Category: AAPL

A Dull Market

I don’t mind telling you – this has been one of the least enjoyable weeks to write about the stock market in a long while. Trading has been directionless. I’ve watched at least two dozen upside breakouts for individual stocks fail. And despite the clear unwillingness to take stock prices higher, the bears have been unable to get a decent sell-off going…

More China Selling

Right now, we’ve got American owned shell companies funneling U.S. tech to Russia to build the bombs that rain down on Ukraine. Tankers brimming with Russian oil are welcome in India and Turkey. Income mutual funds feast on that 8% Altria dividend that’s driven in part by cigarette and Juul vaping sales. Two-thirds of Americans favor a waiting period for gun purchases that only 9 states’ lawmakers have approved. Walmart (NYSE: WMT) agreed to pay a $3 billion fine for dealing opioids…

A Failure to Fear Monger

Welp, guess I’ll join the legions of financial/investment writers out there and talk about inflation and the Fed. Even with banks failing and a big jump in the number of economists and strategist-types saying recession is about to take us all for a ride to lower stock prices, the Fed is still the one driving this crazy bus…

Accounting vs. Reality

You know what makes me nervous? When everybody is saying don’t be nervous… And that’s where we are in the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank failure. Yes, depositors have been made whole, equity and bond holders are mostly wiped out. And all the analysts, strategists and economists are out there saying don’t worry, there’s little risk of widespread problems in the banking system…

Coming up Roses

As of yesterday, pretty much everything we’ve been talking about over the last month blossomed. We were looking for the S&P 500 to take a run at 4100. It did even better, closing yesterday at 4179. We were looking for Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to make a convincing move above $100 that would carry it up to $110. Amazon finished yesterday at $112.91.

The Strong Arm of U.S. Chip Rules

If you aren’t aware of the Biden administration’s actions regarding China’s semiconductor industry, it’s pretty simple: American companies have been banned from selling advanced semiconductors to China. The ban also covers the equipment needed to make and test semiconductors.

The Case Against Intel

Last week, semiconductor giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) reported earnings that were…um…bad. Intel shares closed at $30.03 on Thursday, January 26. The stock opened for trading Friday morning at $27.07, down 10% after a surprise earnings miss.

Pharma and Globalization

They say the current shortage of amoxicillin – along with a bunch of other drugs, like ibuprofen and acetaminophen and local anesthetics like lidocaine – is the result of higher than average demand.

Tesla’s Personality Crisis

A modern day Thomas Edison and Henry Ford rolled into one, Musk hit rockstar status in 2018 when he sparked up that joint on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Brilliant, wildly successful, rebellious, sense of humor – my daughter went to Baltimore’s top STEM high school in Baltimore, she said every student there followed him on Twitter.

About that Rally…

On Wednesday, I discussed the possibility that a rally might be brewing. For Exhibit A, I pointed out that the S&P 500 held above support at 3,818 for 10 of the previous 11 days. Exhibit B was the simple observation that stock prices in general had held pretty steady, even as the newsflow leaned negative – with a downgrade for bellwether Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and negative demand news for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).