S&P 500 Index. The $S&P 500(.SPX)$ index comprises of the 500 biggest companies in the US. It is considered to be a reference point for overall health of US market, showing how the world's largest businesses are performing. For a company, getting inducted into the S&P 500 is a big milestone because it represents major validation for a company and its business. Eligibility requirements for inclusion into the index are no small feat. $Palantir Technologies Inc.(PLTR)$, a subject matter expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been eligible for S&P 500 inclusion for quite some time. For reasons unknown, it has not been shortlisted yet. The next S&P 500 rebalancing will take place in J

The Big Mystery. The mystery concerning this FAANG & Magnificent 7 groupie Tech giant is (a) will it continue to languish in 2024 or (b) will it be able to turn things around, just like it had in the past. Investors’ main grouse about Apple Inc is its perceived lack of development in the AI-sphere. Practically, its peers eg. $NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$ , $Amazon.com(AMZN)$ , $Alphabet(GOOG)$ etc…have jumped onto the AI-bandwagon and are humming the same tune. The synergy serves to reinforce each other, pulling all their stock prices up the ladder in the process. Even “ambitious” $Meta Platforms, Inc.(META)$ that harboured am

Even before my Sunday post on Tesla has fallen off the chart (click here ! to read), more bad news have emerged from the electric car maker. (see below) The Great Layoff. Based off an internal memo, Tesla is laying off > 10% of its workforce. As it grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price war for EVs. A war (price) that was kickstarted by Tesla (lest we forget). Still finding time to take to Twitter, the CEO said “about every 5 years, we need to reorganize and streamline the company for the next phase of growth“. The last job cut was back in 2022 after the CEO had a bad premonition - a "super bad feeling" about the US economy.

$Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc.(FFIE)$  When US market closed on Fri, 12 Apr 2024 - this is how Faraday Future stood from financial standpoint: Shares price - $0.08. 1-year low: $0.08. 1-year high: $117.36. Debt-to-equity ratio: 0.39. 50-day moving average price: $0.17. 200 day moving average price: $1.22. Market capitalization: $3.39 million. PE ratio: 0.00 Beta: 1.45. On Mon, 15 Apr 2024, Faraday Future is supposed to be reporting its Quarterly earnings. Is it true ? I dunno for sure. On the eve of a possible announcement, we could review its earnings so far. (see below) Since day 1, Faraday Future has never made a profit. Its losses increased in the first 3 years of operations. While it is usuall

Communications in the most abstract form. I admit. I have a difficult time writing this post. This is because it’s about looking at available inflation data quickly and making an “educated” high-level guess whether companies overall, will be reporting profits during quarterly earnings season. Below is my maiden attempt. Stay the course, with me? Hee hee. Inflation Definition. By definition: CPI - measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. PPI - measures the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output. Inflation Reports. US Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for March 2024, was released on Wed, 10 Apr 2024. Headline CPI: was 3.5% vs 3.4% expected vs 3.2% (F

$Tesla Motors(TSLA)$  Looking Back. On Fri, 05 Apr 2024 - Tesla CEO, Elon Musk tweeted to deny Reuters’ report that it (Tesla) is abandoning the plan to build the budget EV (Model 2). Hours later, (just before 5pm ET), he tweeted again to confirm that it will unveil its Robotaxis on 08 Aug 2024.  Tesla stock price - 8 April to 12 April By then, Tesla has ended the week falling -3.63% to $171.05 per share. (see above) Post tweet, its future price immediately rose by +1.65%.  The week of Apr 8 - 12, saw Tesla’s rollercoaster performance. It reached a high of $176.88 (on Tue, 09 Apr 2024), only to dip to the week’s low of $171.05 (on Fri, 12 Apr 2024). (see above) Now that the dusts of euphoria have settled,

$JPMorgan Chase(JPM)$  A very strange phenomena happened on Fri, 12 April 2024. US banking giant JP Morgan kick started Financial services sector companies’ Quarter earnings season. Q1 2024 Earnings. It posted profit & revenue that topped Wall Street estimates. Credit costs and trading revenue came in better than expected. Results, along with estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG (Refinitiv): - Earnings: $4.44 per share, vs. $4.11 expected. Exceeding by +8.03%. - Revenue: $42.55 Billion, vs. $41.85 billion expected. YoY Comparison. Q1 2024 profit rose +6% to $13.42 billion or EPS of $4.44; boosted (of course) by its takeover of $First Republic Bank(FRC)$ &nb

