The NASDAQ continues to flirt with the green side of the markets today. the other averages......not yet. Stocks fall amid China headwinds with eyes on Fed minutes https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-live-updates-today-july-5-2023-103719823.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Stocks dropped at the open on Wednesday, as traders returning from the Independence Day break eyed headwinds for the global economy and await for the release of Federal Reserve minutes from the last policy meeting. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped by around 0.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell 0.3%. A surprisingly sharp fall in Chinese services activity stoked concerns about the health of the world's second-biggest economy, against a backdrop of building tensions in the US-China trade war. Shares in Rivian (RIVN) rose nearly 6%, looking to extend Monday's 17% rally, after Amazon said it would roll out the first vans from the EV maker in Germany. The minutes from the Fed's June meeting could shed light on policymakers' decision to simultaneously hold off on a rate hike but still signal more increases to come. Those insights will set investors up for the crucial June jobs report on Friday. Housing market a ‘key source of weakness’ for China China’s volatile post-reopening recovery is unnerving investors. Beyond a slowdown in services activity, the housing market is a major factor. Housing is a "key source of weakness" in the near-term, JPMorgan analysts wrote in their mid-year outlook this week. The pressure is twofold: “On the demand side, weak housing transitions reflect weak housing demand,” the note said. It added: “On the supply side, a further decline in land sales…and rising share of land purchases by [state-owned enterprise] developers…reflect little incentive for private developers to buy new land and start new projects." Regulatory measures like relaxing mortgage policy can help with the demand problem, the analysts wrote. But “the supply-side problem is more challenging which could have a lasting impact in the coming years.” Overall, JPMorgan said it "expects growth momentum to stabilize and improve in 3Q and 4Q. Our full-year GDP growth forecast is now 5.5%, though the nominal GDP growth forecast is only 4.6%. Slower nominal GDP growth poses a major challenge for the growth stabilization effort."" MY COMMENT It is bad enough that we have to hear about the day to day economic and other "things" happening here in the USA. ADD in China and it is even more insane. NO......I am not going to obsess over the Chinese economy. I am ESPECIALLY NOT going to give any thought to the Chinese housing market. That is INSANITY.
Yes...I seen that little story line this morning. We must be doing better. Now investors are "just waiting". A week or so ago "investors were bracing." I guess that's all they got . That and China "economy data." Both weak little gin ups at this point.
I like this little article for many reasons....the general and the specific. DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT make specific stock recommendations to others. SO....the couple of stocks in this article are for discussion ONLY. ‘High-Quality Growth Is the Key’: Billionaire Ken Fisher Stays Heavily Invested in These 2 Quality AI Growth Stocks https://finance.yahoo.com/news/high-quality-growth-key-billionaire-133241279.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "2023 will surely be looked upon as the year AI went mainstream. Fueled by the rise of ChatGPT, the tech has captured the public’s imagination and it is a topic constantly hogging the headlines. Naturally, investors have also tuned in to the conversation, and AI has been driving the year’s rally in tech stocks. But there are already murmurings regarding a bubble in all things AI, so the question is: has the opportunity already played out this year? Not entirely, appears to be the opinion of one investing legend. Billionaire Ken Fisher concedes that this is no longer a ‘ground floor’ moment for those looking to ride the AI trend. However, he also does not see the current state as a bubble. Fisher believes that the rise of Big Tech this year is “mostly about quality growth and rebounding from its outsize 2022 bear market slide.” “It is not tiny start-ups in Silicon Valley that are driving AI,” he adds. “It is the big guys in chips, software, data analytics, search and more with pole position. Still, the Fisher Investments founder, who has a net worth valued at ~$6.7 billion, thinks “some AI exposure may be beneficial,” although that should only partially inform an investor’s decision to load up on a promising equity. “Instead,” Fisher goes on to say, “intelligent investing means seeking high-quality growth. If AI partly drives that growth, OK.” With all this as backdrop, we thought we’d take a look at two names sitting in Fisher’s portfolio that boast all the qualities he refers to: top-quality, growth and some exposure to AI. Using the TipRanks platform, we can also see whether the Street’s stock experts agree these are good names to own right now. Let’s take a closer look. Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) The first Fisher-backed name we’ll look at is Salesforce, a software giant that specializes in customer relationship management (CRM). The firm develops software and applications that enable its clients to enhance the level of service they provide to their own customers. Its offerings encompass various areas such as sales, analytics, and automation, as well as tailored customer service, community management, and relationship intelligence. With a market cap surpassing $206 billion, the company proudly claims to be the leading CRM platform for businesses worldwide. You can get an idea of the size involved by looking at the most recent earnings report, for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 (April quarter). The company generated revenue of $8.25 billion, amounting to an 11.3% year-over-year increase, while beating the Street’s forecast by $80 million. Furthermore, Salesforce maintains consistent profitability, with EPS of $1.69 in FQ1, exceeding analyst expectations by $0.08. Salesforce has been making use of AI for several years and began incorporating the tech into its platform in 2016 with the introduction of Salesforce Einstein. It has recently stepped up its efforts with the introduction of AI Cloud, an offering that combines AI, data, analytics, and automation that the company touts as providing “trusted, open, real-time generative AI that is enterprise ready.” All of this must be appealing to Fisher, who remains heavily invested. His money management firm currently owns 14,022,629 shares of CRM, which have a market value just under $3 billion. Salesforce also has a fan in JMP analyst Patrick Walravens, who highlights the various reasons why the stock represents an “attractive opportunity for long-term capital appreciation.” These reasons include: “1) the company is the clear leader in a very large market estimated to reach $290B+ by 2026; 2) the company seems to have settled into an effective leadership rhythm between CEO Marc Benioff, President & COO Brian Millham, and CFO Amy Weaver; 3) Salesforce just finished the first quarter of what should be a multi-year transformation with both short-term and long-term restructuring to drive higher margins and better efficiencies; 4) the company has interesting opportunities to streamline its sales processes with more suite selling across its clouds; and 5) the company is only just beginning to address its opportunities to leverage the recent advancements in large neural networks and AI for organic product innovation.” Walravens adds an Outperform (i.e., Buy) rating to his reasons, and completes his stance with a $275 price target, indicating his confidence in an upside of 30% for the next 12 months. (To watch Walravens’ track record, click here) Turning now to the rest of the Street, where CRM claims a Moderate Buy consensus rating, based on 22 Buys, 10 Holds and 1 Sell. The forecast calls for 12-month returns of 13%, considering the average target stands at $239.1. (See CRM stock forecast) Nvidia (NVDA) So, we’re talking high-quality, growth and AI, right? Then it’s safe to say, Nvidia will be the first name that springs to mind for many. The semiconductor giant has been a leading chipmaker for years now, known for its GPUs – graphics processors – that are used in gaming, which used to account for the majority of its revenues, and for data center use, which eventually overtook the gaming segment as the main breadwinner. Due to the quality of its offerings, the company has practically cornered the AI hardware industry. Most AI applications currently depend on Nvidia hardware, as it boasts a 95% dominance of the machine learning GPU market, according to a recent report from CB Insights. Nvidia has been known for some tremendous growth, but it has also