1,000 Stocks to Avoid... Also, the Poster Child of AI Hype, and a Personal Note...

This is a stunning statistic...

It's from a recent report by my friends at Kailash Concepts headlined, "The Art of Stock Picking Returns." As the report puts it...

Over 33%, or ~1,000 of America's largest listed companies, lose money or cannot afford to pay their interest expense. Let that sink in.

That's right... More than one-third of the stocks in the Russell 3000 Index, which tracks the 3,000 largest U.S.-listed stocks, don't make any money and can't afford to pay their interest expense. That's something to really pay serious attention to as rates rise, especially for companies that have debt expiring soon.

Just this morning, the Wall Street Journal ran a story headlined, "Junk-Rated Companies Are Borrowing Again." Simplified, I would call it "junk getting junkier," which isn't good for companies that aren't making any money. According to the article, speaking of speculative-grade companies...

Altogether, these companies issued almost as many bonds in January and February as they did i…