JMK's Mills: Earnings haven't declined, but 'it makes sense that they should'

Karl Mills, president of Jurika Mills & Kiefer, says that negative investor sentiment is a precondition of a rebound, but he's looking for more signals that the economy and stock market is bottoming out. For example, Mills says that earnings haven't declined much yet, but he expects them to because of the squeeze that current conditions are putting on profits. The result is that Mills is taking a cautious, "shelter from the storm" approach, noting that there is still a lot of downside risk even though the market can see and already price in the coming recession he sees as arriving as the calendar turns. In The NAVigator segment, Mark Milner of Parametric Portfolio Associates, says that a lot of closed-end fund asset classes have now reached double-digit discount territory, "which historically has been a good opportunity to buy closed-end funds," although he worries about a coming boom in year-end tax-loss selling -- larger than in years past as a result of the market's 2023 downturn -- could impact closed-end assets as the New Year approaches. Plus, in the Market Call, Eric Marshall, president and portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management, discusses bottoms-up investing in blue-chip stocks.