Our rating on the Industrial sector is Over-Weight. After enduring the challenges of the pandemic, the cyclical stocks in the Industrial sector appear well-positioned within the changing political environment. Specifically, we believe that Industrial stocks will benefit from enhanced infrastructure investment and more-lenient trade policies during the Biden administration. The Industrial sector accounts for 8% of S&P 500 market capitalization. Over the past five years, the weighting has ranged from 7% to 12%. We think that investors should allocate 9%-10% of their diversified portfolios to the group. The sector includes industries such as transportation, aerospace & defense, heavy machinery, and electrical equipment. The sector is underperforming the market thus far in 2021, with a gain of 13.5%. It also underperformed in 2020, with a gain of 9.0%, and slightly underperformed in 2019, with a gain of 26.8%. Here are some of our top picks, all of which are rated BUY at Argus.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Sustainable Impact Investing is gaining traction with the global investment community. In January 2020, BlackRock CEO Lawrence Fink, who oversees approximately $9 trillion in assets, announced that his firm would be investing in companies that are making progress on sustainability. He doubled down in his January 2021 letter, calling on company managements to disclose their plans for making their businesses "compatible with a net-zero economy" by 2050. As assets have flowed in over the past 40 years, Sustainable Impact Investing has evolved. The discipline, originally known as Socially Responsible Investing, focused at first on excluding companies that conducted business in South Africa, or participated in industries such as tobacco, alcohol, and firearms. But the performance of these initial strategies lagged, and the approach has been modified. Now, instead of merely identifying industries to avoid, the discipline promotes "sustainable" business practices across all industries that can have an "impact" on global issues such as the climate, hunger, poverty, disease, shelter, and workers' rights.

The Vickers Top Buyers & Sellers is a daily report that identifies the five companies the largest insider purchase transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions as well as the five companies the largest insider sales transactions based on the dollar value of the transactions.

Stocks fell on Wednesday morning following more signs of accelerating inflation. The Labor Department reported that U.S. consumer prices rose 6.2% year-over-year in October, up from 5.4% in September and above the consensus forecast of 5.9% growth. On the employment front, first-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell to 267,000 for the week ended November 5, down from 271,000 a week earlier but above the consensus forecast of 260,000. The report was released on Wednesday this week due to the Veterans Day holiday on Thursday. The Dow fell 0.1%, the S&P 0.1%, and the Nasdaq 0.4%. Crude oil traded near $83.50 per barrel, while gold rose $28 to $1859 per ounce.

Over the weekend, the House of Representatives approved the largest public works bill since the 1950s. The bipartisan trillion-dollar bill, which was passed by the Senate in August, now goes to President Biden's desk for signing. The plan focuses on improving the country's infrastructure, from roads and bridges to water systems and electricity grids. It also targets the auto industry, with a focus on electric vehicles and charging stations. In the power sector, Biden's goal is to achieve a carbon-free power industry by 2035. To improve energy efficiency in buildings, he is looking to retrofit four million buildings in the four years. Elsewhere, business Services companies also stand to benefit; bond issuance should pick up given that the infrastructure spending plan will be financed at least in part by bonds; and payroll companies could get a boost processing more paychecks as the infrastructure plan creates "millions of good paying jobs." All-in-all, some of the companies that we think may benefit include the following.

The stock market moved higher last week during a busy week that consisted of a steady stream of earnings reports and election results. Tech stocks far outperformed blue chips for a third straight week. During Friday's session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 204 points, or 0.56%. The S&P 500 was up 0.37%, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.20%. For the week, the DJIA was up 508 points, or 1.42%, the S&P 500 was up 2.00%, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 3.05%. Year-to-date, the DJIA is up 18.69%, the S&P 500 is up 25.07%, and the Nasdaq Composite is up 23.92%.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Large Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. Stocks of large-cap companies where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large cap.

Stocks were mixed on Wednesday morning as investors awaited the details of the Fed's tapering plan. Employment data was stronger than expected. Payroll provider ADP said that U.S. private employers added 571,000 payroll jobs in October, up from 523,000 in September and above the Reuters consensus forecast of 400,000. The Dow fell 0.2%, the S&P fell 0.1%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.2%. Crude oil traded near $81.50 per barrel, while gold fell $20 to $1770 per ounce.

Earnings season is in full swing; investors are focused somewhat on results, but mostly on guidance and pandemic developments; and insider-transaction volume is predictably light with corporate executives, directors and beneficial owners mostly sidelined while material, non-public information hits the airwaves. With all that background, what jumps out this week in a review of insider-transaction data from Vickers Stock Research?

The United States economy is full of innovation. It has to be. Manufacturing industries that dominated the economy decades ago - textiles, televisions, even automobiles to a large degree - have moved overseas, where costs are lower. Yet the U.S. economy, even during the pandemic, has expanded to record levels. If U.S. corporations weren't innovating, the domestic economy would not be growing and capital would not be flooding into the country. Consider that U.S. GDP was approximately $1 trillion in 1930 but nearly $23 trillion at the end of 1H21. That's growth of 23-times. Meanwhile, the U.S. population has grown less than three-times during that time span, to 320 million from 120 million. The delta between GDP growth and population growth has been driven, in large part, by innovation. In addition, the value of listed corporations on U.S. stock exchanges at the end of 2020 was approximately $41 trillion, according to SIFMA, representing 38% of global equity market capitalization, while U.S. GDP represented only 26% of global GDP. The current low level of interest rates and the relatively high level of the dollar both attest to the confidence that global investors have in the innovative U.S. economy.