Two months into the year and investors’ true ‘metal’ was tested, and mine more than most. February showed signs of improvement by January, but the final week ended hopes of any rally. The final day of January saw a 370 point drop in the Dow and February’s final trading day closed with similar results, down 315 points.

The soft stock market did display many points worth noting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was about break even for the month, indicating investors were showing some signs of support for large cap stocks, prompted in part by news of increased profits at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and share buy-backs at IBM Corp (NYSE: IBM).

I cannot say the same for the

other major indices, NASDAQ Composite Index and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which dropped significantly final month.

Some of my picks additionally sagged a little more, although not as much, while two turned into positive territory. In January, only Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN), the high tech, defense contractor, was up. In February, the weak dollar and inflation concerns boosted Anglo American plc (ADR) and Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE: RS) — two commodity plays.

Continue reading Chasing Value: February review — 8 stocks for 2008 — examining my ‘metal’

Original post by Sheldon Liber

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