Smart Investor: Top-Performing Dividend Stocks, Navigating the War’s Impact, and Weak Jobs

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In this week’s newsletter:

• Weekly Market Update: Stocks Fall as Energy Rises and Basic Materials Falter
• US Stocks Slide, While Outperforming Global Peers in Week One of Iran war
• What a Prolonged Iran War Could Mean for Energy Stocks
• What If the Iran war Is Not Short-Lived?
• February Jobs Report Shows Hiring at a “Standstill”
• What Q4 Earnings Did and Didn’t Tell Us About AI and the Outlook for Tech Stocks
• After Taking a Breather, Why Japan Stocks Could Keep Rising

A week ago, many analysts and investors were confident that inflation was falling and the US economy was in good shape. Thanks to the war in Iran and a surprisingly weak jobs report, those bets are on less-solid ground. This comes as stock and credit markets were already in a fog of uncertainty around the impact of artificial intelligence across a wide range of industries.

First, the war. As we noted on Monday, from the market’s perspective, most of the focus is on the price of oil and the ability of shippers to make it through the Strait of Hormuz. By the end of the week oil topped $91 per barrel, up some 35% since before the war started. However, despite some wobbles, the US stock market has held in relatively well, in large part because the US is more insulated from the energy shock than Europe and Asia.

While the consensus is that the war will be short-lived and won’t disrupt energy shipments for long, what if that turns out to be wrong? Sarah Hansen and I tackled the question of what that would mean for the US economy and especially inflation. Meanwhile, Leslie Norton spoke with GMO’s Lucas White on what that could mean for energy stocks and renewable energy.

Japan is one of the stock markets that has taken a hit from the war-driven spike in energy prices, putting the brakes on a strong rally. Does this mean Japan’s bull market is over? We take a look at why some analysts say there is more room for Japanese stocks to run.

Bookending a week that began with the onset of war was the February jobs report. Economists had expected a slowing of jobs growth after a healthy reading in January, but they were surprised to see a negative sign in front of the payroll number. Yes, the monthly jobs reading is noisy and prone to significant revisions, but you can read here why the February decline in employment is being taken seriously.

Lastly, we ran our February wrap-up screens this week. We’ve got the month’s best- and worst-performing stocks, which includes a 175-year-old company among the winners. We’re also out with the top-performing stock ETFs for February, along with the worst performers. And finally, we’ve got the best-performing dividend stocks, which includes a trio of utilities and a household name communications stock.

As always, be sure to visit our Markets page for our latest coverage and live stock market updates, along with our full weekly calendar of key upcoming data and events.