Speaking of readers who relocate to a more like-minded state, our contributor today says: “I moved from Minneapolis to rural Texas seven years ago because I saw Minneapolis' lack of positive leadership, allowing a potential slip into chaos. I was surprised my concern came to pass so soon.

“The first month I lived in Texas, I saw a group of police chatting on the corner near the station.  I introduced myself and talked for a while. As I was leaving, I asked what they would do if there were a law which required them to confiscate everyone's guns.

“A young policeman looked me in the eye and replied, ‘I don't think that would happen.’ I felt I had made a good decision to move.

“And from early 2020, our sheriff refused to prosecute mask infractions because it was unconstitutional.

“Texas has some economic drawbacks, however. Their lack of income tax places the property tax among the highest in the country. Income tax is usually designed to be progressive; whereas, property tax is a wealth tax.

“On balance, I'm in a good spot. And I'm thankful that states give us different things to appreciate.”

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Your Rundown for Wednesday, July 21, 2021...

Soft Drink Recovers from a Hard Day

As for Monday’s sell-off, we think it was a rational, contained market blip -- just one of those corrective days.

But we also think Covid’s delta variant is a real issue that could seriously hurt the “recovery” narrative if most affected areas don’t move quickly.

And if this drags into the fall, it’s going to put even more pressure on markets.

Like we said at the beginning of the week, it might be time to brace for the market to change from straight-line-up, rush-back-to-normal to a kind of choppy, muddle-through phase.

That said, soft days for markets just mean more and better opportunities to grab great names at a bargain. 

One of those names that was flailing Monday? The Coca-Cola Company which got hammered along with most other Dow stocks. But then the company announced Q2 earnings this morning…

“Coke (KO) said it earned $2.64 billion, or 61 cents per share… Revenue climbed 42% to $10.13 billion. Analysts were looking for EPS of 56 cents and revenue of $9.31 billion,” Barron’s reports.

“The company also raised its forecast for adjusted earnings per share growth to 13% to 15%,” CNBC notes.

Coke CEO James Quincey says: “Putting it all together, we realize there’s a range of possible outcomes when it comes to the pandemic in the second half of the year given the asynchronous recovery.

“While we over-delivered relative to our expectations in the first half and have raised guidance for 2021, we are biased towards a growth mentality and will invest behind this momentum going into the rest of the year.”

So should you go long on KO? Shares are up over 2% at the time of writing. Wait for the dust to settle, but when it does, we think Coke is a consumer-staple buy.

Market Rundown for Wednesday, July 21, 2021

The S&P 500 is up 8.25 points to 4,325.

Oil’s up almost 2% to $68.43 for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate.

Gold is down $14 to $1.797.40 per ounce.

Bitcoin is up 5.7% to $31,535.21.

Send your comments and questions to, TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com

Check back Friday; until then, take care…

For The Rundown,

Aaron Gentzler
Editor, The Rundown
TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com