Core CPI inflation disappoints again for February
Core CPI inflation came in hotter than expected in February for a second straight month. The core Consumer Price Index, which excludes food and energy prices, increased 0.4% from January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The year over year inflation rate...
Another (yep, another) reason to buy Novo Nordisk today
Yes, I know this is my third post (plus video) on diabetes/weight-loss drug leader Novo Nordisk (NVO) in three weeks. But the company keeps pumping out research updates that keep powering the stock higher. Think of this as a momentum stock where the momentum comes...
Buy/Sell/Hold: Sell Tesla
Right now Tesla (TSLA) is a case study in how sentiment on a stock changes, how long it takes sentiment to change (and recover), and the stages of sentiment change. Your understanding of this process should be your guide to whether you want to own Tesla stock and...
Buy/Sell/Hold Apple: Sell
Apple (AAPL) shares are down 12% for 2024 to date as of March 5. But I don’t think Apple’s troubles are over. And it will take some pretty fast talking at the June WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) to reverse the downtrend in the shares. Absent a...
Here’s why lithium producer Albemarle was down 17.9% today
Today lithium producer Albemarle (ALB) announced that it would sell $1.75 billion in ADRs to fund capital spending during the collapse in lithium prices. The offer will be for a mandatory convertible preferred with a 7% to 7.5% coupon. The plunge is a reaction to the...
Buy, sell, hold: Buy Novo Nordisk NVO
Back on February 20, I posted a YouTube video recommending a buy of Novo Nordisk (NVO). In the video, “Buy GLP-1,” I said that the stock, along with Eli Lilly (LLY) was riding the momentum of increased sales of GLP-1 drugs, originally developed to treat...
Long-term investors! This is the most important trend to think about–the global savings glut is ending
Way back in 2005, shortly before he became chair of the Federal Reserve, economist Ben Bernanke proposed that the world was seeing a long-term glut of savings. With the world awash in cash as a result of massive numbers of people in the developing world entering the...This week it’s a battle between AI and inflation
This week I expect a battle for the market’s attention between the continued AI monster momentum story and the macro story on inflation and interest rates. Will the extreme AI momentum that ended the week–with Nvidia (NVDA) up 4.0%, and Advanced Micro Devices...
Inflation, especially services inflation, looks sticky: PCE inflation up a fast 0.4% month to month in January
The headline, all-items Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, climbed at a 2.4% year over year rate in January. That was in line with what economists had forecast and down from the 2.6% annual rate in...
Need more GLP? Buying Viking Therapeutics on trial results
Yesterday, February 28, development-stage biotech Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) announced results from a Phase 2 trial of its GLP-1 weight-loss drug candidate that that showed the potential for the VK2735 compound to be best in class in the $36.5 billion (revenue) market...
Big deal inflation report on Thursday could be bad news for stocks
On Thursday the financial markets get a new monthly PCE inflation report. The PCE, Personal Consumption Expenditures index, is the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation measure. And Thursday’s report on January inflation could be bad news for the financial markets, ...
Nvidia lifts most but not all tech boats
Yesterday, Thursday, February 22, Nvidia (NVDA) gained 16.40% at the close after beating Wall Street expectations on earnings and revenue after the market close on Wednesday. And then raising guidance for the rest of 2024. I think it’s safe to say we’re in the midst...
Nvidia beats; stock picks up 7% in after hours trading
Well, optimistic analysts just weren’t optimistic enough about Nvidia’s (NVDA) fourth quarter 2023 earnings. The company reported adjusted earnings of $5.16 per share on revenue of $22.1 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $4.60 a share and revenue of...
Yes, I’d buy Palo Alto Networks today–with these caveats
After yesterday’s earnings report–the company beat Wall Street estimates for the quarter–and radically lowered guidance for the next quarter and the rest of 2024–total billings for next quarter will grow by just 2% to 4% and revenue for all of 2024...
