The Long Term Investor

Discussion in 'Investing' started by WXYZ, Oct 2, 2018.

  1. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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  2. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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  3. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    Unless the calendar has changed I have only one company reporting next week.

    PLTR will report on Monday. I currently own 113 shares of which 104 of them were free shares.....from a little momentum trade. When I have a $25 or so dollars I have added a few shares here and there.

    STILL a micro-mini position.....on training-wheels..

    But enough for me to follow along and see what the stock is all about. I have no plans to add any shares anytime soon.
     
  4. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    CONTRARY to the typical media BS that we see about the BIG CAP companies being so sensitive to interest rate hikes and the yield of the Ten Year Treasury.......MY VIEW.....the top companies in the SP500 could not care less about interest rates. ALL the top ten companies in the SP500....ALL...the big cap tech companies have total ability to fund their operations with CASH. They ALL have HUGE piles of cash siting there not being used.

    It is very interesting....lately....how this sort of story-line which is actually totally the opposite of the truth....have become established as fact in the investing world. I see this happening often on various issues in investing. The BS that interest rates are high....when they continue to sit near historic lows. The BS about 2% being a legitimate inflation target....it is not....it is simply a made up number very much out of line with the historic norm of inflation between about 3% and 4% in a good economy.

    Basically with the advent of the internet and now non-fact based and opinion based reporting........this has taken hold more and more in the financial world. Faddish thinking is now the norm. Thus:

    Google and Microsoft Don’t Care About Fed’s 2% Inflation Goal
    High interest rates won’t deter spending by the big technology companies as they race to dominate in artificial intelligence.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...9.o2ALGJmhB64m4QNMRJaJUgoZ-dSqzK7zF1AtrP66Xjw

    (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

    "As the Federal Reserve acknowledges a setback in its inflation fight, one question looms large: Why hasn’t the economy slowed the way policymakers expected?

    An underrated factor here is the growing belief that artificial intelligence will transform industry and the many billions of dollars being spent in pursuit of that future. An AI investment boom that eventually leads to a surge in productivity and economic growth might be hugely beneficial for the US, but the timing couldn’t be worse for the Fed with inflation still above its 2% target. And unfortunately for policymakers, companies including Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. don’t seem to care at all about the level of interest rates.

    The timing of key AI milestones has overlapped and interfered with the Fed’s aggressive fight to stamp out price pressures. It was the hot inflation data received in June 2022 that led the Fed to raise its benchmark rate by 0.75% at four consecutive meetings, spooking markets into fearing recession and leading companies to spend cautiously. The revenues of Nvidia Corp. — a bellwether for the AI industry, which depends on its graphics processing units — were down on a year-over-year basis in the quarter ending October 2022.

    OpenAI released ChatGPT the following month, sparking the AI frenzy. It took a while for the business world to catch on, but it was clear that the hype cycle had kicked into a new gear when Nvidia’s earnings report in May 2023 included quarterly revenue guidance 50% higher than Wall Street expected, leading the stock to soar nearly 30% in a day.

    Markets experienced the best of both worlds for a stretch — growth and inflation that were continuing to slow due to a post-pandemic economic normalization and the Fed’s actions, and a nascent AI boom that was embraced by investors but represented a relatively modest real economic impact in dollar terms.

    The big tech companies’ first-quarter earnings reports over the last week or so showed how that has changed. Microsoft, arguably the AI leader that’s set the pace here, reported capital expenditures — the investment bucket into which Nvidia’s products fall — that grew 66% year over year. Google parent Alphabet reported 91% capex growth from a year earlier. Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. talked about plans to “invest aggressively” to support AI research and product development. Amazon said it expects “overall capital expenditures to meaningfully increase year-over-year in 2024” as it supports AI-driven usage of Amazon Web Services.

    There’s a bit of a “walk and chew gum” story going on with big tech when it comes to AI investments and accepting that their investors don't want them to spend as freely as they did when interest rates were low. That was apparent in the emphasis Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg put on continuing to focus “on operating the rest of our company efficiently,” or in the fact that Alphabet’s head count has been essentially flat over the past three quarters despite their huge AI push.

