{"id":9301,"date":"2021-02-08T10:28:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T10:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zackspcg.com\/blog\/?p=9301"},"modified":"2022-02-26T13:05:55","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T13:05:55","slug":"energy-sector-woes-home-construction-booming-silver-hype-fizzles-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/energy-sector-woes-home-construction-booming-silver-hype-fizzles-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy Sector Woes, Home Construction Booming, Silver Hype Fizzles Out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In today\u2019s Steady\nInvestor, we look at key factors that we believe are currently impacting the\nmarket, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Energy\nsector performance in 2021<\/li><li>Rise of\nU.S construction spending<\/li><li>Silver\nbeing hyped to rise like GameStop<\/li><li>Economic\nforecasts see strong 2021 growth<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Will the Energy\nSector Recover in 2021? <\/strong>The S&amp;P 500 Energy sector was by far the worst\nperformer last year, posting a -33.7% decline. The next worst performers were\nReal Estate (-2.2%) and Financials (-1.7%), while every other sector in the\nS&amp;P 500 posted a positive return. The source of Energy\u2019s miserable performance\nin 2020 stemmed largely from plummeting demand for oil, as the global economy\nendured pandemic-induced shutdowns and major curbs to travel. The biggest\nglobal oil companies are posting their weakest annual performance in over two\ndecades, with Exxon Mobil and BP reporting annual losses of $22 billion and\n$18.1 billion, respectively. The biggest oil companies have scrambled\nthroughout the past year to revise their oil-and-gas assets and rethink or\nabandon expensive projects. From an investor perspective, the outlook for\nenergy on the demand front is better, and generally speaking, one might\nreasonably expect some mean reversion following a terrible 2020. But the\nlonger-term outlook for oil and gas companies is less certain, particularly as\nthe climate comes into greater focus.<sup>1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>______________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/go.steadyinvestor.com\/arrow-market-strategy-report?source=zim&amp;medium=blog&amp;term=steadyinvestor_zim_2021_02_08&amp;content=market_strategy_report\">Let Us Help You Navigate Your Investment Goals Through 2021!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve\nall experienced volatility in the market during 2020, but what does 2021 have\nto offer? Are you financially ready for both negative and positive outcomes? Even\nthough this year has the potential to be a huge year for the market, how long\nwill it take? The key is to not focus on uncertainties you may have, but to\nprepare for any situation that better protects your financial investments in\nthe long run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this report, we make\npredictions for the sector under and over performers, while also providing\nthoughts on possible outcomes of 2021. We will look at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Big Tech rally numbers based on last year\u2019s performance<\/li><li>What could we expect from the tech industry this year?<\/li><li>Zacks 2021 \u201cForecasts at a Glance\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have $500,000 or\nmore to invest and want to learn more, download your guide today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/go.steadyinvestor.com\/arrow-market-strategy-report?source=zim&amp;medium=blog&amp;term=steadyinvestor_zim_2021_02_08&amp;content=market_strategy_report\">Download Our Just Released, \u201cFebruary Market Strategy Guide\u201d<\/a><sup><a href=\"https:\/\/go.steadyinvestor.com\/arrow-market-strategy-report?source=zim&amp;medium=blog&amp;term=steadyinvestor_zim_2021_02_08&amp;content=market_strategy_report\">2<\/a><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>______________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>U.S. Construction\nSpending Rises, But Not for All Categories \u2013 <\/strong>US construction spending continues\nto tick higher, but the spending is not benefiting all categories of real\nestate. Specifically, the final quarter of 2020 showed increasing divergence in\nspending between home builders and commercial contractors, with home builders\nseeing record growth. With mortgage rates remaining low and many Americans\nchoosing to leave cities for more space in the suburbs, private residential\nconstruction is booming. Meanwhile, private nonresidential construction for\nbuildings that house hotels, offices, health care facilities, and retail stores\nhave dropped for six consecutive months.<sup>3<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Silver Was Hyped as\nthe Next GameStop. It Wasn\u2019t \u2013 <\/strong>Perhaps predictably, the GameStop\/AMC mania\nof last week has given way to steep declines this week. In our view, for every\nstory of a retail investor making huge profits in GameStop, there were probably\nten untold stories of investors who posted big losses. This week, the story\nshifted to commodities, as participants on online forums suggested that\na buying spree of silver could generate big GameStop-like gains. The chatter\ntriggered a (very) short-term rally in iShares Silver Trust, but the ETF is now\nflat for the year.&nbsp;The bottom line:&nbsp;<strong><em>creating a short squeeze\nin silver, as was done in GameStop, is impossible.&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong>In\norder to create a GameStop-like outcome for silver, an investor would need to\nhold large quantities of the metal. Most retail investors don&#8217;t hold any silver\nat all and would have a challenging time building up a position &#8212; given the\n$50 billion market for coins, bars, and other silver investments &#8212; and given\nrestrictions on the size of positions that retail investors can take.<sup>4<\/sup>Predictably, the rally didn&#8217;t last very long, and shares\nof silver producers are plummeting. Our advice to retail investors as more of\nthese online forum-driven trade ideas pop-up:&nbsp;<strong>steer clear.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Economic Forecasts\nSee Strong 2021 Growth, But Lagging Job Gains \u2013 <\/strong>We take forecasts from the Congressional Budget Office with a\ngrain of salt, as they are usually wrong. But the general thrust of the CBO\u2019s\nlatest outlook for the US economy seems reasonable, as they are calling for the\neconomy to return to pre-pandemic GDP output by the middle of 2021. The jobs\nmarket may not claw back to pre-pandemic levels as quickly, however. Temporary\njob losses have been turning permanent over the last two quarters, and many\nbusinesses are rethinking how many workers they need on staff to run\nefficiently. With online work and e-commerce being catalyzed by the pandemic,\nmany jobs are no longer needed \u2013 and may never return. As the economy grows, new\njobs will likely be created.<sup>5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Managing Expectations of 2021<\/strong> \u2013 2021 has the potential\nto be a huge year for the market. As many investors are managing their\nexpectations of what this year will bring, let us help you by focusing on key\ndata and facts! In our just-released February Market Strategy Report, we make\npredictions for sector under and over performers, while also providing thoughts\non possible outcomes of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We will look at: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Big Tech rally numbers based on last year\u2019s performance<\/li><li>What could we expect from the tech industry this year?<\/li><li>Zacks 2021 \u201cForecasts at a Glance\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn more, click on the link below to get your free report today!<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Energy&#8217;s 2020 decline and uncertain future, 2021 economic growth forecast, silver will not be the next GameStop<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-private-client-group","category-steady-investors-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10458,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301\/revisions\/10458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}