CyberArk’s innovations occur across its self-hosted solutions and expanding SaaS portfolio of privileged access management, secrets management, and cloud privilege security offerings, helping its customers enable “Zero Trust” by enforcing the least privilege. Under the framework of its Zero Trust approach, its teams can focus on identifying, isolating, and stopping threats from compromising identities and gaining privilege before they can do harm.

The Israel-based company was recently named a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management for 2021. It was positioned both highest in the ability to execute and furthest in completeness of vision for the fourth time in a row. It comes as no surprise the business has been attracting customers to its subscription-based services, which means tremendously reliable cash flow, a good sign for anyone eyeing the small-cap.  

For its third quarter, CyberArk reported a 133% growth acceleration from the previous year’s quarter of the subscription portion of its annual recurring revenue (ARR) to $255 million. Total ARR came in at $465 million, with growth Accelerating to 48%. Management also increased the full-year 2022 ARR Guidance Range to  $589-$601 million, up from a prior estimate of $583.5-$598.5 million.

Over the past two years, the dramatic shift from brick-and-mortar shopping to e-commerce has been a tremendous obstacle for investors in malls and shopping centers. The demise of cornerstones like Sears and JCPenny hastened the decline as shopping malls are now left without anchor tenants.   Recent data suggests that 25% of America’s 1,000 malls will be closed in the next 3-5 years.  

Leading shopping mall REIT Simon Property (SPG) is struggling to pivot amid the inevitable decline of its core asset group. The REIT has been aggressive in diversifying into outlets and foreign real estate, which may help to hedge against increasingly substantial losses from their shopping mall category. But given current inflation and the possibility of an economic slowdown, both shoppers and retailers may be in a tight spot this holiday season which will inevitably weigh heavily on SPG.  

Investors choose REIT stocks because of their income-producing abilities and yields. The fact that SPG is concentrated in brick-and-mortar retail is tangential to its income feature. Anyone looking for the reliable income that real estate and mortgage investments can bring would be wise to steer clear of Simon Property for now.  

Read Next – Get Out of U.S. Banks Immediately

A Wall Street legend has warned 8.4 million Americans to prepare immediately.

“A historic financial reset in 2023 could cause a run on the banks unlike anything we’ve seen in our country’s history,” he says.

Marc Chaikin has already appeared on 30 different TV networks to share his warning.

Even CNBC’s Jim Cramer has taken notice.

But few people realize this could actually happen on U.S. soil.

Or what a sizable impact it could have on your wealth, especially if you have large amounts of cash in the bank right now.

Chaikin is best known for predicting the COVID-19 crash, the 2022 sell-off, and the overnight collapse of Priceline.com during a CNBC debate.

In his 50-year Wall Street career, he worked with hedge funds run by billionaires Paul Tudor Jones and George Soros.

But today, he is now urging you to move your money out of cash and popular stocks and into a new vehicle 50 years in the making.

“This is by far the best way to protect and grow your money in what will surely be a very difficult transition for most people,” Chaikin says.

Click here for the full story, and his free recommendation.

Stocks surged into the close on Friday on the heels of positive consumer spending figures and mixed corporate earnings results. Personal spending increased 0.6%, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations for a 0.4% rise. The major indices finished the week with solid gains. The Dow stacked on nearly 6% for its fourth consecutive positive week, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose for the second week in a row with 4% and 2% gains, respectively.  

This week will be eventful on the earnings front, with reports expected from several prominent companies, including Pfizer, Moderna, Toyota, Qualcomm, PayPal, Starbucks, and Kellogg’s, among others. Investors will remain focused on economic growth with Fed policymakers set to gather for the two-day November Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which begins on Tuesday, and a critical interest rate decision expected on Wednesday.  

The Federal Reserve is expected to lift its benchmark interest rate by seventy-five basis points, marking the fourth time in a row it’s approved such a steep increase. The Fed’s latest such hike in September pushed the rate to a range of 3.00% to 3.25%—a level last seen in 2008. The labor market will also be in the spotlight, as several key reports will be released, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics October nonfarm payrolls report.  

