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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).