Idle Chatter -- January 14, 2021

Updates

Later, midnight,  January 14, 2021: before President Biden spoke, laying out his $1.9 trillion program to save the country, Dow future were down a bit; after he spoke, futures fell further, faster. It must have been the minimum-wage stuff.

Original Post

Ludicrous: CNBC keeps talking about "value" and "growth" stocks. They need to re-vamp this discussion. Two categories: legacy industries; millennial industries:

• legacy industries:
• value (JNJ)
  
• growth (QDEL)
  
• millennial industries:
• hyper-growth (AMZN)
  
• ludicrous (TSLA)
  
• beyond ludicrous (Bitcoin)
  

The major indices, for the archives:

• Dow 30: +136, at 31,196
• S&P 500: +12, at 3,822
• NASDAQ: +70, at 13,200
• Russel 2000: +35, at 2,147

Selected stocks:

• MAXR: up 28% up $11; trading at $50
• AAPL: down a bit; trading at $130
• CVX: up 2%, trading at $95
• EPD: up about 3/4th percent; trading at $23; pays 8%
• TSLA: up a bit; trading at $860
• GOEV (Canoo): down a bit; trading at $18
• JNJ: up 1.65%; trading at $160

Most under-reported energy story: electricity demand generated by Bitcoin mining. 

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 

Vaccine: I get a kick out of the "news" yesterday that JNJ is falling behind in its ability to quickly get product to market. LOL. That's not the long pole in the tent: anecdotal reports from many states suggest that much of vaccine is sitting in refrigerators/freezers/warehouses and not getting into arms. A twitter note overnight said that in New York vaccination centers were open 24/7 but they see very few people showing up after midnight. If accurate, speaks volumes. 

Syria: CNBC has a video-report that Jordan has begun vaccinating in Syrian refugee camps. Again, no numbers. Just a video and some superficial reporting, as if the photo-journalist had never seen vaccinations given before.

Unemployment numbers: another day where the unemployment numbers are reported and no one seems to care. Much like the Fed's minutes reported by Steve Liesman. At best there's an immediate reaction on Wall Street to these reports, and one hour later, the report is forgotten.

Biden: prime-time address tonight -- watch for:

• $2 trillion Covid-19 stimulus program
• $2,000 checks -- but more focused than in the past
• college debt: change, delay, waive repayment
• payroll withholding: extend the program initiated by Trump
• focus on minority communities (reparations)
• state aid on loss tax revenue (New York big winner)
• increase in unemployment aid 
• another round of financial support for small business