Tariff woes? Some investors look to more obscure parts of the retail world…
One is Stitchfix (SFIX), where excellent earnings this week sent shares spiking over 30% in pre-market trading, and notwithstanding a big drop over Q4 of 2019, the company’s stock is still over double its initial value.
Stitchfix essentially sends shoppers clothes in a box, and they decide what they want to wear and what they want to return. According to new first-quarter reports, the company added over 3 million customers during the quarter, which is a 17% increase year-over-year.
The next company is familiar to most people who’ve ever cruised a shopping mall…
Then there’s Signet Jewelers (SIG) where business leaders reported a 13.5% jump in sales for its Piercing Pagoda business, and investors saw a 7% share increase.
Piercing Pagoda offers jewelry and even ear piercing right from one of those little kiosks in the center of the shopping mall. It’s been a rite of passage for many a young shopper, but hardly a blue-chip stock.
Some would say that when you’re looking for positive financial outlook from a mall kiosk, it’s really a gray day. But glass-half-full types could see these kinds of very particular and esoteric investments as a neat way to navigate a situation where the smart money is leaving the market because it sees national diplomatic failures that it doesn’t like.
Instead of trying to time the S&P 500, many younger investors, in particular, are moving from some of those outdated retail dinosaurs to new emerging gig economy retailers like Stitchfix, and this represents a wide-open frontier for growth and capital gains in today’s market.
Another company with positive financial news this week was PayPal, the major brand name in online digital transactions and platform bank verification.
Paypal has grown steadily since its inception, and now stands above $114 per share — and holding strong currently, as experts talk about the firm’s ability to grow its marketplace.
Again, this just scratches the surface of a new industry where asset values don’t always track with U.S. stock exchanges. For example, in some cases where the general market is tanking, cryptocurrencies remain strong. Some will factor this type of strategy into their portfolio playbooks.
