Here we are with half of 2015 already in the books. While I have enjoyed investing and making my monthly buys during the first half of the year I can truly say that I’m excited as ever for the second half of 2015 and eager to read the headlines and other market noise that will inevitably come up during the next six months. Will a debt ceiling discussion make headlines or perhaps another impending fiscal cliff. Will the Fed finally raise interest rates or will some European or Asian financial contagion make market waves? Iran anyone? Ukraine? Russia? Greece? Puerto Rico? Looks like Ebola is making a summertime return among the media outlets. Not to sound too jaded to these top news items but my point is that during all economic conditions, from all time market highs to the lows and depths of severe recession, there will always be a case made to not invest. Of course, this is the noise that we must filter and seek out our own individual high quality stocks that always seem to exist. After all, I keep reading about various new buys among other dividend blogs which just tells me that value and decent sustainable yield still exists out there.
Looking at my portfolios going into the month of July I will be adding to positions that are already in my account. I have no interest in finding any new stocks for my portfolios at this time and prefer to continue my usual nibbling on stocks I already own. However, I do plan to shop for a new insurance company as my Chubb Corporation (CB) was just bought out by ACE Limited (ACE) in a cash and stock deal. I have owned CB since 2007 and am sad to see it leave my portfolio and when it finally does I will want to add another property and casualty insurance name to my portfolio. A couple names that I may consider once CB departs are Cincinnati Financial Corp. (CINF) and The Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV) but those won’t be considerations till the CB/ACE deal goes through. That being said, let’s take a look at my July stock considerations.
