GREAT open today......PLTR....is BOOMING. Here is the probable reason. Palantir Wins Overweight Rating From Piper Sandler https://www.investors.com/news/technology/palantir-stock-piper-sandler-overweight-rating-valuation/ The "guts" of the story....says it all: "Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin set a price target of 170 on Palantir stock, which he says offers "one of a kind growth." "We have monitored Palantir for five-plus years from a coveted late-stage private that completed a direct listing in September 2020 through the trough of disillusionment in late 2022 as the stock plummeted to $6 lows into the recent 'rise of the phoenix' moment where PLTR has been crowned an AI All-Star on accelerating growth," Bracelin said in a report. He added: "No doubt, Palantir carries a rich valuation premium and remains a high-risk investment, but it also has a one-of-a-kind growth plus margin model that if proven durable could grow into a $24 billion run-rate by 3032 via share gains across two $1-plus trillion total addressable markets. We see Palantir as an AI secular winner and initiate at overweight." MY COMMENT YES.....still high risk.....and time will tell.
To continue with PLTR.....NOW.....number 20 in the SP500. Truly one of the largest companies in the world....for now. Palantir joins list of 20 most valuable U.S. companies, with stock more than doubling in 2025 https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/25/pal...high-becomes-20th-most-valuable-us-firm-.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Key Points Palantir shares rose about 3% on Friday, pushing the stock to another record. The provider of software to military agencies became the 20th most valuable U.S. company by market value. Palantir has more than doubled in value this year as investors ramp up bets on its artificial intelligence tools and government contract agreements. Palantir has hit another major milestone in its meteoric stock rise. It’s now one of the 20 most valuable U.S. companies. The provider of software and data analytics technology to defense agencies saw its stock rise about 3% on Friday to another record, lifting the company’s market cap to $375 billion, which puts it ahead of Home Depot and Procter & Gamble. The company’s market value was already higher than Bank of America and Coca-Cola. Palantir has more than doubled in value this year as investors ramp up bets on the company’s artificial intelligence business and closer ties to the U.S. government. Since its founding in 2003 by Peter Thiel, CEO Alex Karp and others, the company has steadily accrued a growing list of customers. Revenue in Palantir’s U.S. government business increased 45% to $373 million in its most recent quarter, while total sales rose 39% to $884 million. The company next reports results on Aug. 4. Earlier this year, Palantir soared ahead of Salesforce, IBM and Cisco into the top 10 U.S. tech companies by market cap. Buying the stock at these levels requires investors to pay hefty multiples. Palantir currently trades for 273 times forward earnings, according to FactSet. The only other company in the top 20 with a triple-digit ratio is Tesla at 175. With $3.1 billion in total revenue over the past year, Palantir is a fraction the size of the next smallest company by sales among the top 20 by market cap. Mastercard, which is valued at $518 billion, is closest with sales over the past four quarters of roughly $29 billion. MY COMMENT STILL a high risk play....but holding for the long term deals with some of that risk. NOW....the company needs to bootstrap the current PR and take advantage of this new milestone to translate it into business. Are we approaching the advent of the.....MAGNIFICENT EIGHT?
OHHHH......NO. But this really does not apply to me and what I collect. This article is dealing with the big New York auction houses which lately have been selling.....super expensive.... Modern Contemporary Art. What I collect is Western Art and a particular type of Impressionistic Art....both of which are BOOMING and setting records. The big auctions for Western art.......Santa Fe Art Auction, Jackson Hole Art Auction, Scottsdale Art Auction, the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction, the Russell Art Auction, and a few more. In the type of Impressionistic art that I collect......it is mostly specialized auctions that are NOT the big boys. Auction sales fall 6% in the first half, raising fears of an art market shift https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/25/fine-art-auction-sales.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Key Points Auction sales have been declining for the third year in a row and are down 44% — or more than $3 billion — from the first six months of 2022. But the prosperity of the wealthy is at record levels, raising questions about a bigger shift in the art market. Auction houses are working to attract younger clients with more online sales, luxury items and lower-priced offerings. Ups and Downs by KAWS, estimated£30000-£50000, on display during a preview at the Phillips showroom in central London, ahead of their forthcoming Evening and Day Editions auction. Picture date: Friday January 17, 2025. (Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images) Ian West - Pa Images | Pa Images | Getty Images Auction sales have been declining for the third year in a row, as dealers, auctioneers and collectors ponder a deeper crisis in the art market. Auction sales for the first half of the year at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips fell to $3.98 billion, a