been affected by the slowing economy. Nevertheless, in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 (April quarter), the company beat expectations on both the top-and-bottom line. Although revenue declined by 13.3% year-over-year to $7.19 billion, the figure still beat the analysts’ forecast by $670 million. Likewise, adj. EPS of $1.09 beat the Street’s call by $0.17. Those results were good, but the company left the best for an outlook that stunned Wall Street. With demand for its AI chips surging, Nvidia guided for FQ2 revenue of $11 billion, plus or minus 2%. Consensus was looking for just $7.11 billion. These results, on top of the AI hype, have helped the stock get a place at the table of the exclusive $1 trillion market cap club, with the shares having gained 190% year-to-date. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to estimate Fisher is pleased with his NVDA investment. He is the owner of over 10 million shares, and these are presently valued at more than $4.27 billion. Nvidia is well-known for its hardware, but it is no slouch on the software front, either, as highlighted by Rosenblatt analyst Hans Mosemann. “Nvidia stands in a league of its own when it comes to software compilers, vertical market optimizations, and accelerator libraries. These strengths easily compensate for many of the hardware specifications offered by new AI chip companies. Software subscriptions, royalties, and other sources will increasingly contribute to Nvidia’s revenues in the coming years, particularly as we transition to autonomous driving, Omniverse AI worlds, and similar technologies,” the 5-star analyst explained. “We expect tech to continue to lead the market higher and we also believe that the AI enthusiasm is not over-hyped. NVDA’s recent sequential guide was telling. We think this rally has plenty of runway as investor risk appetites continue to climb the wall of worry.” The year-to-date gains are not an issue for Mosesmann, then. He has a Buy rating on the shares to go alongside a $600 price target. The implication for investors? Additional upside of 41% from current levels. (To watch Mosesmann’s track record, click here) Most on the Street remain in NVDA’s corner. The stock’s Strong Buy consensus rating is based on 28 Buys vs. 2 Holds and 1 Sell. The shares are priced at $423.47 and the $471.8 average target implies one-year share appreciation of 11%. (See Nvidia stock forecast)" MY COMMENT Again.......QUALITY is the name of the game. Especially for the long term investor. I own one of the two stocks above......NVDA. I do not own CRM. If I was going to add a stock CRM would be on my list of stocks to look at and consider. BUT....at this point I have not done any sort of deep dive into this company.
I just looked at the REAL ESTATE market for my little area of 4200 homes. It is EXTREMELY challenging for buyers. Out of that many homes there are ONLY 36 active listings. Normally this time of the year......in the old days a few years ago....we would have about 100 to 150 listings that were active. Now after the boom of the past years and all the turmoil in real estate we are STILL under the EXTREME low inventory conditions. I pity the real estate professionals trying to make a living in this market. It is very difficult to get any listing or find anything to sell. I am seeing pending sales at all market levels in our area.....the high end and the low end. ALTHOUGH when I say LOW END I am talking about houses in the $700,000 price range. When we first came to this area about eleven years ago......there were still homes for sale in the upper $200,000 and low $300,000 price range. A very significant change over such a short time.
Not really worth commenting about, but here I am doing so strangely. The FED minutes offered....absolutely nothing, zero, zilch, about anything new. Of course most of us realize this, but the media just can't let a good ginned up headline go to waste. I often find it amusing sometimes during the pre market or at open and many times at close, when they (media and experts) always attribute why the market is doing one thing or another. It is always something. No matter the insignificance of it. They always have to connect it to something.
Looks like the index are trying to claw back into the last hour. Still plenty of green out there in some places/holdings at the moment anyway.
YES.....I find it interesting when a couple of different sites have totally different reason for the daily market.
