Zacks.com Featured Expert Kevin Matras Highlights: Visa, Graco, Centene And Arch Coal

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – April 11, 2018 - Stocks in this week’s article include: Visa (NYSE:V) , Graco (NYSE:GGG) , Centene (NYSE:CNC) and Arch Coal (NYSE:ARCH) . Kevin Matras screens for companies showing their 'first' profit, and explains why they are ones to watch.

Screen of the Week written by Kevin Matras of Zacks Investment Research:

Winning Stock Picks from the Top Industries for Job Growth

Every week the government and other entities release economic reports that cover all areas of the economy - from retail sales to housing, to international trade to consumer sentiment.

In fact, on virtually any given day there could be anywhere from one to a handful of reports.

And while the financial media does cover them, they usually focus on headline numbers without doing a deeper dive.

This is unfortunate because within these reports often exists money-making details that can quickly be uncovered with just an extra few minutes of reading.

For example, in the Employment Situation report, it details what sectors saw the most new jobs or labor force expansion, and which ones contracted.

I can remember countless times where that report got me into the right sectors and industries at the right time before anybody else was talking about them.

In fact, I still remember getting into housing in early 2012 while everybody else was staying as far away from it as possible. But, after seeing construction jobs continue to rise in report after report after report, I knew the housing market had turned. And that was one of the first alerts to the housing recovery - for those who knew where to look.

But the headline number and the obligatory one-or-two-sentence write ups on many news sites missed the best part of the story by not going the extra mile (or paragraph).

Well here we are again, with more stock-picking insight, straight from last week's Employment Situation report. Last week it showed that some of the biggest job creation came from these four industries:

1) Professional & Business Services: +33,000
(up 502,000 over the last 12 months)

2) Manufacturing: +22,000
(up 232,000 over the last 12 months)

3) Health Care: +22,000
(up 264,000 over the last 12 months)

4) Mining: +9,000

Once these reports point you in the right direction, you can then plug in the appropriate sectors and industries to capitalize on this information and find the best stocks within those groups.

This is just one very specific way to do top down analysis. But you can go to any screener (like the one on Zacks.com or the Research Wizard) and locate the sector, then industry of interest.

Then you should add in your favorite and most successful stock-picking criteria to drill down to the best ones, such as Zacks Rank 1s or 2s (Strong Buys or Buys); market-beating growth rates; below industry valuations; upward earnings estimate revisions, etc.

For the rest of this Screen of the Week article please visit Zacks.com at: Zacks Investment Research

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Written By: Zacks Investment Research