drop of 6% compared with the same period in 2024, according to ArtTactic. The auction total is the lowest in at least a decade (setting aside the 2020 pandemic) and is now down 44% — or more than $3 billion — from 2022. The declines follow a 19% drop in 2023 and 26% decline in 2024. Postwar and contemporary art, which has been the main engine of growth for art auctions in recent decades, fell by an even greater 19% in the first half, according to ArtTactic. “Lingering concerns over global economic growth, ongoing inflation, and rising geopolitical tensions are weighing on confidence and creating a more cautious investment climate,” ArtTactic said. “These factors are likely to challenge the market’s momentum in the second half of the year, as the industry adapts to a still-uncertain global landscape.” Those lingering concerns, however, aren’t showing up in other areas of the wealth economy. The prosperity of the wealthy is at record levels, with the top 10% of Americans adding $37 trillion to their wealth since Covid, marking a 45% increase. Stock markets were up more than 20% in both 2023 and 2024 and are up again so far in 2025. Housing values and business valuations have also soared, adding to personal wealth. Yale professor William Goetzmann has studied the relationship between art prices and financial wealth going back over 300 years and found they are “highly correlated.” “Demand for art increases with the wealth of art collectors,” he wrote in his famous paper “Accounting for Taste, Art and the Financial Markets over Three Centuries.” With personal wealth at all-time highs, however, Goetzmann said the 300-year correlation is broken. He said there are one of two explanations for the divergence: Either the dip in the art market is a temporary aberration and will bounce back this year or next, or the art market is going through a more structural change. “The question is, is there some kind of fundamental deviation from the social norm of the very wealthy being highly involved in collecting art at the highest prices and levels,” he said. “We don’t know yet.” That fundamental deviation, if it’s happening, may be rooted in the generational shift in wealth. For decades, the art market has been driven largely by baby boomers who built large art collections as their wealth grew throughout the 1980s, ’90s and 2000s. Many of those baby boomer collectors are now buying less or downsizing. And a growing number are leaving estates with large collections to sell, since their kids often don’t want the art. At the same time, the new generation of wealthy — millennials and Gen Z — grew up in a more digital world and may not have the same tastes or interest in the paintings of 20th century artists. With over $100 trillion in wealth expected to pass mainly from baby boomers to the next generation, some experts say the art market may be showing signs of structural change and a more existential crisis. The auction houses are racing to adapt with more online sales, luxury items and lower-priced offerings. Auction sales in the luxury category — including jewelry, handbags, wine, watches and sports memorabilia — grew 1% in the first half even as art sales declined, according to ArtTactic. Jewelry is shining especially bright among young, female collectors as more wealth shifts to women. Jewel and jewelry sales jumped 68% in the first half compared to a year ago. Online auctions are also rapidly gaining share over physical auctions as younger collectors prefer to bid from their phones. Total auction sales at Christie’s were stable in the first half, thanks in large part to online sales and luxury. Its luxury sales, which also included classic cars, surged 29% to $468 million. Among the highlights: the Marie-Therese Pink Diamond, said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, which sold for $14 million, and the “Blue Belle” fancy vivid blue diamond went for $11 million. The shine from jewelry and luxury goods is also helping Sotheby’s, which sold its own blue diamond, the famed “Mediterranean Blue,” for $21.5 million in May after a fierce bidding war. Younger collectors are driving strong demand for collectibles priced under $100,000, with the most competitive bidding for works under $50,000. The top end of the art market, with lots priced at over $10 million, plunged 39% last year, while sales of works for less than $5,000 jumped 13%, according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. Bonnie Brennan, CEO of Christie’s, told reporters that the auction’s house’s chief mission is to offer the objects that its clients want today, and offer them at the right price — especially for the new generation of collectors. Fully 80% of its bids this year have been online and nearly a third of winning bids came from millennial or Gen Z buyers. “We are showing great relevance to the younger generation, to millennials, to Gen Z,” Brennan said. “It’s something that’s really critical to sustain our business going forward.”" MY COMMENT Art is very specific to certain generations. It is a common and long time topic in the general art world..... how and if.....younger generations will be interested or involved. I have been LUCKY lately....what I collect is RED HOT and the value of what I own is at an all time high. BUT.....art is a commodity....a thing.... and NOT an investment...even though good money can be made. I see it as a hedge against inflation and a store of some value as a.....REAL......hard asset.
The market SLIPPED on me as the day progressed. BUT....I still ended with a good but smaller GAIN. I got beat by the SP500 by....0.14%.