As to the lack of BREADTH in the markets and this BULL RUN.........NEVER-MIND. It's not just tech. Other stocks are hitting 52-week highs. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/its-...ocks-are-hitting-52-week-highs-155801819.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "It’s not just megacap tech leading the markets higher this year. Look around, and you'll notice a variety of big-name stocks starting to join the 52-week high club. In some cases, they're reaching record peaks. Walmart (WMT) closed at an all-time high of $158.20 on Monday. During the same session, Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) hit an intraday record following its record close of $2,139 last Friday. Fast food chain McDonald's (MCD) also recorded its best closing price ever last week at $298.41. Until now, analysts had noted that this year's massive market rally had been fueled by a handful of tech stocks. Apple recently became the first US publicly traded company to close with a $3 trillion valuation. Other notable names that have recently hit 52-week highs include GE (GE) and home improvement retailer Lowes (LOW). "Generally speaking, for me, it's just further and further evidence of breadth expansion," JC Parets, president and founder of Allstarcharts.com, recently said in a note to investors. "This is the sort of thing that happens in bull markets," he added. Yet other strategists caution against getting too bullish too soon. "Under the surface, the picture has modestly broadened over the last few weeks. However, it's still unusual that we're ~9 months off the October lows and the rally is not broader," Chris Varrone, managing director at Strategas, and Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird Private Wealth Management, recently wrote in a note to investors. "Today we're sitting at about 60-65% of stocks above their 200-day moving average, and historically you might see 80-90% of issues above the 200-day in that first year off a low," added the strategists. "There are hints of cyclical leadership, but it's not as broad as one would expect," they said. Overall, the Nasdaq (^IXIC) gained 30% in the first six months of the year, marking its best first half ever. The broader S&P 500 (^GSPC) had its best first half since 2019, up 16%. Investors poured into information technology, communication services, and consumer discretionary stocks this year amid a frenzy over artificial intelligence and rotation out of energy and financials. However, even names like JPMorgan (JPM) — which earlier this year acquired First Republic Bank in an effort to curb a regional banking crisis — hit a 52-week high on Monday. Credit card firms Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V) also reached similar levels recently. "I was promised a banking crisis, maybe even a recession. But all I got was the most amount of new 52-week highs in years," said Parets. The travel stocks have also been on a tear. Marriott International (MAR), Delta (DAL), Carnival (CCL), and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) all touched intraday 52-week highs recently. Travel and leisure is one of the sectors of the economy that has been going strong despite the Fed’s tight monetary policy. Carnival shares jumped to a 52-week intraday high of $19.19 on Monday. The cruise line operator recently announced record quarterly bookings. "We’re back," Carnival CEO Josh Weinstein told Yahoo Finance earlier this year." MY COMMENT As usual....if you ignore the experts and the financial media......things are just fine. I think the lack of breadth stuff was simply.....BS. Unfortunately......that is just how things are right now. They will find any excuse and any reason to try to undercut the BULL MARKET narrative. I love this line: "I was promised a banking crisis, maybe even a recession. But all I got was the most amount of new 52-week highs in years," AND......how can the most 52 week highs in years......be lack of breadth. I dont care about how many there might have been in past bull markets.....especially more mature bull markets. I just care about the current REALITY. I mean.....come on man.....it was just a few weeks ago that most people were unwilling to even recognize that we were in a bull market.
I am avoiding the big swings lately. Either TINY gains or TINY losses. Today it was a TINY loss for me. Although I did manage to beat the SP500 by 0.06%. I had four stocks DOWN and six stocks UP. The losers today were NVDA, AAPL, HON, and TSLA. All the rest were positive. With both the winners and the losers......many were very small gains or losses. The markets seem to be in a little period of consolidation of the recent news and gains....before starting back up. At least my portfolio make-up is protecting me from market extremes right now.
I hope we can see the markets as they really are over the next couple of days.....away from the FED shadow. Here is the close today. Dow slips 100 points to snap 3-day win streak as investors consider Fed’s latest comments https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/04/stock-market-today-live-updates.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid on Wednesday as Wall Street resumed a holiday-shortened week and digested the latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes for insights into the state of monetary policy. The 30-stock average lost 129.83 points, or 0.38%, to close at 34,288.64. The S&P 500 fell 0.2% to 4,446.82. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.18% to end at 13,791.65. Both the Dow and S&P 500 ended three-day win streaks. Investors parsed minutes from the June 13-14 Fed meeting released Wednesday afternoon, in which most officials indicated further interest rate hikes could lie ahead. The minutes gave Wall Street additional context to the central bank’s decision to skip a rate increase at the June meeting. “There’s no question that Fed rate hike policy continues to drive investors’ thoughts related to the second half of the year’s market trajectory and economic trajectory,” said Greg Bassuk, CEO of AXS Investments. “That continued aggressive rhetoric or messaging around their plans for the coming months … got investors a lot more skittish,” he said. And it comes after they already began “talking about and contemplating the timing of when rates are going to start to drop later this year into 2024.” Data released Wednesday morning showed factory orders were weaker than expected in May. Later in the week, investors will watch for a batch of employment and wage data for insights into the strength of the labor market. Markets closed early on Monday and were completely dark on Tuesday for the Fourth of July holiday. Last week, the Nasdaq closed out its best first half of the year since 1983, while the S&P 500 notched its best first-half advance since 2019, as a surge in interest in artificial intelligence buoyed investor optimism in stocks. The Dow was the laggard, rising just 3.8%." MY COMMENT Onward from here. I do note that MUCH of the economic data is NOT coming in HOT lately. Inflation is moderating and I have seen many economic reports of various items lately that were below expectations. Of course....there are also some that are above. In other words an economy that is starting to flatten out. I see this as simply more and more normalization from the pandemic closure and all the various supply chain and logistics issues of the past 2-3 years. A GOOD THING for investors.