    Meta’s stock fell more than 10% after Zuckerberg said the company’s AI spending wouldn’t yield much in terms of near-term revenues, while Microsoft’s stock failed to rally despite beating quarterly expectations on sales and profit. The big winner of earnings season so far has been Alphabet, where investors seemed more enthusiastic about cost controls boosting profit margins and its first-ever dividend than future capex.

    Such wrinkles notwithstanding, AI-focused spending will amount to tens of billions of dollars in 2024 given the combined impact of big tech’s investments and investors pouring money into startups in the space. Powerful chips that can run AI training and inference models also require the construction of new data centers and investments in electricity generation and transmission. The AI revolution might be headquartered in San Francisco but its tentacles are already pushing out to places such as the southeastern US.

    Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet and Meta comprise almost 20% of the S&P 500 and have powered the index’s 23% advance since Nvidia’s earnings update last May. A rising stock market is a barometer of the health and direction of the US economy, as well as creating a wealth effect for the millions of Americans that invest in equities. The upshot has been a boost to consumer and business confidence and reduced concern about a recession.

    If AI spending and vibes are at least partially why inflation and growth haven’t followed the path expected by the Fed, it’s not clear what policymakers can or should do about it.

    Does anyone really think that raising the fed funds rate an additional 50 basis points would keep Microsoft or Meta from battling to capture the AI opportunity? Technological investment cycles are arguably random and unpredictable and not always something a central bank can control. The timing of this one has been unfortunate for the Fed, but the right course of action is to wait it out rather than further squeeze rates-sensitive parts of the economy that are already struggling."

    MY COMMENT

    I will tell you the simple...primary reason....why inflation has not moderated more than it has......GOVERNMENT SPENDING is totally out of control. At all levels government is spending more money than ever. It is spending like a hundred drunken sailors.

    It is spreading money around he country in amounts that are impossible for the FED to keep up with. AND....much of that money is not productive at all....it is NOT going to business or entities that are really contributing to the economy. It is largely political spending. This spending DWARFS the private economy.

    AND....when is the last time you heard a word from the FED about this? WELL......NEVER. Why? Well...they are part of the government and never bite the hand that feeds them. The FED is so tied to politicians that you will NEVER hear them utter a single word about the out of control government spending.

    We have not had a Federal budget in years. The entire Federal....and many states.... budget processes are totally broken.

    BUT.....it will never change. It does not matter who is in power.....it will always be broken. This is just a cross we are required to bear as investors in the private economy.

    AND.....NO....the top ten companies in the SP500 dont care about the FED rate hikes in the slightest.
     
    #19844 WXYZ, May 4, 2024
    Last edited: May 5, 2024
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  5. TireSmoke

    TireSmoke Well-Known Member

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    Yes W I recommend hitting up a couple different locations and get your take on it. If I was going to open a Franchise, Chipotle would probably be a my second pick right behind a Dunkin Doughnuts. I like the place, I'll most likely get it for lunch today but I just know it used to be better and I miss that.

    Well my 3 investment vehicles are doing pretty OK so far after completing the first 1/3 of 2024
    HSA: 7.86%
    401K: 8.34%
    Investment Account: 43.12%

    I did a really good job last year at not touching my investment account but this year I did some trades and have transitioned money from AMD to NVDA. AMD was once by largest holding by far is not less than 10% of my portfolio. I am extremely heavy in NVDA now so we will see how that pans out. I have a pretty high risk tolerance so that portfolio isn't for everyone. I added some SMCI which is down but I have a small position and plan to hold and see how if does over the next 18-24 months. I really don't have any plans to make any more moves in the account in the short term. If we have a good runup this year I will probably sell a small chunk and put it towards my mortgage.
     
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  6. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    Some interesting stories here and some good lessons.

    A Few Short Stories

    https://collabfund.com/blog/a-few-short-stories/

    (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

    "Thirty-seven thousand Americans died in car accidents in 1955, six times today’s rate adjusted for miles driven.

    Ford began offering seat belts in every model that year. It was a $27 upgrade, equivalent to about $190 today. Research showed they reduced traffic fatalities by nearly 70%.

