A topsy-turvy two days for Linde ‘s stock offers a reminder about investment discipline. Meanwhile, Jim Cramer’s interview with an influential member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet proved encouraging for Club holding Nvidia . And an analyst at a major Wall Street shop struck a bullish chord on Humana . LIN YTD mountain LInde’s year-to-date stock performance. Shares of Linde tumbled 4% Wednesday, erasing all of their speculation-fueled gains from the day prior. It’s been a two-session roller-coaster ride that illustrates the importance of staying disciplined and not chasing stocks while they’re surging for non-fundamental reasons. And that’s especially true when speculators are driving the surge, as they were with the industrial gas giant on Tuesday. Rumors swirled Tuesday that Linde could soon be added to the Nasdaq 100 index, which tracks 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. A spot in the closely followed index was opening up thanks to Pfizer’s soon-to-close acquisition of cancer drugmaker Seagen , and Linde — with a market capitalization of nearly $200 billion — is one of the most-valuable companies waiting to get in. Traders were trying to front-run the official announcement, pushing Linde stock up 4.53% Tuesday, to an all-time high of $426.72 per share. But after the close, the Nasdaq 100 gave the nod to video-game firm Take-Two Interactive , with Linde on Wednesday now giving up all of those gains. The whole saga demonstrates why we invest based on corporate fundamentals, rather than trade on speculation, and prefer to buy stocks when they’re falling, not ascending multiple percentage points in a single session to record highs. In Linde’s case, there’s still a lot to like about the company, particularly as a way to bet on the energy transition through its clean hydrogen projects. Linde, which has a track record of consistent earnings growth, may eventually make its way into the Nasdaq 100 — but our position…
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