I am siting and waiting at the inspection station. Listening to Varney on Sat radio. Looks like my stocks are improving. Nice to potentially be making some money while taking care of other business and doing nothing.
Back from my errands and....NICELY....the markets have now improved with the SP500 and NASDAQ in the GREEN. I have also improved with my nine stocks to where I am NOW.....seven GREEN and two RED. I am dead flat at.....+0.00%....since my two red are NVDA and AMZN. We have HOPE.
Glad to see this as a GOOGL shareholder. Any dollar that is NOT invested in China is a good thing going forward. I am also glad to see the company taking positive steps forward into AI. They have done a very poor job playing the AI PR game so far and need to ramp up for the future. Google to invest $1 billion in Thailand to build data center and accelerate AI growth https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/30/google-to-invest-1-billion-in-thailand-data-center-and-ai-push.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Key Points Google is investing 36 billion Thai baht, or $1 billion, into Thailand to build a new data center and expand its cloud infrastructure, the company said Monday. It marks a ramp-up of Google’s expansion in Asia, putting artificial intelligence at the heart of its international push at a time when it is facing competition from companies such as Microsoft and OpenAI. In a 2023 report, Google, Temasek and Bain & Company said Thailand’s digital economy is the second-largest in Southeast Asia and is expected to reach $50 billion by 2025. Google announced Monday it is investing 36 billion Thai baht, or $1 billion, into Thailand for the creation of a new data center and expansion of the country’s cloud infrastructure. The move marks a ramp-up of Google’s expansion in Asia, putting artificial intelligence at the heart of its international push at a time when it is facing intense competition from companies such as Microsoft and OpenAI. The investment would see the company create its first data center in Thailand, Google said in a post on its Thailand blog Monday. Data centers are the backbone of today’s modern digital economy, fueling the rise of cloud computing technology that enables access to storage, compute and analytics services via the internet. Google said its debut Thai data center will be located in Chonburi, an eastern province of Thailand. The facility will “help support the growing demand for Google Cloud and AI innovations, as well as popular Google services such as Google Search, Google Maps and Google Workspace” in Thailand, Jackie Wang, Google’s Thailand country lead, said in the blog post, according to an English translation taken via Google Translate. Beyond developing infrastructure, the $1 billion investment from Google into Thailand is “also about unlocking new opportunities for businesses, educators and all Thais,” Wang said in the blog post. “As AI transforms industries, it is more important than ever to educate and upskill Thais to use this technology,” she added. Thailand’s digital economy is the second-largest in Southeast Asia and is expected to reach $50 billion by 2025, Google, Temasek and Bain & Company said in a 2023 report by e-Conomy SEA. Google is investing in the region with a focus on AI as it faces pressure from its rival tech giants when it comes to both AI and cloud computing. The internet giant currently dominates globally when it comes to its search engine technology. But the firm has increasingly come under threat from the surge of generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It is a technology that Google helped pioneer through its early research on so-called transformer models, which are the bedrock of many of the most-popular generative AI models. However, today Google finds itself under threat from the use of generative AI products, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, to find information about things. Last week, Google filed an antitrust lawsuit with the European Commission accusing Microsoft of abusing its dominant position in the cloud industry to undermine competition." MY COMMENT Anywhere but China. India, any other Asian country, is good for me.