    But only 2% of customers opted for the upgrade
    . Ninety-eight percent of buyers preferred to remain at the mercy of inertia.

    Things eventually changed, but it took decades. Seatbelt usage was still under 15% in the early 1980s. It didn’t exceed 80% until the early 2000s – almost half a century after Ford offered them in all cars.

    It’s easy to underestimate how social norms stall change, even when the change is an obvious improvement. One of the strongest forces in the world is the urge to keep doing things as you’ve always done them, because people don’t like to be told they’ve been doing things wrong. Change eventually comes, but agonizingly slower than you might assume.

    Dunkirk was a miracle. More than 330,000 Allied soldiers, pinned down by Nazi attacks, were successfully evacuated from the beaches of France back to England, ferried by hundreds of small civilian boats.

    London broke out in celebration when the mission was completed. Few were more relieved than Winston Churchill, who feared the imminent destruction of his army.

    But Edmund Ironside, commander of British Home Forces, pointed out that if the Allies could quickly ferry a third of a million troops from France to England while avoiding aerial attack, the Germans probably could, too. Churchill had been holding onto hope that Germany couldn’t cross the Channel with an invasion force; such a daring mission seemed impossible. But then his own army proved it was quite possible. Dunkirk was both a success and a foreboding.

    Your competitors can probably innovate and execute as well as you can. So every time you uncover a new talent you’re proud of, temper your thrill with the acceptance that other people who want to win as badly as you probably aren’t far behind.

    Notorious BIG once casually mentioned that he began selling crack in fourth grade. He explained:

    They [teachers] was always like, “Take the talent that you have and think of something that you can do in the future with it.”

    And I was like, “Well, I like to draw.” So what could I do with drawing? What am I gonna be, an art dealer? I’m not gonna be that type. I was thinking maybe I can do big billboards and shit. Like commercial art.

    And then after that I got introduced to crack. Haha, now I’m thinking, commercial art?! Haha. I’m out here for 20 minutes and I can make some real, real money, man.

    Incentives drive everything, and most of us underestimate what we’d be willing to do if the incentives were right.

    When Barack Obama discussed running for president in 2005, his friend George Haywood – an accomplished investor – gave him a warning: the housing market was about to collapse, and would take the economy down with it.

    George told Obama how mortgage-backed securities worked, how they were being rated all wrong, how much risk was piling up, and how inevitable its collapse was. And it wasn’t just talk: George was short the mortgage market.

    Home prices kept rising for two years. By 2007, when cracks began showing, Obama checked in with George. Surely his bet was now paying off?

    Obama wrote in his memoir:

    George told me that he had been forced to abandon his short position after taking heavy losses.

    “I just don’t have enough cash to stay with the bet,” he said calmly enough, adding, “Apparently I’ve underestimated how willing people are to maintain a charade.”

    Irrational trends rarely follow rational timelines. Unsustainable things can last longer than you think.

    When the Black Death plague entered England in 1348, the Scots up north laughed at their good fortune. With the English crippled by disease, now was a perfect time for Scotland to stage an attack on its neighbor.

    The Scots huddled together thousands of troops in preparation for battle. Which, of course, is the worst possible move during a pandemic.

    “Before they could move, the savage mortality fell upon them too, scattering some in death and the rest in panic,” historian Barbara Tuchman writes in her book A Distant Mirror.

    There’s a powerful urge to think risk is something that happens to other people. Other people get unlucky, other people make dumb decisions, other people get swayed by the seduction of greed and fear. But you? Me? No, never us. False confidence makes the eventual reality all the more shocking.

    Some are more susceptible to risk than others, but no one is exempt from being humbled.


    Dr. Dan Goodman once performed surgery on a middle-aged woman whose cataract had left her blind since childhood. The cataract was removed, leaving the woman with near-perfect vision. A miraculous success.

    The patient returned for a checkup a few weeks later. The book Crashing Through writes:

    Her reaction startled Goodman. She had been happy and content as a blind person. Now sighted, she became anxious and depressed. She told him that she had spent her adult life on welfare and had never worked, married, or ventured far from home – a small existence to which she had become comfortably accustomed. Now, however, government officials told her that she no longer qualified for disability, and they expected her to get a job. Society wanted her to function normally. It was, she told Goldman, too much to handle.

