Barron's Picks And Pans: AutoNation, Overstock.com, SPACs And More

• This weekend's Barron's cover story examines special purpose acquisition companies, the new hot thing on Wall Street.
• Other featured articles look at how to play rising gold prices or China's comeback, and how not to get burned by thematic ETFs.
• Also, the prospects for car dealer stocks, the breakup of big tech, office REITs and more.

Cover story "SPACs Are the New Hot Thing on Wall Street. What You Need to Know" by Nicholas Jasinski explains that blank-check companies give investors an opportunity to ride along with dealmakers looking to bring new businesses public, such as Nikola Corporation NKLA and Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE.

Andrew Bary's "Gold Prices Are on the Rise. Here Are the Ways to Play It" makes a case that there could be more room for gold and gold-mining stocks to advance. See if Barron's thinks Barrick Gold Corp GOLD is worth a look.

In "Park These 3 Car Dealer Stocks in Your Portfolio," Daren Fonda shows why car-buyers have gravitated toward online platforms, but for investors, the better deals are still at the lot. Why investors should consider AutoNation, Inc. AN and others.

What the United States can learn from China's revival, according to "How to Invest in China's Consumer Comeback" by Reshma Kapadia. Travel is out, but e-commerce, such as JD.Com Inc JD, is among the areas that are thriving.

In Bill Alpert's "2 Picks and 4 Pans From a Savvy Pro," the founder of an independent research firm shares his thoughts on what to expect from the likes of Overstock.com Inc OSTK and Zillow Group Inc ZG.

See also: TikTok Is On The Clock As Trump Threatens Ban, Microsoft Mulls Acquisition

"Congress' Grilling of Tech Titans Didn't Rattle Their Shares. Here's Why" by Max A. Cherney takes a look at how likely breakups of Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and other tech giants are after last week's testimony by their chiefs.

Niche exchange-traded funds, such as First Trust Cloud Computing ETF SKYY, invest in targeted areas. That's a huge benefit—until it's not. So says Evie Liu's "Thematic ETFs Invest In the Hottest Trends. How Not To Get Burned."

In "Because Working From Home Is Hot, You'll Need to Do Your Homework on Office REITs," Lawrence C. Strauss suggests that investors can still find potential winners among these real estate investment trusts. Is Cousins Properties Inc CUZ one of them?

Also in this week's Barron's:

• Whether investors are too wary as earnings come in strong
• How big tech CEOs got the last word
• Robo advisors pass their first stress test
• What to watch instead of gross domestic product
• Why bitcoin is rising again

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

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