The week that was. DOW year to date +5.92% DOW five days +1.20% SP500 year to date +8.86% SP500 five days +1.33% NASDAQ 100 year to date +11.00% NASDAQ 100 five days +0.75% NASDAQ year to date +9.48% NASDAQ five days +0.71% RUSSELL year to date +1.32% RUSSELL five days +0.57% As for me at the close today my entire portfolio is at year to date.....+15.87%. Last week it was at........+14.36%. A good week.
For me, this is everything. This is the meaning of investing. I do not believe more than a handful of people are aware of the idea beyond hearing the term and pretending to practice it. When I first bought Tesla, my analysis showed I had a 50/50 chance of either losing everything or 10x my money within 10 years. That's one of the best risk/reward ratios I have ever seen. That's why I hit it hard. The best risk/reward ratio I've ever seen was a tiny Canadian company called High Arctic Energy. I followed these guys for years. They almost went bankrupt during an oil price dip in the early 2000s. That caused the CEO to have an aversion to debt. He got the company entirely out of debt; both their operating lines and their equipment leases. It was distributing beautifully. I was thinking of getting in, and would have, when the market started giving oil away. The industry was in freefall. Shuttering wells. Energy sector equities all crashed hard. The HWO CEO's repsonse was to buy some containers and set up mobile service rigs for the natural gas field. He offered contracts to staff who wanted work and were prepared to go to Papua New Guinea to service LNG rigs. He said he wanted to retain as many staff as he could. When I saw how the company was being operated, I bought the hell out of HWO. I considered the risk of HWO going bankrupt to be 0%. I was confident I would end up with 2x~10x within two years. Middle Eastern countries can afford to give oil away for a while but, sooner or later, they need fresh gilding on their mosques. I got out of HWO entirely when my hero CEO retired. HWO treated my wife and I extremely well. A new CEO came in and immediately leveraged the hell out of the company. He had big ideas. HWO is now a penny stock that I don't follow.
So true TomB16. I try to base EVERYTHING I do as an investor on.....PROBABILITY. I am extremely CLINICAL and able to see REALITY very clearly.....and that is HUGE for me as an investor. Fundamentals are my data....but in the end it comes down to my opinion of.....PROBABILITY....on any investment.
The coming week. ALL....that matters is the big tech and other earnings. The FED.....irrelevant....who cares.....they are off in La La Land. Although we will get the PCE report on Thursday. The jobs report.....no I dont care. Earnings from Big Tech stalwarts Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta (META) will drive the direction of markets to kick off August. In addition.....164.....companies in the SP500 will report this week. Wednesday......META....MSFT. Thursday......AMZN....AAPL.
I am anticipating a TARIFF deal between the EU and the USA....this week. When you have a meeting between the TOP leaders of each happening today....Sunday....that is a very telling indicator. Trump, EU’s von der Leyen to meet on Sunday to try to clinch a trade deal https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/27/trump-eu-ursula-von-der-leyen-tariffs-trade.html
TomB16......you are very good at taking fundamental data and other research and coming to a conclusion on.....PROBABILITY....of good to great gains or income. I have watched you do it a good number of times on here. The GREATEST was TSLA. And to top it off....you had just about PERFECT timing when you sold.