    Every goal you dream about has a downside that’s easy to overlook.

    Historian John Meecham writes:

    When we condemn [the past] for slavery, or for Native American removal, or for denying women their full role in the life of the nation, we ought to pause and think: What injustices are we perpetuating even now that will one day face the harshest of verdicts by those who come after us?

    This applies to so many things.

    What is the modern version of cigarettes, which were doctor-recommended just a few generations ago? We didn’t know dinosaurs existed 200 years ago, which makes you wonder what else is out there that we’re oblivious to today. What company is the modern Enron, so obviously a fraud? What do most people – not a few wackos, but most of us – believe that will look something between hilarious and disgraceful 100 years from now?

    A lot of history is just gawking at how wrong, how blind, people can be. Disastrously wrong, embarrassingly blind. Millions of people, all at the same time. When you then realize that today will be considered history in a few generations … oh dear. It’s unpleasant. But also fascinating.

    Apollo 11 was the first time in history humans visited another celestial body.

    You’d think that would be an overwhelming experience – literally the coolest thing any human had ever done. But as the spacecraft hovered over the moon, Michael Collins turned to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and said:

    It’s amazing how quickly you adapt. It doesn’t seem weird at all to me to look out there and see the moon going by, you know?

    Three months later, after Al Bean walked on the moon during Apollo 12, he turned to astronaut Pete Conrad and said “It’s kind of like the song: Is that all there is?” Conrad was relieved, because he secretly felt the same, describing his moonwalk as spectacular but not momentous.

    Most mental upside comes from the thrill of anticipation – actual experiences tend to fall flat, and your mind quickly moves on to anticipating the next event. That’s how dopamine works.

    If walking on the moon left astronauts underwhelmed, what does it say about our own earthly goals and expectations?


    John Nash is one of the smartest mathematicians to ever live, winning the Nobel Prize. He was also schizophrenic, and spent most of his life convinced that aliens were sending him coded messages.

    In her book A Beautiful Mind, Silvia Nasar recounts a conversation between Nash and Harvard professor George Mackey:

    “How could you, a mathematician, a man devoted to reason and logical proof, how could you believe that extraterrestrials are sending you messages? How could you believe that you are being recruited by aliens from outer space to save the world?” Mackey asked.

    “Because,” Nash said slowly in his soft, reasonable southern drawl, “the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way that my mathematical ideas did. So I took them seriously.”

    This is a good example of a theory I have about very talented people: No one should be shocked when people who think about the world in unique ways you like also think about the world in unique ways you don’t like. Unique minds have to be accepted as a full package."

    MY COMMENT

    Human nature and human thinking above. A few good examples of how our thinking can fool us. We see the trees but we dont see the forest.

    This happens with investors all the time...this happens in business all the time...it happens with some of the highest paid managers all the time. The inability to see what is OBVIOUS in hind-sight.

    Something to consider....by ALL of us....when we are in the middle of the excitement of an investing win....or...when we are in the middle of convincing ourselves that we have discovered the next big thing....the next big hot investment.
     
    #19846 WXYZ, May 4, 2024
    Last edited: May 5, 2024
  7. rg7803

    rg7803 Well-Known Member

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    For that value two people would sit here in Portugal in a fancy seafood house, having real shellfish (from the sea not from aquafarming...) like clams, a couple of tiger prawns, and nice real white wine (not from Napa Valley :biggrin:)....

    Maybe that's the reason I see so many fellow citizens from yours!
     
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  8. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    That is true RG.....I am sure you are seeing many ex-pats from the USA there in your country.

    We have a fair number of TV shows here like...."House Hunters International" that help to motivate people to go overseas.....along with the trend among Millennials and GenZ to be much more daring about moving to the EU and other areas.
     
  9. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    I am right there with you TireSmoke. At this point NVDA is about 30% of my portfolio....much of it due to some of the gains that I have in my earlier shares.

    I cant help but see the future for the company as extremely good. BUT....in the tech business things can turn on a dime.

