The stock market closed slightly higher on Friday and clinched a third straight winning week.
Overall, S&P 500 and NASDAQ rose rose 0.1% to 4,514 and 14,125, respectively.
Tweet of the Day
The most important ETF in the world shows that the S&P 500 has enjoyed 4 large unfilled gaps in only 3 weeks.
It suffered a deep loss last year but since the inception of the fund has indicated breakaway momentum.
It's not something we tend to see during ongoing bear markets.… pic.twitter.com/zl2lPwupHI
— Jason Goepfert (@jasongoepfert) November 15, 2023
Chart of the Day
Here is the one-year chart of Sherwin-Williams (SHW) as of November 1, 2023, when the stock was at $239.
Sherwin-Williams has the #1 brand in paint (Sherwin-Williams), stain (Minwax), spray paint (Krylon), auto paint (Dupli-Color), and water sealer (Thompson’s). This company has a marvelous end-to-end supply chain, with around 100 manufacturing sites and distribution centers, 400 trucks and 1200 trailers to get paint and other goods to home improvement centers and approximately 5000 company-operated stores.
Sherwin-Williams is seeing weakness in North American sales, particularly Do-It-Yourselfers (DIY). Last quarter, profit grew 13% on a 1% revenue growth.
Management had expected slower growth for the second half of 2023 as Paint Stores — which make up more than half of the company’s revenue — was up against strong year-over-year comparisons. However, in the earnings notes, they consistently stated that North American sales was weak and DIY was pressured by economic pressures. Management said that the completion of single-family homes has been flat to negative in the past 8 months. Contrastingly, on a more positive note, the start of new constructions has been picking up for three straight months.
Good news is gross margins expanded to 47.7% last quarter from 42.8% a year ago due to lower raw material costs.
SHW is part of the Conservative Growth Portfolio.
