Five Reasons Mila Kunis Shouldn t Be Buying Stocks Now MarketBeat

Post on: 16 Март, 2015 No Comment

Five Reasons Mila Kunis Shouldn t Be Buying Stocks Now MarketBeat

The rallying stock market is attracting investors of all stripes, even one of MarketBeats favorites, Mila Kunis.

Ive just started investing in stocks, which is new for me, Kunis, the actress known for her roles in That 70s Show,  Forgetting Sarah Marshall  and most recently Oz: The Great and Powerful,  told CNBC. Im an advocate of like put things in the bank, put it in a CD, lock it away, be safe. And Ive been pushed kind of forward to take chances and then learning a little bit about the stock market and companies, she added.

Such a revelation has raised eyebrows across the blogosphere and Twitterverse. The old adage is whenever shoe-shine boys. barbers. Hollywood types or former Fed chairmen start touting the stock market, its time to bail out. Thats because so-called mom-and-pop investors have a history of buying high and selling low, which any layman economist will tell you is exactly the wrong thing to do in the market.

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Case in point, Kim Kardashian tweeted  on Aug. 20 about how Apple Inc. had become the most valuable company in history. The stock would rally for another month before embarking on a 40% slide that is currently showing little signs of ending anytime soon.

Here at MarketBeat HQ, we only hope for the best for Ms. Kunis, prompting us to present five reasons she shouldnt be buying stocks now.

1. What goes up must come down. The stock market has more than doubled over the last four years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average just snapped a 10-day winning streak, which was one of the longest stretches of consecutive up days in its storied history. It hit a record high on March 5, and then proceeded to keep hitting fresh all-time highs in each of the next seven days. Look, were not saying a crash is around the corner. But nothing goes in a straight line forever. Even some of the biggest bulls would argue that this market is due for a pullback. Dont get caught buying high.

2. The Fed wont propel the rally forever.  Ben Bernanke & Co. has been one of the major underpinnings of the markets four-year rally. The Feds bond-buying programs and easy money policies have flooded the financial system with liquidity and helped push equities higher. At some point, the central bank will have to start pulling back from those efforts. People are already trying to front run the Fed before it makes its next move. Once the Fed blinks, this could get ugly.

3. Companies arent exactly confident about the economy.  So far this quarter, 101 companies in the S&P 500 have predicted weaker-than-expected earnings figures, compared to just 23 companies that have unveiled optimistic outlooks, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. That’s the worst ratio since the third quarter of 2001. Not exactly a vote of confidence in the current economic conditions.

4. Stocks may be cheap, but they were cheap the last time the market peaked.  Supporters of the ongoing stock rally have been saying the gains are warranted because the markets valuation is relatively cheap. For the S&P 500, the forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio for S&P 500 companies was 13.7 as of Thursdays close, according to FactSet, compared with the five-year and 10-year averages of 12.8 and 14.2, respectively. But John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet, points out that on Oct. 9, 2007when the S&P 500 set its closing record highthe P/E ratio was 15.2, which at the time was below both its five-year and 10-year averages. So despite the market not being expensive then, remember what happened the subsequent 17 months. The S&P 500 dropped by more than 50%.

5. Wage growth is pitiful.  Were relatively obsessed with wage growth here at MarketBeat, holding that its one of the best indicators of how well the economy is really growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics issues a real earnings report every month. This morning, the news wasnt very encouraging. Average hourly earnings were up 0.1% from a year ago. For all the math wizards out there, thats essentially flat. Its hard enough to get a job these days. But the lucky few that have found employment arent seeing any wage growth, which is why so many people are down on the economy even as most of the major stock indexes are at record highs.

Ms. Kunis, if youd like to offer a rebuttal, were all ears.

Heres the CNBC clip of Ms. Kunas talking stocks:

For more MarketBeat and other streaming markets coverage from The Wall Street Journal, point your mobile browser to wsj.com/marketspulse .

Paul Vigna and Kevin Kingsbury contributed to this post.


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