The market has had a great 2-day rally, but the Coronavirus will be with us for a while. It is time to go back to stocks that outperformed when the market sank in February and March. The 3 stocks below (CLX, KR, and MRK) have declined recently, but were huge outperformers as the S&P500 dropped over 33%.
CLX – broke out above 15-month resistance in late February as the crisis began in earnest. CLX was the 8th best performer in the S&P1500 between 2/19/20 and 3/23/20. During that period CLX was up 5.25%, while the S&P500 was down 33.92% (see table below). CLX is down 23% in the past 5 days and is right back to the February breakout level, which should be support. TPA’s target is +20%.
CLX CLOROX CO 165.6600 Stop = 156.5487 Target = 198.7920
KR – rose above its 3 ½ year downtrend line in December. KR was the 10th best performer in the S&P1500 between 2/19/20 and 3/23/20. During that period KR was up 3.2%, while the S&P500 was down 33.92% (see table below). KR is down 18% in the past 4 days and is right back the breakout level, which should be support. TPA notes that the ratio of KR/S&P500 also broke out long term and short term and is at support; so it should outperform from here.
KR KROGER CO 27.9400 Stop = 26.4033 Target = 33.5280
·MRK – is down 26% from its high on 12/20/19. It was one of the top 70 best performing stocks in the S&P1500 as the S&P500 fell 33.92% from 2/19/20 to 3/23/20. MRK was only down 19.2% (see table below). MRK is now all the way back to its breakout level from August 2018, which should be support. RSI analysis on a weekly basis shows that MRK is long term oversold. Chart 3 shows that the previous 3 times that MRK was this oversold on a weekly basis (2011, 2015, 2017) it was a good time to buy.
MRK MERCK & CO 68.2200 Stop = 64.4679 Target = 81.8640
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