Last week, I explained “How to Play the Pivot Towards Value.” In that article, I highlighted The Greenbrier Companies (NYSE: GBX) as an example of an “old tech” business that has rebounded sharply since Wall Street began rotating out of high-priced “new tech” stocks three months ago into other sectors of the economy trading at much lower multiples to sales and earnings.

I believe that trend will continue based on last week’s jobs report for January. Last month, 130,000 jobs were added to the economy, reducing the civilian unemployment rate to 4.3 percent. At that same time, wages rose 0.4 percent in January and grew 3.7 percent during the past year.

That news came as a surprise on Wall Street, which was expecting to see an increase of 55,000 jobs last month. Wages also grew faster than anticipated, suggesting the jobs market is robust so employers must pay more to retain workers.

Let’s Play Ball

That’s good news for the overall economy, which is driven by consumer spending. In turn, that is also good news for businesses that facilitate retail trade, such as The Greenbrier Companies which manufactures railroad freight cars used in commercial shipping.

Another example is Personal Finance portfolio holding Ball Corp. (NYSE: BALL), which makes aluminum cans used by beverage companies. Last year, Ball took a beating despite posting decent results. Wall Street feared that recently enacted import tariffs would lessen demand for products using its aluminum packaging.

Instead, Ball’s fiscal 2025 Q4 and full year results, released two weeks ago, tell a very different story. Those numbers came in far above Wall Street’s muted expectations, led by GAAP net earnings attributable to the corporation of 75 cents per share versus a loss of 11 cents per share the year before.

Since then, Wall Street has been scrambling to get on the right side of this trade. Since trading below $45 on November 4, BALL rallied to rise above $67 last week. That works out to a gain of nearly 50 percent in a little over three months.

Start the Engine

If you think making railroad cars and aluminum cans are mundane businesses, consider Personal Finance portfolio holding Lear Corp. (NYSE: LEA). The company manufactures seats, replacement parts, and electrical components for new cars. When the White House levied a 25 percent import tariff on foreign made cars and parts last year, LEA hit the brakes.

After beginning 2025 at $95, LEA traded below $75 a few days after the White House introduced its “liberation day” reciprocal tariff plan. That idea was quickly scrapped, and LEA rallied above $109 by late July.

That is where it remained until late last year, when it rallied in December to finish 2025 near $115. By last week it was above $140 after releasing its fiscal 2025 Q4 and full year results. As a result, LEA is up 21 percent so far this year and has gained twice that over the past six months.

There are many other examples of last year’s laggards turning into this year’s leaders. If you have all your money parked in an S&P 500 index fund, then you may not benefit much from this development. In fact, you may end up losing money if the mega cap tech stocks that dominate the index continue to weaken.

However, if you have a system for identifying these types of stocks in 2026 then the rotation into value could be quite lucrative. It isn’t often that Wall Street decides to make a massive movement out of one type of stock into something else, but when it happens the results can be astonishing.