Xerox Holdings Corporation (XRX)

The 2021 Tax Loss Selling Recovery Portfolio didn't do much in April but is soundly beating the market six months after inception.

These names are displaying both quantitative and technical deterioration.

Among the names that felt pain were NL Industries, Fossil Group and Manchester United.

The 2021 Tax Loss Selling Recovery Portfolio is killing it, which makes it tempting to shut it down and harvest the profits, but we'll let the experiment roll on.

Where there will be change with the FOMC will be in the economic projections, the first made since December.

But we're still in the early innings.

The rise in retail has been a tailwind for the portfolio.

There is one standout performer among this portfolio of a dozen stocks that struggled last year, but most haven't moved all that much after just a month.

AER, GIII, SBH, and PSXP make the cut.

A drugstore giant, a maker of office technology, a chicken producer and a shoe seller make up one-third of the 2021 Tax Loss Selling Recovery Portfolio.

It might be like cold water in the face to think that earnings don't matter. But these stocks have detached themselves from all metrics.

Among other things, HP has responded to Xerox's hostile bid by unveiling a $15 billion buyback program and signaling that it's open to other M&A transactions.

What boggles my mind is DocuSign sitting out there at $15 billion that could work well with HPQ - or Xerox - and their strong free cash flow.

I did look out three months to see if there was maybe an intelligent way to play this name through the options market.

The PC giants said they now expect Intel CPU shortages to continue into 2020, with Dell indicating costlier CPUs are now also affected. That could spell a bigger opening for AMD.

Xerox or HP or both should consider going after DOCU, and here are two ways for investors to do the same.

Though HP says it's still open to some kind of deal with Xerox, the deal that Xerox proposed would carry major financial risks on top of all the execution and revenue growth risks any kind of merger between the firms would carry.

With Carl Icahn involved on both sides, we can expect him to lean heavily on both Boards to come to an agreement.

If tempted, don't forget HPQ will report the firm's fourth quarter performance next Tuesday.

HP's board of directors has rejected Xerox's takeover bid, but the door has not been closed on a potential combination.

Everywhere I go I hear the smart money is betting on a recession, that earnings will be down, but every day something contradicts these bears.

Traders could go long XRX at current levels.

It's far from certain that Xerox can digest HP, and it would face plenty of challenges if it did. But with Xerox's core businesses continuing to decline, the company might be feeling desperate.

I'm all in favor of mergers and acquisitions -- the more we get, the higher the stock market goes -- but I am not in favor of making conclusions based on tips about deals.

Reports of two potentially major buyouts show the risks of late-cycle corporate bond investing.