10 Quality Stocks You Can Get Cheap Now

Good morning dear readers,

Freely based on Leo Tolstoy, the following applies: “All successful companies are similar to each other.” Their products and brands are world-famous, their sales and profits are increasing. They are not heavily indebted and their business model is promising.

The problem for investors: Normally, such top companies are correspondingly expensive on the stock exchange and the chances of further price increases are limited.

But thanks to the price slide in the current year, there are currently some quality stocks to buy at surprisingly low prices. Our stock expert Ulf Sommer and the number crunchers from the Handelsblatt Research Institute have filtered out ten such stars worldwide at bargain prices.

An example of such a favorite stock is Home Depot. The world’s largest hardware store chain is impressive in all categories: ten years of continuous increases in sales, profits and dividends. In addition, moderately indebted, a well-known name worldwide and currently valued lower than the long-term average.

Investment reporter Markus Hinterberger also took a look at our Friday title which stocks well-known investment professionals are currently investing in their portfolios – from Bert Flossbach to Warren Buffett. Particularly interesting: Only two top positions among the professionals can also be found among the ten Handelsblatt favorite shares, namely Amazon and the Google holding company Alphabet.

Even more than nine months after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, by no means all German companies have withdrawn from Russia. Many medical technology companies are still active, pointing out that their withdrawal would cost lives. But not all commitments can be justified so easily. Three examples:

• The fashion company New Yorker opened a new branch in Moscow in April – two months after the start of the war in Ukraine. So far, the company has not commented on this either at the request of the Handelsblatt or other media. According to the company’s website, there are a total of 87 New Yorker branches in Russia, five of which are temporarily closed.
• Storck also continues to sell its sweets in Russia and will not answer any questions.
• According to its own current information, the retail chain Globus generates around 20 percent of its total sales with food markets in Russia. The company has decided to “drastically reduce” investments in its own local markets and to “completely stop” new expansion projects. However, the existing business continues.

With regard to the Russian business, the second part of Leo Tolstoy’s famous opening sentence from “Anna Karenina” can also be modified: “Every unhappily acting company is unhappily acting in its own way.”

Two personal meetings, gun salutes, a pompous banquet: US President Joe Biden courts his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron during his state visit using all the rules of diplomatic seduction.

This can be justified by the fact that Macron is a real president, just like Biden himself – and not just a mean head of government like Chancellor Olaf Scholz. But the White House also knows for sure that Europe’s heads of government, like jealous siblings, keep track of who receives the most gestures of love from their father in Washington. According to Jens Münchrath, head of opinion at the Handelsblatt, the large train station contains a clear political message for Macron:

“The US government considers the President of France to be the most important representative of Europe – and not the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.”

It is above all France that is calling for a European counter-attack in the subsidy dispute over the Inflation Reduction Act. In an escalating trade conflict, France would have much less to lose than Germany. The USA is the largest destination country for German exports. Appropriately cautious tones are coming from Berlin.

The US President addressed the issue directly at the joint press conference with Macron: “We had a detailed discussion about the Inflation Reduction Act. I know you’re all interested in this,” Biden said. The two had agreed on “practical steps” so that the countries could come to a solution, the president said without becoming more specific.

And then of course there’s yesterday’s football night. For those who went to bed early: Germany defeated Costa Rica 4-2. However, Germany was eliminated from the World Cup in the preliminary round because Japan surprisingly beat Spain 2-1 in the parallel game.

During the subsequent processing of the German debacle by those involved and experts, one could see how much modern football language resembles management jargon in unpleasant moments: The “low efficiency” of the German game was lamented, the “lack of leadership personality” on the pitch and the overall “poor quality”. Just as if a restructuring consultant were presenting his turnaround plan for a vacuum cleaner factory that had been rocked down.

National coach Hansi Flick, national team manager Oliver Bierhoff and captain Manuel Neuer made it clear shortly after the final whistle that they want to continue.

Team veteran Thomas Müller, on the other hand, didn’t sound as if he expected to wear the national team shirt again when he thanked the fans: “I tried to keep my heart on the field in every game. Delivered to all uses. Sometimes there was a new trend through my actions, sometimes the spectators had pain in their faces because the actions didn’t work out. I did it with love You can be sure of that. And I have to see everything else first.”

At least that doesn’t sound like a restructuring consultant.

I wish you a day when you do it with love too.

Kind regards and have a nice weekend

Her

Christian Rickens

Editor-in-Chief Handelsblatt