Issue #8, Volume #1
A Sneak Peek at This Year’s Porter & Co. Conference
Three Things You Need To Know Now:
1. China unleashes its monetary “bazooka.” On Tuesday, China’s central bank – the People’s Bank of China (“PBOC”) – announced a sweeping stimulus plan. The plan included interest rate cuts (with the promise of more to come), lower bank reserve requirements (which allows banks to lend more), and 500 billion yuan (US$71 billion) in direct “liquidity support” for the stock market – including a swap facility to reportedly allow private institutions to borrow from the PBOC to buy shares. The Chinese government also said it was considering setting up a “stock stabilization fund,” and introducing new measures to encourage mergers and acquisitions. Critics have questioned whether this “bazooka” of liquidity is large enough to revive China’s slowing economy, but it’s a clear sign that the PBOC – like the Federal Reserve in the U.S. – has now jumped on the stimulus “bandwagon.” More easing – and more inflation – is likely.
2. The U.S. money supply is growing again. The latest government data show M2 – a measure of broad money supply that includes cash, checking and savings accounts, and money market deposits – is now rising again after a sharp decline over the past two years. M2 rose 2.2% over the past 12 months, the biggest year-over-year increase since September 2022. More money sloshing around the economy could ultimately drive both consumer and asset prices higher.
3. Gold is getting the message. Gold has been on a tear, closing at a new record high every day since Chair Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve “pivoted” and cut interest rates by 50 basis points last week. It’s now quickly closing in on $2,700 per ounce. As I mentioned last week, gold is telling us that inflation isn’t over.)
And one more thing…
Just days after Microsoft (MSFT) announced it will spend $1.6 billion to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear-power plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to power its artificial-intelligence (“AI”) initiatives, the Department of Defense officially broke ground on Project Pele. As subscribers to The Big Secret on Wall Street may recall, Project Pele is the revolutionary transportable nuclear reactor project being manufactured by our top nuclear recommendation BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT)… This is just the latest indication that a full-fledged nuclear renaissance is now underway, and Porter & Co. subscribers are positioned to benefit. Big Secret subscribers are now up 87% on BWX Technologies in less than two years.
A Sneak Peek at This Year’s Porter & Co. Conference
We’re publishing today from Day 1 of the second annual Porter & Co. Conference at my historic farm just outside Baltimore.
To give you a taste of today’s fantastic lineup, I want to share some highlights from our own Porter & Co. analysts’ presentations that just wrapped up earlier this afternoon.
First up was Erez Kalir, lead analyst of Porter & Co. Biotech Frontiers. This service is off to an incredible start – in the eight months since we launched Biotech Frontiers, Erez has made 16 recommendations, 13 of which are winners so far (that’s an 80% win rate) with an average annualized return of 26.7%.
Those are stellar returns, but Erez believes the biggest gains are yet to come. As he pointed out to the audience this afternoon, the broad biotech sector is technically still in a bear market. He then explained why he believes a huge biotech bull market is about to begin… detailed his seven-step methodology for identifying the very best opportunities in the industry… and highlighted three of his “best buys” today.
Next was Ross Hendricks, who works with me on our flagship investment service, The Big Secret on Wall Street.
I’ve written to you previously about the Power Law phenomenon in investing. In short, most of the profits in the stock market accrue to a very small number of companies. Various studies show that roughly 1% of all stocks create about 70% of the wealth. (I believe this idea is so critical to successful long-term investing that I even named my new podcast after it: The Power Law Investing Podcast.)
Ross presented an opportunity to invest in a Power Law winner in the mining industry. As you may know, it’s rare to find this kind of high-quality business in this industry because mining, in general, is a highly competitive, terribly capital-intensive business.
But this company has beaten the odds, compounding investor capital at a remarkable 30% per year for nearly two decades now.
It also boasts just under 20% compounded annual revenue growth, 32% operating margins, a strong 25% return on equity (“ROE”), and has generated positive net income in 17 of the last 18 years – which is particularly hard to do in the wildly cyclical resource sector.
Despite this company’s solid fundamentals, its shares have recently crashed by 60% – along with many other mining stocks – during the recent commodities bear market.
Ross believes this has set up a tremendous buying opportunity, especially with the typically “smarter” bond market giving the “all clear” today.
You see, despite the recent panic in this company’s share price, its bonds still trade above par – that is, above the face value when it was first issued. In other words, bond investors aren’t worried about this company’s future at all.
This type of divergence between a company’s equity and debt performance has an excellent track record of predicting sharp share-price rebounds. We call them “golden triangle” divergences because the V-shaped rebound in the stock price that tends to follow them often creates a triangle shape, as shown in the chart above.
To top it all off, Ross also noted that this company offers exposure to one super-critical mineral that is poised for one of the most powerful commodities bull markets of all time.
Also… Marty Fridson – the world-renowned “Dean of High Yield” and lead analyst of Porter & Co. Distressed Investing – shared a surprising opportunity he discovered to earn a relatively low-risk, double-digit yield in one of the last places most investors would look today: the bonds of a former high-flying meme stock.
Like several other popular COVID-era companies with poor underlying fundamentals, this company saw its shares soar thousands of percent in 2020 and 2021… before plunging as much as 99% in the three years since.
But Marty and his team believe this once-struggling company’s business has quietly turned the corner, making this particular high-yielding bond safe. Yet buying this bond at today’s distressed prices will generate a total return of around 13% over the next two years.
Finally, as I’ve recently promised in these pages, I also shared all the details on my new, proprietary version of my old friend Harry Browne’s Permanent Portfolio. I’m calling it Porter’s Permanent Portfolio, and it’s designed to safely compound capital at upwards of 13% per year – or 2x to 3x the returns of Browne’s original portfolio, with little to no additional risk.
While it’s too late to join us in person, it’s not too late for you to experience all of these presentations – and much more – from the comfort of your own home. Porter & Co. Partner Pass members and paid-up subscribers to The Big Secret on Wall Street will receive free access to the complete video footage of the conference – including copies of every presentation – shortly after the event wraps up.
Good investing,
Porter Stansberry
Stevenson, MD
P.S. The shipping industry might not be on your watchlist. But Tom Dyson, who’s been featured in this month’s Porter & Co. Spotlight – and who Porter calls “the greatest investor you’ve never heard of” – might make you reconsider. Tom’s insight and recommendations are available here and here (and are otherwise available only to subscribers of Bonner Private Research).
Tom talks about how to best prepare yourself for what he anticipates – similar to Porter – will be an upcoming cascade of crises… and he passes on a way to insulate your portfolio from weakness in the U.S. dollar. See Tom’s thoughts here.