Navellier Growth: your source for market-beating growth stocks

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before Congress yesterday and today, and he made headlines by saying that a “recession is possible.”

Ben—if you’re reading this—and I say this with all due respect, a recession is not only possible, it’s here. As in, it’s going on right now.

Getting into a debate about the details of an “official recession” won’t alter the facts that it’s rough seas out there for investors. Just look around you, and you can see the evidence. The housing market is a mess. First-time jobless claims rose again last week. More financial firms are fighting for their lives, and the stock market is still well below where it was just a few months ago.

So, I’m comfortable with calling this a recession, and I’ll let the economists debate the details. What I’m interested in is what to do now.

The first thing you need to do—if you haven’t already done so—is sign up for my Blue Chip Growth service. Earnings season kicks off in just a few days, and our fundamentally superior Blue Chip stocks are perfectly positioned to continue rallying into the second quarter. Please note: Investing during a recession is very different from regular investing. The good part is, shrewd investors can make enormous gains. But you must be careful.

Personally, I have to admit that I’m very excited. My favorite stocks are locked and loaded for another great earnings season. Plus, when everyone else gets scared, I get greedy. And right now, everybody’s terrified.

RIMM Stuns Wall Street, But Not Us

Take the case of Research In Motion (RIMM). Just two months ago, investors were ready to dump shares of the BlackBerry stock into the garbage heap. Not me. I knew it was a great stock, and I said so. I rated RIMM as a strong buy in the February issue of Blue Chip Growth (you should have seen the outraged emails flow into my inbox!).

Well, after the bell yesterday, RIMM reported that its profits doubled. The company earned 86 cents a share, 11 cents more than expectations. Wall Street was stunned and the stock gapped strongly up today. In less than two months, RIMM has soared over 46% for us.

See what I mean about getting greedy when everyone else is scared.

But I have to tell you that fear is still in control of Wall Street. In fact, just yesterday, Bloomberg reported:

Investors are so scared of stocks and bonds that they have stashed a record $3.51 trillion in U.S. money-market mutual funds even as managers including Fidelity Investments waive fees to keep yields from falling to zero.

Yikes! That’s an amazing statistic. Think of how many politicians you could buy with $3.51 trillion! But the real story here is that once Wall Street gets moving again, there’s plenty of fuel to propel fundamentally superior stocks higher. But once again, I have to caution you to be careful and only invest in “the best of the best.”

For Everything Else, there’s MasterCard

The next thing I want you to do is circle April 28 on your calendar because that’s when MasterCard (MA) will report its first-quarter earnings. April 28 has the potential to be a very exciting day for us MasterCard share owners.

We just added MasterCard to our Buy List in the April issue of Blue Chip Growth and it’s already up over 9% for us. But honestly, that’s small potatoes compared to the potential here.

Right now, Wall Street’s gone ga-ga for Visa’s recent gigantic IPO. I wish Visa all the best, but MasterCard is the smartest way to play this field. The reason is simple, and it all boils down to MasterCard’s international strength. While Visa gets most of its sales from inside the U.S., MasterCard is turning more market share abroad, which is helping them experience much faster growth. MA’s cards are now accepted at more than 23 million locations around the globe.

If you want to buy MasterCard, you need to get in before April 28. If you wait until the earnings report, then it will be too late. MasterCard has a nice little habit of trouncing Wall Street’s estimates and gapping dramatically higher on the day of its earnings reports.

In October, MasterCard beat forecasts ($1.80 to $1.42), and the stock skyrocketed 21% that day. A year before that, it jumped 15% in one day. Three months ago, the stock was surprisingly tame when it jumped only 10% on its earnings report.

Now, while I’m not guaranteeing another big price surge for MasterCard, I do know that there’s $3.51 trillion waiting to see what happens. The potential is definitely there, ladies and gentlemen.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned. I’ll have the next issue of “What’s Working on Wall Street Now” next Thursday, April 10.

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

P.S. Be sure to check out my new Navellier Growth blog. I update it several times a week with breaking news and information. Today I posted a great article on GameStop (GME). Remember to buy Mastercard (MA) before April 28, and sign up for Blue Chip Growth today!