Cramer's First Hour -- August 20, 2024

Locator: 48474CRAMER.

Cramer's first hour: a mix of fact, factoids, opinions from various sources -- often not cited -- while listening to Cramer's first hour on CNBC. 

Cramer's first hour: longest winning streak, US equities, in twenty years.

Cramer:

• overbought
• people getting a bit too complacent
• recommends folks become / remain cautious
• some suggest that folks are over-exuberant, but Cramer doesn't buy that --
• too many people in Nvidia right now
• right now, too much on the line
• semiconductors, the group
• 22% in ten days!!!

Electricity demand surging:

WTI:

• Cramer feels that WTI could plummet (even more than it already has) in price if Trump wins

Airlines:

• Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian merger clears US DOJ review!!!
• truly amazing; not on my bingo card today
• Boeing: grounds 777x due to engine mounting issue -- say what?
  

Mis-stating Kamala Harris position:

• Harris has said nothing about "price control." But will watch signs of price-gouging
• all that talk about raising the corporate rate to 28% -- oh, give me a break
• prior to Trump: 35%
• compromise: drop corporate rate to 28%
• Trump: blew right through the 28%-number and moved the rate to 21%
• Harris wants to bring it back to 28%
• and, everyone knows the tax-rate and what corporations actually pay is similar to baseplate capacity of wind farms

Companies of note that Cramer mentioned:

• Palo Alto Networks: up 2.2% yesterday
• CrowdStrike: still a long way to get back to where it was; past six months, down almost 20%
• Lilly CEO: wants US government / health insurers to pay the high price of Ozempic drugs; that will happen.

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Disclaimer Briefly 

Reminder

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• 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.
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.  

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529

Wow, wow, wow!

I started blogging about the incredible advantages of the "529" about six months ago. I can't say enough about 529s.

Now, today, Schwab has an article on 529s. Specifically "Grandparent-owned 529s." Link here. 

Individuals can also use 529s as a wealth-transfer vehicle. "Under current law, you can gift up to $18,000 per beneficiary per year to a 529 without dipping into your lifetime gift tax exclusion amount of up to $13.61 million in 2024," Chris says.

What's more, 529s have a special provision that allows you to contribute five years' worth of gifts in a single year if you treat them as happening over five consecutive years for tax purposes. That means a married couple could contribute up to $180,000 in 2024 to any number of eligible family members—though they won't be able to make additional contributions to those accounts for another five years.

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DNC Convention

Last night while listening to some pretty amazing speeches at the DNC Convention: highlights of the DNC convention last night, from The New York Times.

Incredible to see Biden / Hillary on "the stage" for the very last time. Biggest takeaway: if AOC moves a bit to the mainstream, she could be a formidable force on the national stage eight years from now. But at a minimum, Harris has to win for AOC to move forward.

For all that concern about protests, open warfare on Chicago streets, or worse, nothing of substance reported. In fact, protestors for the most part did not even bother to show up. 

I can't even imagine how one debates Trump. How does one debate a delusional octogenarian? In his eighth decade of life; in less than two years, he will be in his ninth decade.

Walz: efforts to try to tie Walz with China won't go anywhere. I have no idea what that's all about; haven't read anything about that issue, but my hunch is that going down that rabbit hole begins here. From US Wheat Associates:

Only issue I care about:

• 1960s: the Vietnam War; life and death for men, ages 18 - 38.
• 2020s: emergency care for women; life and death for women, ages 14 to 44.

My feelings: too many Americans not paying attention. We've seen this movie before.

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Reptilia

My "project" while listing to the DNC Convention speeches last night.