HERE is a big one......for sure. At this point NONE of the tariff....."stuff"....that was fear-mongered has come true. AND.....we are way ahead in free-trade and tariff income for the USA. Trump announces EU trade deal with 15% tariffs https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/27/trump-european-union-eu-trade-tariffs.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Key Points President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the U.S. has reached a trade deal with the European Union. “It’s a very powerful deal, it’s a very big deal, it’s the biggest of all the deals,” Trump said. The U.S. president had previously threatened 30% tariffs on goods from the European Union. Ahead of his meeting with von der Leyen, Trump said that it was a 50-50 chance they’d make a deal. President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. reached a trade deal with the European Union, following pivotal discussions with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen days before the Aug. 1 tariff deadline. Trump said that the deal imposes a 15% tariff on most European goods to the U.S., including cars. Some products, including aircrafts and their components, some chemicals and pharmaceuticals, will not be subject to tariffs, von der Leyen said in a briefing after the agreement was announced. She also said that the new 15% tariff rate would not be added to any tariffs already in effect. The 15% tariff rate is lower than the 30% rate Trump had previously threatened against the United States’ largest trading partner, but higher than the 10% baseline tariffs the EU was hoping for. Trump said that the 27-member bloc also agreed to purchase $750 billion worth of U.S. energy and invest an additional $600 billion worth of investments into the U.S. above current levels. He said that the bloc would also be “purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of military equipment,” but did not provide a specific dollar amount. “It’s a very powerful deal, it’s a very big deal, it’s the biggest of all the deals,” Trump said Sunday alongside von der Leyen. “It’s a good deal, it’s a huge deal, with tough negotiations,” von der Leyen said after the meeting. While questions remain about the specific details and timeline of the EU investments, the agreement marks a pivotal moment for Trump, following weeks of uncertainty surrounding the U.S.-EU trade talks. Before his meeting with the European leader said that there was a 50-50 chance they would reach a framework of a deal. Brussels had been preparing for a no-deal scenario if the trade talks devolved ahead of Aug. 1. Lawmakers had approved a major package of counter-tariffs, which would have targeted a range of U.S. goods. The bloc also considered deploying the EU’s “Anti-Coercion Instrument,” a move seen as the trading bloc’s “trade bazooka.” Ireland’s Prime Minister said the agreement “brings clarity and predictability to the trading relationship between the EU and the US,” according to a statement. “It does mean that there will now be higher tariffs than there have been and this will have an impact on trade between the EU and the US, making it more expensive and more challenging,” Ireland’s Department of the Taoiseach said. Still, the agreement “creates a new era of stability,” the statement continued. The U.S.-EU trade relationship was valued at 1.68 trillion euros ($1.97 trillion) when taking into account both services and goods trading in 2024, according to the European Council. While the EU recorded a surplus on goods trading, it noted a deficit in the services realm. This left the EU with an overall trade surplus of around 50 billion euros with the U.S. last year." MY COMMENT BRAVO....for the markets on Monday. Now if we can just ignore the worthless FED meeting this week and get some good earnings from the big cap companies and big tech companies reporting this week.....we will be all set.
We are GAINING a lot from the EU deal compared to what we had before. A BIG WIN for the USA. Who would have ever guessed. There is a reason that I own BIG CAP.....American.....stocks. Analysis-Out-gunned Europe accepts least-worst US trade deal https://finance.yahoo.com/news/analysis-gunned-europe-accepts-least-200022690.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "LONDON (Reuters) -In the end, Europe found it lacked the leverage to pull Donald Trump's America into a trade pact on its terms and so has signed up to a deal it can just about stomach - albeit one that is clearly skewed in the U.S.'s favour. As such, Sunday's agreement on a blanket 15% tariff after a months-long stand-off is a reality check on the aspirations of the 27-country European Union to become an economic power able to stand up to the likes of the United States or China. The cold shower is all the more bracing given that the EU has long portrayed itself as an export superpower and champion of rules-based commerce for the benefit both of its own soft power and the global economy as a whole. For sure, the new tariff that will now be applied is a lot more digestible than the 30% "reciprocal" tariff which Trump threatened to invoke in a few days. While it should ensure Europe avoids recession, it will likely keep its economy in the doldrums: it sits somewhere between two tariff scenarios the European Central Bank last month forecast would mean 0.5-0.9% economic growth this year compared to just over 1% in a trade tension-free environment. But this is nonetheless a landing point that would have been scarcely imaginable only months ago in the pre-Trump 2.0 era, when the EU along with much of the world could count on U.S. tariffs averaging out at around 1.5%. Even when Britain agreed a baseline tariff of 10% with the United States back in May, EU officials were adamant they could do better and - convinced the bloc had the economic heft to square up to Trump - pushed for a "zero-for-zero" tariff pact. It took a few weeks of fruitless talks with their U.S. counterparts for the Europeans to accept that 10% was the best they could get and a few weeks