I was talking about the poor buyers in the housing market earlier today. Housing affordability plummets to lowest level since 2007 as prices jump Home prices jump in 98% of US counties as affordability plummets https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy...-plummets-lowest-level-since-2007-prices-jump (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Housing affordability in the U.S. declined again in the spring as home prices surged nationwide, according to new data from real estate analytics firm ATTOM. The findings show the price of a median single-family house surged to $350,000 in the second quarter, a 10% jump from the previous quarter, one of the biggest increases in the past decade. That price is also 2% above last year's peak, according to the report, before the spike in mortgage rates cooled demand among would-be homebuyers. The portion of average wages required to own a home, meanwhile, skyrocketed to 33% in the period from April to June. That marks the highest debt-to-income ratio since 2007, meaning the market is the least affordable for Americans in nearly two decades. The lack of affordability is widespread across the country, with prices rising in about 98% of counties when compared to historical averages. "The U.S. housing market has done an about-face following a downturn that threatened to usher in an extended period of flat or falling prices. With that has come another blow to how much house the average worker around the country can afford," ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in a statement. "Whether this is just a temporary blip amid this year's peak buying season or a sign of another extended price surge is anyone's guess." The Federal Reserve's aggressive interest-rate hike campaign sent mortgage rates soaring above 7% for the first time in nearly two decades, and rates have been slow to retreat. Rates on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage are currently hovering around 6.71%, according to Freddie Mac, well above the 5.7% rate recorded one year ago and the pre-pandemic average of 3.9%. Even though rates are nearly double what they were three years ago, home prices have hardly budged. That is at least in part due to a lack of available homes for sale. Sellers who locked in a low mortgage rate before the pandemic began have been reluctant to sell, leaving few options for eager would-be buyers. A recent report from Realtor.com showed that the number of available homes on the market in June was down more than 47% from the typical amount before the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020. "Mortgage rates have hovered in the 6 [percent] to 7 percent range for over six months and, despite affordability headwinds, homebuyers have adjusted and driven new home sales to its highest level in more than a year," Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater said recently." MY COMMENT Buyers......dont hold your breath for either falling home prices or falling mortgage rates. If you do you will suffocate. I have been a homeowner for a long time now....having bought my first home way back in 1974.......for $16,000. Now ten homes later.......I am so glad that we got that first home. It allowed us to grab the general gains of the housing markets and continue to move up, and up, and up for the past nearly 50 years. We had a difficult time getting that first home.....we had to stretch to make that payment of about $170 per month.
NOT a good sign for the averages today to see the Ten Year Treasury at.....4.039%.....at this moment.