    They have to keep that MOAT on their 80-90% market share....for at least another four or five years minimum. That will give me and you and many others some real life changing money. If they can maintain the TOTAL DOMINANCE for ten years.....we are talking off the charts.

    One issue coming up.....their key figures.....Huang, Malachowsky, and Puri are all in their low 60's. I hope they have some really dedicated management people in the wings.....as well as some amazing engineering. My BIG HOPE is that the current founders and management are totally dedicated to the company and will hang in there for 5-10 more years minimum.

     
  10. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    NOW....as to the above....where are my SMCI and NVDA stock splits? AND.....COSTCO.....WTF.....why have you also not split yet?
     
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  11. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    No investor is perfect or beyond making really bad mistakes.

    Buffett says Berkshire sold its entire Paramount stake: ‘We lost quite a bit of money’

    https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/04/buf...mount-stake-we-lost-quite-a-bit-of-money.html

    “I was 100% responsible for the Paramount decision,” “It was 100% my decision, and we’ve sold it all and we lost quite a bit of money.”

    They sold 63,000,000 (SIXTY THREE MILLION) shares. It is estimated they were bought at $30 per share. Current price $12.89.
     
  12. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    I post this not for the politics....but because there is much talk on here about the.....so called "experts" that try to run and guide our economy. These people are MORONS. Yet they are part of the "insider" system and are given power by the politicians.....on both sides.

    "Kelton asks Bernstein a simple followup question: "Like you said, they print the dollar, so why does the government even borrow?"

    Bernstein's replies sounds like a high school student doing a presentation on a book he didn't read:

    Well, um… the… uh… so the… I mean… again, some of this stuff gets… some of the language that the MM… some of the language and concepts are just confusing. I mean, the government definitely prints money and it definitely lends that money. Which is why, uh… uh… the government definitely prints money and it lends that money by uh… by selling bonds. Is that what they do? They… they… um… they… yeah… they… they… um… they sell bonds. Yeah. They sell bonds, right? Since they sell bonds and people buy the bonds and lend them the money. Yeah. So, a lot of times, a lot of times, at least to my ear with MMT, the language and the concepts can be kind of unnecessarily confusing, but there is no question that the government prints money and then it uses that money to um… uh… eh… uh… so… um… yeah… I… I… I guess I'm just… I don't… I can't really ta- I don't… I don't get it. I don't know what they're talking about, like… cuz… it's like, the government clearly prints money. It does it all the time, and it clearly borrows. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this in.. this conversation. I don't think there's anything confusing there."



    https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/co...ncoherently-when-asked-a-simple-question.html

    THIS interview answer for a documentary.....is SCARY in its stupidity and lack of any basic understanding of economics. This IDIOT is the.....Chair of the United States Council of Economic Advisers. He makes YELLEN look like a genius.

    AND.....government, academia, and the FED is full of these people in positions of influence and power. These are the MORONS that want to control and "guide" our economy.....thinking that they can do better than the......FREE MARKET. They give each other awards and medals and ribbons.......it is a self perpetuating system of privilege. AND....what is really sad is.....they believe they are SUPERIOR to the average American.

    If you watch the actual video above it is even more SHOCKING than seeing the quote in writing.

    BRUTAL HONESTY in this little quote and clip. And a simple message......you can not rely on these people for anything....keep investing for yourself and your family.....it is your only HOPE for a bright future.
     
    #19852 WXYZ, May 5, 2024
    Last edited: May 5, 2024
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  13. Smokie

    Smokie Well-Known Member

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    Amen. What still amazes me is how the media drags this little troll about 2% out of the closet pretty regularly. As if there is something "magical" going to happen when/if we land right at 2%. The odd thing is they portray this as some static number.

    The historical average rides around 3.28%. We are currently at 3.48% with the last reading.

    I think the "experts" were even cautioned about using a "dead set" number of 2% back when they came up with it. Obviously, for the very reasons we have experienced.
     
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  14. Smokie

    Smokie Well-Known Member

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    Yikes!! I don't follow the company or own it, so I will not add to the beat down.