more to take the same 15% baseline which the United States agreed with Japan last week. "The EU does not have more leverage than the U.S., and the Trump administration is not rushing things," said one senior official in a European capital who was being briefed on last week's negotiations as they closed in around the 15% level. That official and others pointed to the pressure from Europe's export-oriented businesses to clinch a deal and so ease the levels of uncertainty starting to hit businesses from Finland's Nokia to Swedish steelmaker SSAB. "We were dealt a bad hand. This deal is the best possible play under the circumstances," said one EU diplomat. "Recent months have clearly shown how damaging uncertainty in global trade is for European businesses." NOW WHAT? That imbalance - or what the trade negotiators have been calling "asymmetry" - is manifest in the final deal. Not only is it expected that the EU will now call off any retaliation and remain open to U.S. goods on existing terms, but it has also pledged $600 billion of investment in the United States. The time-frame for that remains undefined, as do other details of the accord for now. As talks unfolded, it became clear that the EU came to the conclusion it had more to lose from all-out confrontation. The retaliatory measures it threatened totalled some 93 billion euros - less than half its U.S. goods trade surplus of nearly 200 billion euros. True, a growing number of EU capitals were also ready to envisage wide-ranging anti-coercion measures that would have allowed the bloc to target the services trade in which the United States had a surplus of some $75 billion last year. But even then, there was no clear majority for targeting the U.S. digital services which European citizens enjoy and for which there are scant homegrown alternatives - from Netflix to Uber to Microsoft cloud services. It remains to be seen whether this will encourage European leaders to accelerate the economic reforms and diversification of trading allies to which they have long paid lip service but which have been held back by national divisions. Describing the deal as a painful compromise that was an "existential threat" for many of its members, Germany's BGA wholesale and export association said it was time for Europe to reduce its reliance on its biggest trading partner. "Let's look on the past months as a wake-up call," said BGA President Dirk Jandura. "Europe must now prepare itself strategically for the future - we need new trade deals with the biggest industrial powers of the world."" MY COMMENT ALL the various trade deals so far.......this is the KEY: "......this is nonetheless a landing point that would have been scarcely imaginable only months ago in the pre-Trump 2.0 era, when the EU along with much of the world could count on U.S. tariffs averaging out at around 1.5%." The deals now are HUGE.....compared to the "old order" of trade with us imposing an average tariff of ONLY......1.5%. That is......one-point- five- percent.......NOT Fifteen percent......in the not so distant past. Imagine....in general....our tariff income to the USA will be larger than only....SIX MONTHS AGO....by a multiple of....TEN. PLUS as an added bonus we are packing most of these trade deals with an investment in the USA as part of the deal. For the EU that investment is.......BINGO......$600BILLION. For Japan the investment component was $550BILLION. Just these two alone represent an investment in the USA of well over......$ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. But.....I am sure there will still be many that bitch about these deals. As an investor.....I WELCOME.....these deals on top of the value that my ICONIC WORLD DOMINANT companies....provide to me. Sooner or later we are going to be talking about.....REAL MONEY.
Sounds good to me. My prediction of SP500 closing out 2025 at 6800 to 6900......was one of the highest at the time it was made at the start of the year. Now it is looking totally achievable. Oppenheimer lifts S&P 500 year-end target to Wall Street-high on trade optimism https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oppe...NjkhKeeD921JNsfT7Iwaj_I5aN1VhcSltGk41SkL6KN6I (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "(Reuters) -Oppenheimer Asset Management on Monday raised its year-end target for the S&P 500 index to 7,100, the highest among major Wall Street brokerages, betting on easing trade tensions and strong corporate earnings. Its current target implies an 11.13% upside to the benchmark index's last close of 6,388.64. Oppenheimer previously set a target of 5,950 for the index. "With the announcement of trade deals (Japan, EU) by President Trump... we believe that enough 'tariff hurdles' have been overcome for now," Oppenheimer strategists led by John Stoltzfus said in a note. The U.S. and European Union finalised a trade deal on Sunday, that sets a 15% tariff on most European goods including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, while the EU pledged to buy $750 billion in U.S. energy and invest $600 billion in the U.S. economy. Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump struck a $550 billion deal with Japan. Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and RBC Capital Markets also raised their S&P 500 targets The S&P 500 has rebounded 28.2% since its April 8 low, following Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs, broadly driven by cyclical sectors such as technology, industrials and communication services. Oppenheimer brought back its S&P 500 earnings estimate to $275, which it had originally set in December 2024, having trimmed its projection to $265 in April. Stoltzfus continues to favor U.S. equities, particularly cyclical stocks, and sees further upside as inflation moderates and expects the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates steady in this week's policy meeting." MY COMMENT Sounds good to me. BUT....keep in mind there will STILL be times of correction of drops in the market. NOTHING goes up all the time....pull-backs are NORMAL.
