Any time the markets hit and establish new all-time highs,
the concern among Wall Street professionals is always what catalyst is there to
drive stocks higher? One thing is for sure, earnings are the ticket to
continued advances in the market, and the sectors that have lagged the market
over the last four to seven quarters may be the ones that deliver the goods for
investors.
For a variety of reasons, energy, materials, financials and
technology have struggled for the past year and a half. With easier comparisons
and dollar strength abating, two of these sectors, technology and financials,
account for 35% of the S&P 500 earnings, and could be the key to earnings
growth. Toss in energy and materials, which account for an additional 10%, and
the market could sustain a higher level overall earnings growth.
We screened the Merrill Lynch research database for one
Buy-rated dividend-yielding stock in each sector. We found four that make good
sense now.
Read more at 24/7 Wall St. to find out what they say about INTC,
OXY, JPM and DOW