Skip to Content
Portfolios

Weekly Wrap: How Investors, Retirees, and the Government Are Navigating the Downturn

We recap the week on Morningstar.com and note the most popular stocks, funds, and exchange-traded funds.

Editor's note: Read the latest on how the coronavirus is rattling the markets and what investors can do to navigate it.

Editor's Picks What the Economic Downturn Could Mean for Pension Plans Contributor Mark Miller explores the health of corporate, multiemployer, and public plans.

How Your State Treasurer Can Help Right Now We talk with Illinois' Mike Frerichs about how the office helps investors.

What Is the Government Doing to Prop Up the Economy? We look at the fiscal and monetary policies recently deployed amid the coronavirus pandemic to see what's working and what else needs to be done.

5 Stocks Buffett Might Buy, if He Could The Oracle of Omaha might take an interest in these high-quality firms if Berkshire were nimble enough.

What Medalist Managers Are Buying and Selling A look at some of the industry leaders' recent moves.

Is Delaying Social Security Still Smart? How volatile markets and concerns over the program's finances should affect claiming decisions for pre-retirees and early retirees.

Portfolio Planning and Personal Finance With Christine Benz 5 Bucket Portfolio Surprises in the Market Sell-Off Most of the surprising developments relate to the safe parts of the portfolios--Bucket 1 and Bucket 2.

Stuck at Home? It's Time to Take a Look at Your Finances Morningstar's Christine Benz suggests some personal finance tasks you can do while the world is on pause.

Should You Buy During a Downturn? Christine Benz discusses how two types of investors can approach this period.

Why We Rechecked Return Forecasts (and What We Learned) Christine Benz takes a second look at experts' expectations for the long-term returns of stocks and bonds.

Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds Funds That Buy Like Buffett, 2020 These mutual funds own the same stocks as the Oracle of Omaha.

Cash-Heavy Hits (and Misses) The promise and peril of holding big cash stakes in open-end mutual funds.

One Bond Manager's Trip Through the Latest Storm PGIM's bond funds have performed much as we would have expected.

Low Volatility Doesn't Mean No Volatility A look at how low-volatility ETFs weathered the recent storm.

How to Stay Disciplined (and Why It's Important Now) A look at how the coronavirus has affected the market and what to do about it, if anything.

Stocks 2 Wide-Moat Stocks for Your Watchlist We recently upgraded Morningstar Economic Moat Ratings on these companies.

Epic Oil Crash Sets Up Brutal Downturn for Energy Sector But recovery is inevitable, and stocks look very cheap--just watch out for bankruptcy risk.

8 Cheap Stocks With Solid Brands These consumer names are undervalued, according to our metrics.

Value for Stocks Amid Drug News, Economic Outlook Near-term economic contraction is being overshadowed by positive news in the fight against COVID-19 and expected economic recovery in the second half of 2020.

Stock Analyst Updates GM's Dividend Suspension Prudent Given Closed Plants The move to us is about debt extension, and we believe it does not create new funding for the automaker.

Reducing Boeing's Fair Value Estimate Overall, while we agree that near-term headwinds are fierce, we continue think that there are long-term tailwinds for the firm.

3M Defies Its Critics With a Strong First Quarter Results from this wide-moat-rated company are firmly in line with our expectations.

Pfizer Steady, Shares Look Undervalued We continue to view this wide-moat stock as undervalued and maintain our fair value estimate.

Starbucks' China Recovery Playbook Offers Advantages We see Starbucks as well positioned for market share gains ceded from smaller players.

Alphabet Beats Expectations; Maintaining Fair Value Alphabet's first-quarter results beat the FactSet consensus on revenue and EBIT, helped by strong ad spending in January and February, but followed by the pandemic-driven reversal in March.

Near-Term Approval of Gilead's Remdesivir Likely We're slightly raising our fair value estimate for the wide-moat firm.

Mastercard Results Show Bite From Growth We are maintaining our fair value estimate for this wide-moat firm despite the impact COVID-19 will have on the company's near-term growth.

Tesla Posts a 1Q Profit for the First Time We are increasing our fair value estimate to $731 from $239. If a recession can't stop Tesla then virtually nothing will, and we expect the company to remain a leader in autonomous technology and range.

Outsize Sales Gains for Kraft Heinz; Shares Attractive We are maintaining our fair value estimate for this no-moat firm.

Shell Cuts Dividend in Response to Market Uncertainty Despite the dividend cut, we are keeping our fair value estimate.

After Mixed Results, Apple Shares Expensive We are maintaining our fair value estimate for narrow-moat Apple, and we recommend prospective investors wait for a wider margin of safety.

Amazon's Near-Term Margin Profile Changes Coronavirus-related investments change the wide-moat company's near-term margin profile, but also bolster network effect.

Rekenthaler Report Long Bonds and Gold as Portfolio Diversifiers Should equity investors consider holding less of the former and more of the latter?

Gold Shares or Bullion as Portfolio Diversifiers? The answer depends upon the size of the investment.

The Long View Wade Pfau: The 4% Rule Is No Longer Safe The noted retirement researcher discusses how pre-retirees and retirees can adjust their plans in times of market stress.

Berkshire Coverage What the Pandemic Means for Berkshire Hathaway Gregg Warren shares his thoughts on its valuation and more.

3 Burning Questions for Buffett Insurance, railroads, and share buybacks are on Gregg Warren's mind ahead of Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting.

10 Questions That Should Be Asked at Berkshire's Annual Meeting Berkshire is unlikely to get through the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession unscathed, so questions need to be asked.

Commentary Is Recency Bias Swaying Your Investing Decisions? How memories of market crashes could be clouding your judgment now.

Financial Literacy Month Model Portfolios for Savers and Retirees Morningstar director of personal finance Christine Benz has developed a series of hypothetical portfolios for savers and retirees.

An Action Plan for Long-Term Care Many people put off creating a long-term-care plan. This step-by-step guide can help you get over inertia, dread, or both.

How to Tackle Estate-Planning Basics Guess what? You've probably already started the process.

Most Requested Stock Quotes Apple Microsoft Amazon.com Disney Boeing

Most Requested Fund Quotes Vanguard Dividend Growth T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Vanguard 500 Index Fidelity 500 Index Fidelity Contrafund

Most Requested ETF Quotes SPDR S&P 500 ETF Invesco QQQ Vanguard S&P 500 ETF Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF

More on this Topic

Sponsor Center