COST is now breaking free of foreign exchange issues and other....outside their business issues....that have been hindering their fundamentals. Costco (COST) Stock Reaffirmed Outperform After Strong June Sales and Warehouse Expansion https://finance.yahoo.com/news/costco-cost-stock-reaffirmed-outperform-054206561.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) ranks among the best low volatility stocks to buy according to analysts. William Blair reaffirmed its Outperform rating on Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) on July 10 as the company announced monthly sales of $26.4 billion for June 2025, an 8.0% year-over-year increase. The addition of 25 new warehouses, which represented a 2.8% unit expansion, and comparative sales growth of 5.8% were the main drivers behind the sales growth. After two months of sequentially weaker performance, June comparative sales showed a reacceleration, primarily as a result of foreign exchange tailwinds that had been putting pressure on results for 14 months. US adjusted comparable sales increased 5.5%, representing a two-year stack of 11.8% that was in line with the trailing twelve-month average of 11.7%. Adjusted comparable sales increased 7.9% for Canadian operations and 8.2% for other international markets. A membership-based warehouse club, Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) offers bulk discounts on an array of products, including food, electronics, and household products." MY COMMENT COST is a primary holding for me.....and has been for a long time. It is a very necessary part of my portfolio along with HD, AMZN, WMT.....and.....my two funds SP500 Index fund and Fidelity Contra Fund. These holdings are BALANCE for my top heavy BIG TECH stocks that are aggressive and sometimes erratic.
There is really not much going on today that was not anticipated over the weekend. Here is the market at the open today. S&P 500 opens little changed after U.S.-EU trade deal as traders brace for big market week ahead https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/27/stock-market-today-live-updates.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) The S&P 500 rose slightly on Monday as investors showed limited enthusiasm over a highly anticipated trade deal announced between the U.S. and the European Union. The broad market index inched up 0.1% after touching a fresh record-high shortly after the opening bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered near the flatline, while Nasdaq Composite added 0.3%. The technology-heavy index also hit a record on Monday. The moves came after President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. has reached an agreement with the European Union to lower tariffs to 15%. The president had previously threatened 30% tariffs on most imported goods from the U.S.’s largest trading partner. “While sentiment is increasingly bullish, there’s some hesitation about chasing stocks at record highs in the immediate term off something that was widely expected ahead of what is going to be one of the busiest weeks of the entire year,” Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge said in a note. This week, Wall Street will be examining earnings from several major tech companies, a key Federal Reserve meeting, Trump’s tariff deadline on Friday and important inflation data. It will be the busiest week of earnings season. More than 150 companies in the S&P 500 are due to post their quarterly results, including “Magnificent Seven” names Meta Platforms and Microsoft on Wednesday, followed by Amazon and Apple on Thursday. Investors will be listening for companies’ comments on AI spending for direction on whether big investments in hyperscalers this year are justified. The Fed will also hold its two-day policy meeting, concluding on Wednesday. Although the central bank is expected to keep its key short-term interest rate at its current target range of 4.25%-4.5%, investors will be looking for clues about whether a rate cut could be on the table at the September meeting. Though there is little on the economic docket Monday, the rest of the week holds a variety of pivotal releases. The first glance at second-quarter economic growth will happen Wednesday when the Commerce Department releases its estimate on real gross domestic product growth. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect the U.S. economy grew at a 2.3% annualized pace for the April-through-June period, following a 0.5% decline for the first quarter. “This week is one traders dream of and also fear. There are so many adventures from which to choose,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. “What will be the biggest headline between the FOMC decision and the Fed Chair press conference?” Tariffs and their effect on inflation will remain in focus on Thursday as traders get the June personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation. The report is expected to show inflation rising to core inflation, which excludes food and energy, holding steady at 2.7% and headline inflation rising to 2.5%, according to Dow Jones consensus estimates. The monthly gauges are both expected to show 0.3% increases. Investors will also get a batch of jobs-related data this week, including the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, on Tuesday, ADP’s private payrolls report on Wednesday, initial jobless claims Thursday and, on Friday, the critical July jobs report. The report is expected to show the economy added 102,000 jobs in July, down from 147,000 in June. The unemployment rate is expected to show a slight bump to 4.2% from 4.1%." MY COMMENT The FED......who cares.....they will do NOTHING and are now irrelevant. The economic data....same thing.....as an investor I dont care. BUt....I expect that the data will be just fine. What will REALLY count is....EARNINGS.
I like the start to the day today. I have only a single stock in the RED.....GOOGL. I am not sure that can hold into the day....but it is a good start. I am also enjoying the....WHINING and CRY-BABIES....wringing their hands about the EU trade deal. WHATEVER. Just a bunch of negative......WEENIES. TOTAL short term BS.
ALL....the action will come later in the week with earnings and other happenings. So today is kind of a throw-away day for the markets. At the moment we are seeing green across all the big averages...although the DOW is jumping back and forth from small loss to small gain. A good day to sit and do nothing....of course....that is what I do EVERY day as a long term investor. I do my reading of daily business and investing news and events every day......but this is just because I am interested in business.