I hate these sentiment surveys you see often in the financial news.......totally worthless. More Inflation Expectations Silliness https://ritholtz.com/2023/07/inflation-expectations-silliness/ (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) This morning, the WSJ reported that “Consumers expect to see 4.1% inflation a year from now, the lowest such reading in two years and down sharply from its recent peak of 6.8%.” There are some who believe this is good news, but as we pointed out in May, it’s a meaningless, lagging survey. In fact, it may be even worse than that, because it appears that some at the Federal Reserve actually believe the Fed’s own survey of consumers contains information. As we have previously shown (repeatedly), it does not. At least, it does not contain valuable information providing insight into future inflation levels. What it does reveal is that the Federal Reserve is not current with the latest research on 1) What drives inflation; 2) The fallibility of surveys and polling data; 3) An updated understanding of behavioral economics and how human decision-making works. Last we noted, Sentiment Surveys are generally useless; their most valuable moments occur at extremes, which are typically visible in hindsight. People have no ability to forecast things like what inflation will be like 1, 3, or 5 years hence. They can (arguably) extrapolate out current CPI a few months or quarters, but even that might be too generous. And while people’s expectations can factor into inflation, it is but one element out of many, and one that is easily changed. As the FRED chart below shows, consumers were quite sanguine about inflation at the beginning of its huge run-up in 2021; they were panicked about inflation at the peak, just as it was beginning its collapse. If you bought Inflation Futures based on Consumer expectations, you would quickly go broke. To say this is a useful measure reveals an irrational attachment to an outdated standard. As Brookings explained, this traces back to the late 1960s work by Nobel laureates Edmund Phelps and Milton Friedman. They focused on inflation expectations due to the ties between inflation and unemployment. Persistently high inflation in the 1970s became unanchored, as long-running inflation led to higher wage demands. The phenomenon of the wage-price spiral persisted in the 1970s and 80s. It seems to still be persisting among certain economists, who have ignored what occurred post-pandemic/post-fiscal stimulus: Despite CPI spiking higher, unemployment continued to fall. Consider what occurred since the 1970s: Globalization increased, automation became widespread, and productivity increased dramatically. I suspect these factors are part of the reason why inflation and unemployment have decoupled. The other part is that the economy is just so different today than it was 50 years ago, that using a 1970s analog is a recipe for failure. The entire concept of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (which won a Nobel prize for Eugene Fama) was that what people say about anything is far less valuable than what they do, especially with their hard-earned dollars. Whether they invest it in the market or buy inflated consumer goods is itself a source of valuable information; certainly much better than asking them what they thought inflation might be sometime in the distant future. People who should know better pay way too much attention to Inflation Expectations. The charts above show that they shouldn’t…" MY COMMENT CLASSIC.....garbage in.....garbage out. why in the world would anyone.....especially supposedly sophisticated financial and economic people........trust in any way a poll of what people think inflation or anything else is going to be in the future. There is no way this sort of poll is going to be accurate. It is not just a lagging survey......it is simply a reflection of all sorts of myth, anecdotal information, the impact of media, ignorance of the general population, etc, etc, etc. We see the so called "experts" wrong about everything in the financial world every day. How in the world can this sort of poll have any validity? It cant. Yet another type of data that is totally worthless to long term investing.
