Category: META

Where is the top?

I’ve been doing my fair share of griping lately. Because it drives me nuts when all the strategist-types from the big investment banks, along with the mainstream financial gurus, continue to pound away at the bear market case for stocks, despite growing evidence that there is a new bull market in the works.

Next Big Thing

Don’t be surprised if there’s not a lot of upside for stocks between now and the next Fed meeting on June 14. The S&P 500 has come a long way to challenge its 52-week highs, a little breather makes sense. And if the market decides to pull back, it doesn’t mean that this rally was all BS hype. Use weakness to add quality stocks.

Breaking Out…Or Breaking Down

The 52-week high for the S&P 500 is up around 4,300. One year ago, on Star Wars Day (May the 4th) 2022, the index closed exactly at 4,300. Then on August 16, the S&P 500 closed at 4305, after failing to move above the 200-day moving average, which, on that day, stood at 4,325. Both of the highs – May 4 and August 16 – were followed by some pretty nasty drops.

AI – Artificial Inflation

Pepsi’s Frito-lay division reported a 16% gain in revenue even though sales volume was flat from the year before. It would be interesting if I could tell you that the revenue gain came from some startling Artificial Intelligence application that boosted margins for Dorito’s. But there was another kind of AI at work – artificial inflation.

Eggs and Inflation

It’s literally been years since I made fresh guacamole. Because, while I can be pretty extravagant at times, I ain’t payin’ the runaway inflation price of $3.50 for one stupid avocado…

C3.ai Makes it 5 for 5

In Monday’s article “Today’s Trading Plan” I told you that C3.ai (NASDAQ: AI) had beaten earnings expectations in each of the last four quarters. I suggested it for a trade because the share price was squeezing down into the corner of a pennant and a big earnings related move looked likely.

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.

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.

Rally Time?

Well, here we are: 2023. With nearly 2 whole trading days completed for the new year, I thought *now* would be a good time to take a look at the recent action and make some sweeping generalizations about how stocks will trade over the next 12 months.