The stock market closed higher on Monday as investors are still hoping on the interest rate cuts in 2024. Stocks are coming off a winning session after hitting seven consecutive week of gains last week.
Overall, S&P 500 was up 0.5% to 4,741, while NASDAQ increased 0.6% to 14,905.
Tweet of the Day
BREAKING: Pending home sales drop to a record low, even worse than during the financial crisis, per CNBC.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) December 5, 2023
Chart of the Day
Here is the one-year chart of Ecolab (ECL) as of November 29, 2023, when the stock was at $189.
Ecolab reported a robust performance last quarter as it delivered 18% profit growth on 8% revenue growth. The success was attributed to an effective pricing strategy, with prices up 7% year-over-year. Higher prices helped profit margins expand. Organic Operating Income margin rose to 15.5% from 13.9% a year ago. Management expects this figure to climb past 20% in the next few years. It also projects a very strong gross margin expansion in the quarters ahead. That is good, as this stock has been off-track in the past couple of years.
ECL is part of the Conservative Growth Portfolio. The stock has been treading water the past two years and David Sharek, Founder of School of Hard Stocks, believes that it will now be a steady riser going forward.
