Market Headlines, Links, And Comments -- May 24, 2022

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.

All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.

Let me start here: I made my first investment decision in 1984 -- I made several first-time ever investment decisions that year and the following couple of years:

• remember, in 1984, there were no discount brokers, at least none of which I was aware and was forced to pay exorbitant commissions if I wanted to buy shares in individual companies from brokers
• I opened an account with Merrill Lynch
• I had limited resources to follow and/or learn about the market
  
• my "investing 101" was an incredibly great course from Forbes
• my first big "a-ha" was learning the difference between "load" and "no-load" funds and I made the right decision  
• for diversity, I invested in three different no-load funds; all of which I still hold
• two of three converted to IRAs
  
• individual holdings
• my first investment in an individual stock: Burlington Northern railroad (I forget the ticker at the time, BNI?)
• my second investment in an individual stock: San Diego Gas & Electric which has morphed into Sempra (SRE)
• I still hold both, all with re-invested dividends. BNI is now known as BRK-B (LOL)
• in all those years -- 38 years -- from 1984 to today, 2022 -- I don't recall any period in which the market made so little sense as it does now, and now offers so many opportunities for all investors.
• I am less interested in the price I am paying for shares (I am not a market time) and much more interested in accumulating shares
• so many companies are so cheap by historical standards right now
• my investment horizon is 30 years; 
• I have no plans to ever use any of my investments for current expenses; all will be passed down to the daughters and grandchildren
• I doubt they will ever check to see what I paid for individual shares
  

Exhibit A: 

• SNAP crashes and takes the market with it. Are you kidding me? An "instant messaging service" is the market? LOL. But wow, what an opportunity for investors.

Exhibit B: 

• in the old days, the 52-week high and low were "reasonable" goalposts. 
• now, the 52-week charts are fairly meaningless. 
• for traders, it's the five-day chart; 
• for investors, it's the 6-month chart. 
• seriously, look at the six-month charts for any of your non-energy favorites and look at the carnage. 
• in many cases, the carnage is seen in the one-year chart, but, wow, it's amazing to look at these six-month charts: RIVN, TSLA, GM, F. And those are just the EV companies.
• F: down 4% today
• GM: down 3.5% today
• TSLA: down 5.5% today; trading at $637 today; five months ago: $1,200
• RIVN: down 7% -- ouch
• RIDE: down 9%; drops below $2 / share -- a share is now less than a bottle of "two-buck Chuck" out in California
• NKLA: down only 4.4% -- looks like a relative winner today -- why? I have no idea. LOL.
• the stock I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole? ZM: is up 5.4%. 
• but before commenting, check:
• the six-month chart, one-year chart
• check your crystal ball
  
• SNOW: down 4.75%. 
• DIS: down 4.5% -- as noted yesterday, no hurry.
  

Oh, that's right: 

• the Fed minutes have just been released (at least my hunch is that they have just been released); and,
• the Fed says they will put that proverbial pedal to the metal to send the US into a full-fledged recession to stop inflation
• we had to kill the patient before he got worse, or something to that effect
• even the oil stocks are down significantly, even though WTI is down a dime to $110.10;
• story in the news yesterday: oil companies fear the Fed more than they fear a glut of oil or a drop in the price of oil.
  

Speaking of cars: Toyota announces another production cut, this time due to lock downs in Shanghai.

• an earlier production cut was announced back on May 13, 2022;
• now, from ArgusMedia, only eleven days later.

A bright spot: energy.

• from Barron's, free cash flow gushing -- their word, not mine --for four Permian operators; 
• Devon -- listed first and in the headline; 
• then, in the story, add Diamondback, Coterra, and Pioneer Energy

XOM: previously posted but a more complete story from Rigzone, XOM sold natural gas assets in its Barnett Shale gas play in Texas for $750 million. 

• for XOM, $750 million doesn't sound like much -- the play must have been a nuisance for XOM. LOL. 

Last month, ExxonMobil announced estimated first-quarter 2022 earnings of $5.5 billion. First-quarter results included an unfavorable identified item of $3.4 billion associated with the company’s planned exit from Russia Sakhalin-1, Exxon highlighted. Earnings stood at $8.87 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 and $2.73 billion in the first quarter of 2021. 

Other market news that caught my eye:

• apparently Airbnb will exit China -- at least "inside" China and will focus on Chinese folks who are flying out of country for business or pleasure; link here.
• Electronic Arts (EA) in talks with Apple, Inc (AAPL) as well as Disney, Amazon; link here;

Snow, two links:

• CNBC: high-priced subscription needed but headline tells me all I need to know;
• Forbes: free access and probably much more balanced in its analysis.
• SNOW today: down 6%; no hurry.
  

Interesting factoid, link here:

Advertising: something I've never understood. This might help. 

Pet peeve: folks feeling they have to use the "f" word on twitter to make a point. I would "unfollow" all those folks using the "f" word but I would be left with one or two accounts to follow.

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.

All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.