Want to know where the market is headed? Watch the reaction to a Nvdia beat
The market reaction to Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings report, to be released after the close on Wednesday, February 21, will tell investors a lot about the short-term direction of this stock market. We’re likely to learn more, however, from the reaction to an Nvidia...
Get ready for the Nvidia circus
Can you hear the barkers yelling to the crowd? It’s Wall Street analysts rushing to raise their target prices for Nvidia (NVDA) ahead of next week’s quarterly earnings report. On February 21, after the close, Nvidia is expected to report earnings of $4.18 share, up...
Another day, another hotter than hoped inflation number
The Labor Department reported Friday that its producer price index—which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers—rose 0.3% from December to January. The index had dropped -0.1% in December. Measured year over year, producer prices rose by 0.9% in January. But the...
I won’t worry too much about stocks until investors stop buying on the dip
Remember all that fear talk on Tuesday after CPI headline inflation came in at a 3.1% annual rate in January versus the projected 2.9%? Well, that lasted all of a day. Stocks closed up yesterday, February 14 (Happy Valentine’s Day), and again today, February 15. The...
Good but disappointing news on CPI inflation for January
Headline, all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation fell again in January, but not by as much as economists had projected before this morning’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In January prices rose at 3.1% year-over-year. That’s a slower increase...
The surge in the U.S. debt couldn’t be coming at a worse time
The United States is on a pace to add nearly $19 trillion to its national debt over the next decade, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office released today, Wednesday, February 7. The budget office projected that the annual deficit will grow to...
Here we are again: 10-year Treasury yields back at 4.16% yesterday, up 14 basis points in the morning
Maybe you can’t remember when the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury fell through 4% and looked headed to 3.5%. It might be hard to remember because it was so long ago. Like two weeks. Monday, February 5, the yield on the 10-year Treasury completed a round trip,...
Federal Reserve disappoints, comes close to taking a March cut in interest rates off the table
The Federal Reserve maintained its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday in a range of 5.25%-5.50%–as the financial markets expected. But the central bank pushed back more strongly on than financial marks hoped on a March 20 schedule for the first cut in rates....Microsoft beats on earnings, but stock is flat
It is perhaps too early to draw meaningful conclusions, but Microsoft’s failure to jump on better than expected earnings sure seems like more evidence that this is a market priced to perfection. After the close today, January 30, Microsoft reported fiscal second...
Visa beats but falls on guidance–that’s what “priced for perfection” means
After the close Thursday, Visa (V) reported earnings of $2.41 a share (after adjusting for one-time items) for the December 2023 quarter. (That’s the company’s fiscal first quarter.) Analysts had been looking for $2.34 a share in adjusted earnings. Revenue grew...
Big news for the week ahead isn’t the Fed meeting but Apple earnings report
Yes, it’s a Federal Reserve meeting week, but I expect Apple’s (AAPL) earnings report for its December quarter to be the big event of the week. With the potential to move the tech sector and the market. Fed first. The Fed’s interest rate setting body, the Open Market...
3M plunges as company delivers exactly the kind of bad earnings news investors fear
3M (MMM) fell 11.03% today, Tuesday, January 23, the most in nearly five years, after announcing projections for 2024 sales and earnings below Wall Street expectations. Now granted that 3M is a special case–the company is engaged in a huge restructuring effort...
Will the Magnificent Seven stocks let the market down?
The Magnificent Seven stocks accounted for virtually all of 2023’s 24% stock market gain. The Magnificent Seven stocks are Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA). And according to Wall...
Xi’s plan for stimulus and stock market boost fails to convince China traders
China will launch a new stabilization package including about 2 trillion yuan ($278 billion) to buy mainland shares via offshore trading links in the coming days, government sources say. This would come after a market rout that has erased more than $6 trillion in...
China economic growth hit official target in 2022, but population plunge accelerates
Well, what did you expect Chinese officials to talk about at Davos? Yesterday, Premier Li Qiang said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that China’s economy is expected to have grown 5.2% in 2023. Which would exceed the government’s target...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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