Key insights
- The author highlights the outperformance of agriculture and construction stocks (DE, CAT, CTVA) relative to broad market ETFs (VOO, VTI), particularly during periods of economic stress like the pandemic and the current war. This suggests potential resilience in these sectors, driven by consistent demand. While not a definitive signal, it points to a possible diversification strategy and relative strength in specific industries.
Why don't more people talk about these stocks. John Deere (DE) and Caterpillar (CAT) have outperformed VOO and VTI in the past 2 decades.
VTI,VOO,CAT,DE Stock Chart (Dividends Reinvested, Inflation Adjusted) | Total Real Returns
Even CTVA has had a higher return than VOO and VTI since inception in 2019.
I believe this is due to the fact that when the world it falling to peices, farmers are not stopping, during the pandemic and the market fall in 2022, farmers did not stop farming, construction workers did not stop working. While the rest of the market was crumbling these companies outperformed everyone else.
For example during this war going on currently VOO and VTI are down 4%, while DE and CAT are up above 20% YTD.
I think these individual stocks are going to become part of my portfolio very soon.