Barron's Latest Picks And Pans: Roundtable Picks, Quantumscape, Commodities And More

This weekend's Barron's cover story explains why the online renegades that took the investing world by storm are just getting started.
Other featured articles offer Barron's Roundtable stock picks for 2021, examine how retail has changed over the past century and ponder what's ahead for the markets in February.
Also, the prospects for an EV battery maker, infrastructure stocks, commodities and more.

Cover story "The GameStop Revolt Has Just Begun" by Avi Salzman and Connor Smith discusses how a band of online renegades took the investing world by storm. Investors can ignore some of the silliness surrounding AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY, GameStop Corp. GME and others, says the article, but the market may never be the same.

Lauren R. Rublin's "Roundtable: 22 Ways to Invest in the Future" features the favorite stock picks for 2021 from Barron's Roundtable members. See why those recommendations include Boston Beer Company Inc SAM, Deere & Company DE and Prologis Inc PLD.

In "Commodities Are Starting to Rally. Play It With These Stocks and Funds," Andrew Bary makes the case that energy, metals and agriculture are poised to gain as global economies reopen and inflation stirs. Time to take a look at Freeport-McMoRan Inc FCX or Newmont Corporation NEM?

Lithium-ion battery maker Quantumscape Corp QS has a pioneering battery technology. So says "EV Battery Start-Up QuantumScape Is Driven Solely by Promise" by Al Root. What it will not have for five years is much revenue, and yet the share price has risen well more than 300% since August.

In Kenneth G. Pringle's "From Dry Goods to Dot-Coms, How Shopping Has Changed Over the Past Century," the focus is on how the arrival of nationwide chains and department stores in the early 1900s changed the nature of shopping in America and the landscape of its communities, much as Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN is doing now.

"As GameStop and the Little Guys Soar, Big Tech Gets Forgotten" by Eric J. Savitz points out that earnings from Apple Inc AAPL and Microsoft Corporation MSFT confirmed their dominance. Still, market reaction suggests that there is some concern about these stocks.

Infrastructure, including utilities, toll roads, airports and renewable energy, can offer some nice yields if investors look in the right places, according to Lawrence C. Strauss's "Infrastructure Stocks and Funds Offer Solid Dividend Yields. Here's Where to Look." Is Crown Castle International Corp CCI worth a look? How about NextEra Energy Inc NEE?

In "Investors Who Own Blacklisted Chinese Stocks May Be in Limbo," Reshma Kapadia examines the options that smaller investors with American depositary receipts of blacklisted Chinese companies have as they try to divest their shares.

Ben Levisohn's "It's Been a Rough January. Get Ready for an Even Worse February" says that this was supposed to be the Teflon stock market, able to absorb political turmoil, a resurgent virus and mediocre data to keep on rising. Then Reddit came along. What's next for the likes of Johnson & Johnson JNJ and Facebook, Inc. FB?

Also in this week's Barron's: