38 Ways to Prepare For Market Choppiness

Updating buy and hold moves in a difficult market

By Louis Navellier , NavellierGrowth.com | Mar 19, 2013, 10:31 am EDT

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Based on Monday’s market moves, this is already shaping up to be a bumpy trading week. With all eyes on Cyprus and its crumbling banking system, financial stocks opened sharply lower on Monday and finished down across the board. Cyprus caused a stir after its parliament delayed its vote on a bailout package, a deal that would include a minimum 6.75% levy on all bank accounts. Cypriot banks will remain closed until Thursday, but already plenty of account holders are threatening to cash out.

As dramatic as all of this was, it didn’t long for the equities market to recover its footing. By mid-afternoon, Wall Street rebounded thanks to renewed strength in consumer staples, healthcare and tech stocks. It appears that Cyprus’ worries failed to discourage yield-hungry investors from bidding up high-dividend stocks. In the past week, S&P stocks that pay no dividend have edged up just 0.26%, those that pay some kind of dividend have climbed 1.68% while those with generous yields (5% or higher) have advanced 1.96%. As I’ll discuss in greater detail at a later date, the Federal Reserve’s policies are setting the stage for the end of the bond bubble, so high-yield stocks remain as attractive as ever.

But above all else, you would do well to stick to highly-rated stocks in the coming weeks, because things should only get choppier from here.. So let’s look at the 38 big blue chips that have been upgraded and downgraded this weekend. After taking a close look at the latest data on institutional buying pressure and each company’s fundamental health, I decided to revise my Portfolio Grader recommendations for each of the stocks listed below.

Upgrades

Last Week’s Holds, Now Buys

Symbol	Company Name	Quantitative Grade	Fundamental Grade
ADP	Automatic Data Processing	B	C
BMY	Bristol-Myers Squibb	B	C
CHT	Chunghwa Telecom	B	C
EQT	EQT	B	D
KORS	Michael Kors	C	A
MGA	Magna	C	B
NMR	Nomura Holdings	B	C
ORCL	Oracle	B	B
RTN	Raytheon	B	C
STX	Seagate Technology	B	B
TWC	Time Warner Cable	B	B
WAG	Walgreen	B	D

Last Week’s Sells, Now Holds

Symbol	Company Name	Quantitative Grade	Fundamental Grade
COP	ConocoPhillips	D	C
ETR	Entergy	D	C
F	Ford	C	C
GM	General Motors	C	D
HES	Hess	C	C
KYO	Kyocera		D
PCG	PG&E	C	D
UNH	UnitedHealth	D	B

Downgrades

Last Week’s Buys, Now Holds

Symbol	Company Name	Quantitative Grade	Fundamental Grade
ABV	Companhia de Bebidas das Americas	C	B
ATVI	Activision	C	B
BAC	Bank of America	C	C
CRM	salesforce.com	C	C
GE	General Electric	C	C
JPM	JPMorgan	C	B
NLSN	Nielsen	C	C
NTRS	Northern Trust	C	C
PSA	Public Storage	C	B
SLF	Sun Life Financial	C	C

Last Week’s Holds, Now Sells

Symbol	Company Name	Quantitative Grade	Fundamental Grade
BBT	BB&T	D	C
CSX	CSX	D	C
CTSH	Cognizant Technology Solutions	D	B
EL	Estee Lauder	D	B
NUE	Nucor	D	C
QCOM	QUALCOMM	D	B
TXN	Texas Instruments	D	C
XOM	ExxonMobil	D	B