    I guess give him props for admitting the loss and being honest about it. We seem to not hear much about the "losing" decisions today. They happen much more often than people admit.
     
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  15. Smokie

    Smokie Well-Known Member

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    A little earnings insight so far....

    At this stage of the Q1 earnings season, S&P 500 companies continue to perform well compared to expectations. Both the percentage of S&P 500 companies reporting positive earnings surprises and the magnitude of earnings surprises are above their 10-year averages.

    Overall, 80% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported actual results for Q1 2024 to date. Of these companies, 77% have reported actual EPS above estimates, which is equal to the 5-year average of 77% but above the 10-year average of 74%.

    At the sector level, the Health Care (90%) and Information Technology (87%) sectors have the highest percentages of companies reporting earnings above estimates, while the Energy (57%) sector has the lowest percentage of companies reporting earnings above estimates.
    (FactSet Earnings Insight.)
     
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  16. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    GREAT earnings numbers there....SMOKIE. Since I noticed you posting this FactSet stuff about a month ago....I look at it every week. Thanks for informing me of this great weekly resource.
     
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  17. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    If we do get down to an inflation number of 2% it will mean:

    A. We are in a RECESSION.

    and/or

    B. We are experiencing DEFLATION.

    Personally I would much rather see a little inflation compared to deflation. The greatest event that I fear as an investor is a DEFLATIONARY RECESSION or DEPRESSION. (think Japan for the past 30+ years, or Greece in the 2008/2009 time span)
     
  18. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    After the gains of the past two weeks.....in spite of dismal starts,.....and having to fight off the FED, the media, and the economic data....I think there is a "fair chance".....not quite a probability......but a "fair chance"....that we are on the verge of a BULL MARKET explosive gain.

    LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL.

     
  19. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    AS to the above post.....there is much to like in this little article.

    Disney steps up as Big Tech steps back: What to know this week

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disn...ps-back-what-to-know-this-week-150024580.html

    (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

    "Over the last two weeks, investors were deluged by earnings, economic data, and the Federal Reserve's latest policy announcement.

    In the week ahead, the earnings flow will remain steady but slow down while the week's economic calendar should be among the year's quietest.

    On Friday, investors cheered the April jobs report, which showed the US labor market growing at a slower pace last month, bringing the prospect of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates this year back to the fore.

    Combine this report with strong earnings late Thursday out of Apple (AAPL), which became the latest Big Tech company to also boost its shareholder return plans, and all three major indexes finished the week in positive territory.


    Earnings expected in the week ahead won't include any members of the "Magnificent Seven" for the first time in three weeks. In their place, consumer and entertainment names will take top billing.

    Results from Disney (DIS), expected out Tuesday morning before the bell, should be the week's most closely watched report, as the media conglomerate is set to deliver its first quarterly earnings since winning its proxy fight with Nelson Peltz last month. Subscriber growth for its streaming services, parks attendance, and Disney's read on the summer box office will be key themes for investors.

    As the parent company of ESPN, any commentary on the sports media landscape — in particular ongoing negotiations for the NBA's next media rights deal — will also be of note. Results from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), parent company of cable networks HBO, TBS, and TNT, later this week should pique investor interest along similar lines.

    Elsewhere on the earnings side, Uber (UBER) and Lyft (LYFT) will offer updates on the ridesharing business, Reddit (RDDT) will report its first quarterly results since going public, and consumer eating and drinking habits will get a checkup via results from the Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), Papa John's (PZZA), Celsius (CELH), and Krispy Kreme (DNUT), among others.

    The economic calendar features little of note for investors, with Friday's preliminary look at consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan the only report of note. A handful of Federal Reserve officials are set to speak publicly over the next week, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell is not among them.

    Finding better balance

    No news last week made a bigger impact on markets than Friday's jobs report.

    The US economy added 175,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in April, fewer than expected. The unemployment rate also rose a tenth of a percentand annual wage growth slowed to 3.9%, its lowest level since June 2021.

    Job growth slowing after a gangbusters start to 2024 and wage pressures appearing to ease were enough for investors to price in an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve as soon as September.