Amid unrelenting inflation and a strong potential for a recession, volatility is widely expected to continue as we head into the new year, making the job of selecting stocks difficult. A logical move in times like these is dividend stocks, which pay you just to hold them. Dividend-paying companies regularly reward investors directly with a portion of the cash flow. The most desirable dividend stocks have a history of raising their payouts over time as the company’s profits grow. Our first recommendation for the week is a high-yielding stocks that seem ripe for the picking as we head into the new year.  

Anyone who has kept tabs on the global supply chain and shipping saga that’s been unfolding since the outbreak of covid is probably familiar with Genco Shipping (GNK). The company owns a fleet of 44 ships it leases for dry bulk transportation of goods like grain, coal, and iron ore. The going rate to rent one of Genco’s ships is no less than $27,000 per day, which provides some solid cash flow that the company uses to reward its shareholders.  

Dry bulk shipping rates, along with GNK’s share price, have fallen in recent months. Still, as China recovers from recent lockdowns and seasonal demand is expected to be strong, it’s hard to see the pullback in share price as anything less than an opportunistic bargain.  

GNK pays a handsome 14.8% dividend yield. The company will be looking to display strength ahead of its November 2nd earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.88, down 38.89% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the latest Zacks consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $91.06 million, down 22.47% from the prior-year quarter.

One area of the market that can perform well regardless of what’s happening elsewhere in markets is biotech. Biogen (BII) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on neurological and neurodegenerative disease therapies. The company is on the leading edge of creating drugs and therapeutics for some of the more perplexing chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s. Biogen has been working on drugs that can reduce the buildup of amyloid plaques which could be critical to stemming the advancement of the disease.  

The neurological solutions pioneer has partnered with Eisai, a Japanese pharmaceutical company, to develop Lecanemab, one of its potential amyloid plaque-destroying drug candidates. The two companies will split the drug’s profits 50/50. Recent data from lecanemab has proven “robust” as the drug saw a 27% reduction in patients’ clinical decline on cognitive and functional metrics, causing the entire industry to rethink the historically elusive answer to Alzheimer’s.  

Following the “better than expected” Phase 3 data for lecanemab, JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott raised the firm’s price target on Biogen to $275 from $221. The analyst foresees full FDA approval for lecanemab and believes there is a high probability that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will cover the drug. Schott would not be surprised to see further upside for the shares into year-end as he expects lecanemab to dominate the competition.

While lecanemab takes center stage, Biogen has a pipeline that features several drugs in various clinical stages. The company’s Spinraza for treating spinal muscular atrophy has been a blockbuster drug. Multiple sclerosis drugs Avonex and Plegridy generate nearly $2 billion in annual sales.  

BIIB shares spiked on the positive lecanemab results and have dwindled since. A better entry opportunity may come, but for long-term-minded investors focusing on growth, Biogen is an intriguing candidate even at its current level.

Given the unprecedented situation with major world powers Russia and China,  Washington is taking steps to strengthen the technical capabilities of its military and its allies while also seeking to protect the U.S. from cyber threats.

Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) is one of the world’s largest cybersecurity solutions providers. Specializing in marketing cybersecurity products that other companies produce, nearly every U.S. federal, intelligence and defense agency uses its services. In other words, Booz Allen is poised to scoop up a significant portion of the whopping 15.6 billion that the U.S. is expected to spend on cybersecurity in 2023.

For its fiscal 2023 first quarter, which ended June 30, revenue surged 13% year over year to $2.25 billion, while its net income jumped an impressive 50% to $138.1 million. Wall Street expects $4.88 EPS for the entire year, indicating a reasonable forward P/E of 19.4 times.  

Stifel analyst Bert Subin recently raised the firm’s price target on BAH to $105 from $102 after hosting the company at the firm’s London Industrials & Renewables Summit and coming away with a favorable outlook, driven by continued demand tailwinds and an easing labor market. The current consensus recommendation is to Buy Booz Allen. A median price target of $105 represents an increase of 10% from the current price.