Hurricane Sandy Is an Ongoing Story for Families and Retailers

Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW) should see sales soar in these areas, not only from building materials, but from appliance sales as well. Best Buy (BBY), which has had a rough run this year, may also benefit from the appliance side, as could Sears (SHLD).

Demand for lumber and related products should also rise in the affected areas, which may benefit names such as Plum Creek Timber (PCL), Rayonier (RYN), and Weyerhauser (WY). Leading Sheetrock manufacturer USG (USG) should also see some increasing demand.

Whether or not the demand will be great enough to move the needle for any of these companies remains to be seen. But after viewing some of the damaged areas, and seeing the piles of ripped-out building materials, and appliance after appliance, at the front of every home, I could not help but to think that there will be a lot of money changing hands in order to put things back to normal.

Not the type of stimulus package anyone would ever hope for, but it is what it is.

At the time of publication the author held no positions in any of the stocks mentioned.

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This article is commentary by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

Jonathan Heller, CFA, is president of KEJ Financial Advisors, his fee-only financial planning company. Jon spent 17 years at Bloomberg Financial Markets in various roles, from 1989 until 2005. He ran Bloomberg's Equity Fundamental Research Department from 1994 until 1998, when he assumed responsibility for Bloomberg's Equity Data Research Department. In 2001, he joined Bloomberg's Publishing group as senior markets editor and writer for Bloomberg Personal Finance Magazine, and an associate editor and contributor for Bloomberg Markets Magazine. In 2005, he joined SEI Investments as director of investment communications within SEI's Investment Management Unit.

Jon is also the founder of the Cheap Stocks Web site, a site dedicated to deep-value investing. He has an undergraduate degree from Grove City College and an MBA from Rider University, where he has also served on the adjunct faculty; he is also a CFA charter holder.

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