Sharing this post on Motley Fool by Anders Bylund dated 10 Apr 2024, titled “Is It Too Late to Buy Micron Technology Stock?“ It is a quick to read, digest and overall salient article. Nice ! For my regulars, this is a follow up to my 25 Mar 2024 post “Micron: Buy the Chip or Miss the Dip ? “ (click title to read !). Memory chip maker $Micron Technology(MU)$ has a hot hand right now. The stock is trading near all-time highs, having gained +45% YTD and +105.79% in the last 52 weeks. (see above) Current artificial intelligence (AI) boom poured nitro on Micron's growth fires, boosting this stock chart into th

Quick Recap US “hotter than expected” inflation data out on Wed, 10 Apr 2024 - resulted in a pandemonium in the stock market: Headline CPI: was 3.5% vs 3.4% expected vs 3.2$ (February). Core CPI: was 3.8% vs 3.7% expectations vs 3.8 (February). Fact: 3rd month in a row that inflation reported has been hotter than expected. Assumptions that persistent inflation is “seasonal” should be throw out of the window by now. Panic sell caused the market to lose its footing yet again. When market closed for Wednesday: DJIA: -1.09% (-422.16 to 38,461.51). S&P 500: -0.95% (-49.27 to 5,160.64). Nasdaq: -0.84% (-136.28 to 16,170.36). Decliners outnumbered advancers for a 3.99-to-1 ratio. Chain Reactions. The followings happened after CPI report was out regardless of whether it was timed or othe

$Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc.(FFIE)$  It remains a mystery why US market is so negative / bias towards this luxury EV maker that was once touted to be $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$  ’s main rival. All this due to its more than fantastic technical specifications deemed worthy of a luxury sedan.  All these harked back in its heady days where its stock price peaked at $55.35 in January 2021. Before its subsequent, 2 reverse stock split exercises, required to prevent FF from being delisted on the US bourse. Fast forward to 10 Apr 2024, its stock price has fallen by -99.84% to $0.091 per share.&nb

With US inflation data to be revealed in barely 1 hours’ time, what is the final prediction by Wall Street ? Bets Placed: $Bank of America(BAC)$ , Economists - Stephen Juneau & Michael Gapen: CPI (MoM) - March (0.3%) vs February (0.4%). CPI (YoY) - March (3.4%) vs February (3.2%). Core CPI (YoY) - March (3.7%) vs February (3.8%). Catalyst for headline inflation 3.4% is largely due to “higher” energy costs, fueled by a jump in gas prices, driving up the index. Based off January and February momentu, BAC’s economists are fairly certain that March Core inflation will march to the same tune. Core inflation has remained stubbornly elevated due to “higher” costs of: (see above) Shelter. Core services eg. Insurance and Medical care. If March inf

Downgrade and Next. I refer to my post on $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ being downgraded (click here ! to read) and all the negative presses that it has received in recent days. Apparently, Tesla fans and speculators have thrown caution to the wind and re-embraced the stock as US market sentiments, remained mixed & flatlined on Mon, 08 Apr 2024. All the while waiting for US’s March 2024 inflation data to be released. Monday’s closing: The car maker closed up +4.90% to $172.98 per share. This came about as investors lapped up CEO musk’s latest proclamation that Tesla would debut its long-awaited robotaxi on

Week in review. The last job report - US Non-Farm payroll (NFP) was finally out on Fri, 05 Apr 2024. It took US market’s breath away. (see below) Actual jobs creation (303,000) outpaced market estimates (214,000) by +41.59%. Showcasing US labour market resiliency. Actually, private sector - ADP NFP @184,000, released on Wed, 03 Apr 2024, that also outpaced estimates by +24.32% — had removed the guess-work for Friday’s NFP. Tradeoff: The good economic data could result in the Fed’s delay to trim interest rates. March’s consolation was both (a) Unemployment rate and (b) Average hourly earnings (YoY) were inline with forecasts. Friday - end of trading week. Solid jobs data helped market to regain some of its lost grounds. (see above yellow highlights) This was after Thursday’s decline whe

