Good morning everyone.
Lowes and HD. These stocks will be among those that benefit for next year or so. Lowe's growth has slowed somewhat because they lost their footing over the last couple of years (too much discounting and sales). They are attempting to get back to everyday low pricing and have introduced new levels of tech onto the sales floor to make shopping easier. Rumors are that the Board has given CEO Robert Niblock a limited time to turn company around. Stock may get a boost if he is replaced.
HD is giving up on China as the Chinese would rather not spend their weekends fixing up the house when there are BILLIONS of handymen available for cheap. It was only seven store but still, there was a lot of hope. CEO Frank Blake is very talented and a few yeas ago instituted a drive to clean up their stores, streamline product offerings and retrain staff. When HD languished under Bob Nardelli (Jack Welsh's GE castoff and now head of Chrysler), Lowe's took market share from them. Now the situation is reversed and HD is winning the battle.
Both are going to run nicely for several reasons
* Home improvement will rise as people with bad credit can not get new homes.
* Low interest rates will spur new building as mortgages are cheaper
* Tons of foreclosure are coming on to the market and the rate is increasing. Either demo and build new or rehab
* Both companies are increasing their offerings of "Do it for you" programs - these are services where the companies have a contractor come to the customer's home and do repairs or installations from replacing a faucet or lighting fixture to complete kitchen renovations.
* Both companies are reducing product offerings and having less variety. This will improve product flow and reduce the instances of "dead items" that collect dust on the shelf.
That's my immediate take. no editing so some sentences may not make sense - gotta run be back in hour