Here is some nice news for the BULL MARKET and investors. Broadening gains in US stock market underscore optimism on economy https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/...arket-underscore-optimism-economy-2024-09-30/ (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) - More stocks are participating in the S&P 500’s latest march to record highs, easing concerns over a rally that has been concentrated in a handful of giant technology names for much of 2024. The S&P 500 is on track to gain 5% in the third quarter, which ends on Monday. This time, however, optimism that the Federal Reserve’s rate cuts will boost U.S. growth is pushing investors into shares of regional banks, industrial companies and other beneficiaries of a strong economy and lower rates, in addition to the tech-focused stocks that have already seen massive gains this year. More than 60% of S&P 500 components have outperformed the index so far this quarter, compared to around 25% in the first half of the year. At the same time, the equal-weight version of the S&P 500 -- a proxy for the average index stock -- has gained 9% in the quarter, outperforming the S&P 500, which is more influenced by the heavily weighted shares of megacaps such as Nvidia and Apple. The broadening rally is an encouraging sign for stocks, investors said, following concerns that the market could be vulnerable to a reversal if the cluster of tech names propping it up fell out of favor. The “soft-landing” narrative of resilient growth will be tested by employment data at the end of the week and the start of corporate earnings season in October The second half of the year so far is "almost a mirror image of what the first half was," said Kevin Gordon, senior investment strategist at Charles Schwab. "Even if the megacaps aren't contributing as much, as long as the rest of the market is doing well... I think that's a healthy development. Chart of the S&P 500 vs the equal-weight S&P 500, which is a proxy for the average index stock The Fed kicked off its first rate cutting cycle in four years earlier this month with a 50-basis point reduction, a move Chairman Jerome Powell said was meant to safeguard a resilient economy. Traders are pricing an even chance of another jumbo-sized reduction when the central bank meets again in November and project over 190 basis points of cuts through the end of 2025, according to LSEG data. Various corners of the stock market are benefiting from expectations of lower rates and steady growth. The S&P 500’s industrial and financials sectors - seen by investors as among the most economically sensitive areas - are up 10.6% and about 10%, respectively, in the third quarter. Falling rates are also a boon to shares of smaller companies, which disproportionately struggle with elevated borrowing costs. The small-cap focused Russell 2000 is up nearly 9% this quarter. The market’s bond proxies - stocks with strong dividends - are also attracting investors seeking dividend income as bond yields fall alongside interest rates. Two such sectors, utilities and consumer staples have climbed 18% and 8%, respectively so far this quarter. Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide, said the broadening builds on a trend that appeared before the September 17-18 Fed meeting. "We were going to have this greater participation, this leveling of performance among sectors, and then you had the Fed cut more aggressively and that's leading to... an acceleration of that trend," he said. 'QUITE HEALTHY' In all, seven of the S&P 500's 11 sectors are outperforming the index in the third quarter. By comparison, only technology and the communications sector, which includes Google parent Alphabet and Facebook owner Meta Platforms outperformed the broader index in the first half of the year. The S&P 500 is up more than 20% year-to-date, at record-high levels. Meanwhile, the overall influence of the megacaps has moderated. The combined weight in the S&P 500 of the "Magnificent Seven" -- Apple, Microsoft Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Tesla -- has declined to 31% from 34% in mid-July, according to LSEG Datastream. "I find it to be quite healthy that tech has kind of consolidated," said King Lip, chief strategist at BakerAvenue Wealth Management. "We're not in a bear market for tech by any means. But you've definitely seen some evidence of rotation." Investors would likely need to see further proof of economic strength for the broadening trend to continue. Jobs data on Oct. 4 will be one test of the soft landing scenario, after the prior two employment reports were weaker than expected. Market participants will also want to see non-tech firms deliver strong earnings in the months ahead to justify their gains. Magnificent Seven companies are expected to increase earnings by about 20% in the third quarter, against a profit rise of 2.5% for the rest of the S&P 500, according to Tajinder Dhillon, senior research analyst at LSEG. That gap is expected to shrink in 2025, with the rest of the index expected to increase earnings by 14% for the full year against a 19% rise for the megacap group. In a soft landing scenario, the Magnificent Seven "should not have to carry the profit rebound alone," Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, said in a recent report. "We are in the 'show me' stage for the soft landing," Shalett said." MY COMMENT I will call it NOW since it is obvious. WE HAVE ACHIEVED A SOFT LANDING. Recession is nowhere imminent and the BULL MARKET is healthy and growing into other sectors of the markets. We are now seeing BROAD BASED gains in the markets. AND....every economic data point and indicator that I can remember....has been positive for the economy and inflation....over the past 3 months. It is time for the financial media to give up and cut out the constant negativity on the economy and the markets. It just undermines their credibility to constantly talk negative in the face of a growing BULL MARKET and a strong economy.
BUT.....of course.....we have to get past the election in about 5 weeks. I have a pretty good expectation for where it is headed with what I am seeing right now......but....that is something for a different thread. AND....five weeks in a tight election is an ETERNITY.