We have two factors.....both short term items.....impacting the markets today. Here is the second one. Private sector companies added 497,000 jobs in June, more than double expectations, ADP says https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/06/adp-jobs-report-private-sector-added-497000-workers-in-june.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Key Points Private sector jobs surged by 497,000 in June, well ahead of the 267,000 gain in May and much better than the 220,000 estimate. Leisure and hospitality led with 232,000 new hires, followed by construction with 97,000, and trade, transportation and utilities at 90,000. The unexpected jump in payrolls comes despite more than a year’s worth of Federal Reserve interest rate increases. The U.S. labor market showed no signs of letting up in June, as companies created far more jobs than expected, payroll processing firm ADP reported Thursday. Private sector jobs surged by 497,000 for the month, well ahead of the downwardly revised 267,000 gain in May and much better than the 220,000 Dow Jones consensus estimate. The increase resulted in the biggest monthly rise since July 2022. From a sector standpoint, leisure and hospitality led with 232,000 new hires, followed by construction with 97,000, and trade, transportation and utilities at 90,000. Annual pay rose at a 6.4% rate, representing a continued slowing that nonetheless still is indicative of brewing inflationary pressures. “Consumer-facing service industries had a strong June, aligning to push job creation higher than expected,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. “But wage growth continues to ebb in these same industries, and hiring likely is cresting after a late-cycle surge.” The unexpected jump in payrolls comes despite more than a year’s worth of Federal Reserve interest rate increases aimed in large part to cool a jobs market in which there are still nearly two open positions for every available worker. ADP’s count comes a day ahead of the more closely watched nonfarm payrolls report from the Department of Labor. That is expected to show an increase of 240,000 after a 339,000 gain in May. While the two reports can differ broadly, the ADP numbers pose some upside risk for Friday’s report. Other industries seeing solid gains included education and health services (74,000), natural resources and mining (69,000), and the “other services” classification (28,000). Manufacturing lost 42,000 jobs, while information was off 30,000 and financial activities saw a decline of 16,000. Broadly speaking, service providers contributed 373,000 of the total, while goods producers added 124,000. Companies with fewer than 50 employees were responsible for most of the job growth, adding 299,000 positions. Firms with more than 500 workers lost 8,000 jobs, while mid-size companies contributed 183,000.' MY COMMENT This report along with the Ten Year Treasury yield being up around 4.041% is why the markets are down today. Typical short term market reaction to short term data. In addition......I am hearing the USUAL BS about how the big cap tech companies are so interest rate sensitive. BALONEY. I have never heard this kind of BS any time until the past 3-6 years. There is ABSOLUTELY ZERO reason any of the big cap tech companies would be interest rate sensitive. They all have HUGE cash hoards. They have little need to borrow. They make massive amounts of money. People just say and repeat this sort of GARBAGE out of stupidity. It is how the media....even the financial media.....works as a repetitive clique where no one questions this kind of BS. If there was any group of companies in the world that have ZERO sensitivity to rates......it is the big cap tech companies. Come on....these are TRILLION dollar companies. As an investor it is a primary, critical, skill to have the guts and the common sense ability to simply ignore about 90% of what you see on a daily basis. The focus is one thing.......EARNINGS.
HEY......where are all the NFT's? It was not long ago......although it seems like a lifetime....that we were told this was the investing and collecting wave of the future. The next greatest thing since sliced bread. The wave of the future. LOL......more BS.
To summarize the above.....what we are seeing today in a NON-FUNDAMENTAL market sell-off. A traders dream. At the current market levels.....WAY OVERDONE......and in the scheme of things beyond about a week or two at the most....not relevant to anything to do with investing. A tempest in a teapot......a tornado in a thimble.....a BIG joke. OMG.....the FED might hike in July. Number one if the FED does hike in July.....I expect they will, it has been totally telegraphed.......it will not have any more impact than the past....what is it.....ten hikes. The FED never had any control of the economy......and in the near future will have no control of the economy. It is obvious that they have NO CLUE why anything is happening. They are simply reacting and being jerked around by events and data that is beyond their control. They are a one trick pony.....trash the stock markets.....based on the RIDICULOUS concept that doing so somehow impacts the economy. The markets are NOT the economy.....and....the economy is NOT the markets. BUMMER for them....they have no ability to impact wages, employment, hiring, etc, etc, etc. The economy is basically giving them the middle finger. The one thing that the FED might have some slight ability to impact is the continued out of control government stimulus. Yet they are MUTE on this issue. Whether is is student loan relief or any of the hundreds of other programs.....the government continues to directly and indirectly pump out the stimulus.
The economy is on a roll as the recovery from the pandemic closures picks up speed. Jobs are plentiful.....wages are STILL going up. Small business is STILL suffering the greatest impact from what is going on right now and having massive issues with hiring. BUT....at this point have adapted to those conditions.
It is comical to see some of the headlines and little freak outs. About the only reaction I get out of any red days is it makes me want to buy more shares of what I own.
LOL.....YOU are the problem with the economy Smokie. YOU are not doing your part to solve all the current issues. You have got to stop buying things. HOW DARE YOU.