$Tesla Motors(TSLA)$   Based on US market history, April is one of the best performing months for equities. Yet this April, Tesla fell by -6.39% to $164.90 per share, after announcing a much weaker than expected Q1 2024 deliveries.  Actually on 24 Jan 2024, Tesla has suffered a price correction after it’s Q4 2023 post earnings conference call. When commenting on 2024 EV growth, Mr musk himself issued the warning “may be notably lower”. With a realized forecast, analysts are now lowering their price targets & expectations — while waiting for Mr musk to pivot out of a "messy quarter."  Who Said What?   (1) Guggenheim Securities, Analyst Ronald Jewsikow: - Recommended - Sell rating. - Re

$Intel(INTC)$  Friday, 05 April 2024. For the week Intel's shares fell by -12.60% to 38. 71 per share. This came about after Intel’s SEC filing for its foundry business, revealed a larger than expected operating loss. It was an operating loss of $7 Billion in 2023, on the back of $18.9 Billion revenue. Comparatively speaking, it is a wider loss than the $5.2 billion incurred in 2022 on revenue of $27.5 billion. To be “fair”, this was the first time Intel reported its revenue for its foundry arm on its own, separate from its product business. Historically, Intel has: - Designed its own chips. - Carried out its own manufacturing. And report only the final chip sales in its quarterly earnings report.  What W

Where possible my Saturday always begin with a morning trip to Yoga to re-centre and re-focus myself. Like waking up early while half of Singapore sleeps in. Quiet surroundings and crispness in the air is a luxury on its own. If you have not experience, try it! After yoga, I could indulge in my cheat-day and feast on food I like. Rounding off another week. (Photo - yoga studio) @DavidSG @Taurus Pink @Tom Chow @KSR

$Apple(AAPL)$  Falling Apples!!  For the first time in a long time, I confess my confidence about $Apple(AAPL)$  is finally “stirred and shakened”. Bad news : one after another. This comes about after a bout of bad presses hitting the media in the past 2 weeks. (see below) To me, this spells (possible): -   Subscription loss. -   More competitive landscape outside of the Apple environment. -   Price matching from Apple (??) in order to rein in outflow ? -   Gradual reduction dependence on Apps store in EU; especially on repeated visit/s. -   Future legal battles to further incite anitrust behaviour of Apple I

04 April 2024. On Thursday, US stocks slumped as: Oil hit its highest price in 6 months. Key Federal Reserve official floated a “mood dampening” warning that spooked the market, thoroughly. When market called it a day: DJIA: fell -1.35% (-530.16 to 38,596.98). S&P 500: fell -1.2% (-64.28 to 5,147.21), marking S&P index worst single-day drop since 13 Feb. Nasdaq: slipped -1.4% (-228.38 to 16,049.08). Fed Reserves - Bad cop. The US market was actually trending higher on Thursday. (see above) All 3 major composite indexes took a turn for the worse after midday. After Minnesota Fed President Neel Kashkari mooted that the Fed may not cut interest rates at all in 2024, if inflation progress stalls. (see below) The “callous” comment was even more damaging than Fed President Bostic’s

I woke up greeted by “good news” about the US stock market, on the morning of 04 Apr 2024. What happened to US market that was still in the red when I decided to hit the sack? Let’s see what alibi the media has to report. (1) ADP Non Farm Payroll. Hiring in the private sector increased more than expected for March 2024. (see above) According to ADP employment report, it was the biggest jump since July 2023. Private payrolls rose by 184,000 jobs last month, advancing more than economists’ estimate of 148,000. It was also ahead of February’s upward revision of 155,000 jobs. Note: ADP's private employment report will not be an “accurate” predictor to the official US Non Farm payroll report (and it should not be expected to be). Nevertheless, it offers insight into the labour market. More im

Everyone should have heard the news by now. If not here is the skinny. (see below) Quick Recap. On Tue, 02 Apr 2024 - Tesla released its Q1 2024 deliveries results. It was shockingly low. In early March 2024, Wall Street consensus was around 470,000 EVs. Overtime, estimates were revised downwards, over & over again as many expected a weak quarter. Eventually, the arrived consensus was 431,000 EVs. Just for the record, Tesla delivered 422,875 EVs (Q1 2023) and 484,507 EVs (Q4 2023). Market’s downgraded consensus of 431K is still “manageable” given (a) a weak EV market and (b) an even weaker Chinese economy. When the results were announced, $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ just fell. For Q1 2024, Tesla delivered just 386,810 EVs. Falling short of (1) cons