Super Bowl Stats and Stocks

By Dian Vujovich

Hey, time for the Big Game so place those bets. But make sure you don’t confuse that Super Bowl game bet with the one you’ve got on Wall Street. This year, no matter which team wins, it’s a draw for Super Bowl Indicator fans.

If you were hoping that the winning Super Bowl team would provide a little insight into the direction of the stock market for the rest of the year, fogetaboutit.

With an impressive success rate of 79 percent, the theory behind the Super Bowl Indicator is if the winning team has roots going back to the original National Football League (NFL), stocks will rise. The problem with this year is that both the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts have NFL roots.

Looks like a flag on that play.

So what about stock picks for the big day? Those commercials have to make some stocks tick up, right? Not so fast.

Louis Navellier’s listed five Super Bowl stocks he figures are worth playing and five to keep on the bench. They ones he likes include: Coca-Cola (KO); Gannett (GCI); Dr. Pepper-Snapple (DPS); Unilever (UL); and Viacom (VIA).

The five he’d keep on the sidelines are: Disney (DIS); Chrysler (C); Motorola (MOT); Electronic Arts (ERTS); and General Electric (GE).

Read more of Navellier’s thoughts about each at http://tinyurl.com/yh5rab2.

Then there’s Nielsen research that shows most of us will be watching Sunday’s game at home or at the home of a friend. No matter where, there is sure to be plenty of eating and drinking and eating and drinking going on.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) is this year’s biggest game day advertiser. Who doesn’t love seeing the commercials with those big horsies in them? Beer sales for this event, however, come in 7th when compared to other beer-drinking holidays like the Fourth of July and Memorial Day, according to a recent CNBC story.

Back to eating. It’s estimated that 166 pounds of snacks will be gobbled up on Sunday. Potato and tortilla chips consumed the most. Of the estimated $644.7 million spent on snacks, about $310 million will come from those goodies alone.

Hum, with stats like that how could you not consider a Pepsico (PEP) play—they do, after all, own all those Frito-lay products.

Then there’s pizza. Papa John (PZZA), the Official Pizza Sponsor of the game, expects to sell 750,000 pies.

Oh, pizza. Yum.

For more info about from CNBC’s Super Bowl winners and losers story visit:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35216541/site/14081545FOr .