    "The labor market is still healthy, and the Fed needs to see several months of benign inflation data before lowering rates," wrote Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics.

    "However, the April jobs report should help Fed officials regain confidence that inflation can get back to 2%."

    In his press conference last week, Fed Chair Jay Powell noted, "The labor market remains relatively tight, but supply and demand conditions have come into better balance." Friday's report will affirm the chair in this view.

    Still, a softer employment report that takes pressure off the Fed should not be mistaken for a sign the US labor market is rolling over.

    Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock, wrote in a note on Friday the US labor market's consistency has been "remarkable" over the last year, with three-, six-, and 12-month average job gains totaling 242,000, 242,000, and 245,000, respectively.

    Rieder added that while he expects the pace of job growth to slow, "some of the highest frequency measures of labor market health, such as separations, initial claims, etc., have moved sideways at low levels since March suggesting few signs of mass layoffs and a relatively healthy labor market."

    If the first quarter of 2024 was defined by investors making peace with the idea rate cuts might be entirely off the table, the first month of the second quarter has been more positive for those investors clamoring for lower rates.

    Earnings excitement

    And just like that, first quarter earnings season is just about done.

    Through Friday, some 80% of the S&P 500 had reported results, with aggregate annual earnings growth coming in at 5%. At the end of Q1, investors expected earnings had grown 3.4% over the prior year, according to data from FactSet.

    And not only has this earnings season been better than expected for investors, but the typical pattern of analysts growing more cautious ahead of next quarter's earnings season hasn't held either.

    According to FactSet, analysts raised earnings estimates during April by 0.7%. In the first month of any given quarter, analysts have typically cut forecasts by an average of 1.9%.

    [​IMG]
    Earnings estimates typically fall during the first month of a quarter. But for the first time since 2021, estimates actually rose in April. (Source: FactSet)
    Companies, of course, are more than happy with analyst habits to lower estimates during the quarter, making the eventual earnings "beat" a more manageable task.

    And given both companies and analysts are aware of the dynamics of this dance, that analysts aren't lowering estimates speaks to the positive fundamental story backing up this year's market rally.

    Take Apple, for instance.

    On Friday, the iPhone maker's stock gained 6%. Its fiscal second quarter results reported Thursday were better than feared. And though the company reported another annual revenue drop, in the current quarter Apple expects revenue to rise by low single digits.

    And even more encouragingly for investors, CFO Luca Maestri told Yahoo Finance's Josh Lipton that sales in mainland China actually rose during the most recent quarter.

    With investor community fears of Apple's position in China at elevated levels, and some alternative data suggesting an ugly picture for the company in Asia, Apple was asked by analysts how it squares these competing readings.

    "I can't address the data points," CEO Tim Cook told investors. "I [can] only address what our results are ... I can't bridge to numbers we didn't come up with."

    A pointed, blunt assessment on how Apple views outside efforts to track its business.


    And the kind of message you will only hear in an environment where companies are emboldened to lean into discrepancies between their own numbers and outside estimates.

    An environment in which it follows, then, that analysts won't be quite as quick as normal to pare their expectations."

    MY COMMENT

    Over the past month we have seen a nice HEALTHY......resetting of expectations......for rate cuts and other aspects of the business and economic environment. This is a very GOOD SIGN for the rest of the year.

    We will now be operating from FULL BLOWN REALITY......a good thing. Extreme expectations lead to nothing more than media fear mongering...which tends to snowball on itself as a little....doom loop.

    PLUS......we still have some BIG earnings to come....NVDA being number one on the list. I have no idea how they will do but if they put up a BIG BEAT....we may be off and running for a good jump up in the good old bull market.

    COSTCO is another one that I am waiting for.

    The timing would be about right for an unexpected and explosive move up since.....a good number of skittish investors probably bailed out over the past month and along with those that foolishly follow....."sell in May". There continues to be a HUGE amount of money on the sidelines and the walll of worry is about as high as it has ever been over the past year and a half.
     
  20. WXYZ

    WXYZ Well-Known Member

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    I have FOUR earnings reports that I am still waiting for.

    PLTR May 6
    HD May 14
    NVDA May 22
    COST May 23
     

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