Back in mid-December, my InvestorPlace colleague and friend, Matt McCall, and I released our first Power Portfolio. And we are pleased to say it performed better than even our wildest expectations. By Feb. 9, it was up a stunning 38.5% — about 5X the market’s average annual return in just seven-and-a-half weeks.
And now, there’s another opportunity coming that could make the stock market go parabolic.
That opportunity is thanks in part to the robust U.S. economic recovery. Here are some of the signposts we are already seeing on that road map…
The Atlanta Fed increased its first-quarter GDP estimates again. It now expects first-quarter economic growth of 6.2%, up from the previously estimated 6%. The U.S. is also expected to boost global GDP growth more in 2021 than China for the first time since 2005. Remember, the U.S. is a robust consumer-driven market, and it is one-third larger than China. So, it has the potential to keep pace or even exceed China’s overall GDP growth this year.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) even upped its GDP forecast for the U.S. recently. It expects the U.S. economy to grow at a 6.4% annual pace in 2021, compared to previous estimates for 5.1% annual growth. That’s the strongest economic growth in the U.S. since 1984. Even more impressive was the fact that the new orders component jumped to 68, and the employment component rose to 59.6. As a result, the U.S. manufacturing boom is expected to persist and create even more jobs.
Speaking of jobs growth, the U.S. created more jobs than anticipated in March. The Labor Department revealed that a whopping 916,000 jobs were created last month, or the biggest monthly gain since August 2020. Economists were only expecting 675,000 jobs to be added in March. The January and February payroll reports were also revised higher, and the unemployment rate dipped to 6% in March, compared to 6.2% in February.
