Locator: 48319ARCHIVES.
Re-posting to add several items. New items in bold red.
These are the stories that interest me most right now; links may eventually follow.
Buffett:
- news and commentary -- August 4, 2024
- selling stock; "overnight" slashed 50% of his AAPL holdings; sold off most of his BofA holdings
- raising record amounts of cash -- and I mean record amounts of cash; and, no, he's not going to declare a special dividend, which some folks are suggesting. LOL.
- no one knows why; thinking back on financial crisis of 2008
EVs:
- by now, "we" should be much farther along the S-shaped curve;
- VW looking to close an EV manufacturing plant in Belgium; first auto manufacturing plant to close in Europe; lack of interest in EVs in Europe
- American car companies can't afford to keep making EVs
- Tesla talking a big story, but failing to meet milestones
Chips:
- US computer chip manufacturing; loss of Intel could be catastrophic for US chip program
- all eyes on security of Taiwan, where 95% of all global computer chips actually manufactured
- there was a reason the US Federal government passed the "CHIPS Act."
- Intel: not "too big to fail," but rather, "too important to fail."
Politics:
- polls absolutely not looking good for Vance/Trump after "cats" and "hostage deal" comments
- presumed bounces before election:
- Trump has none
- Kamala has two: a) after she names her VP; and, b) after the convention
- we
should know a lot more with regard to polling ten days from now, but
right now some polls in swing states show huge lead by Harris
- Kamala doing final interviews for VP this weekend; will announce NLT than next Friday, I'm thinking Monday
- Trump underestimated the multi-racial demographic
- next president will get at least one US Supreme Court pick; possibly two
Mideast:
- huge successes for Netanyahu the past two weeks; three top terrorists killed?
- but the story is not yet over
- major regional war about to break out
- US Navy returning in force; occurring in backdrop of US presidential election; Kamala Harris, not particularly strong with regard to Israel has to tread carefully, if not to lose Democrats in Detroit; Democrats in Pennsylvania
- France, Saudi Arabia: have told its citizens to get out of Lebanon now
Investing
- if interested in equities, highly recommend following Evan over at twitter
- market is only going to get more volatile
- great, great buying opportunities for those with long horizons
- investors will stay the course
Chevron
- with regard to Hess / Guyana, Chevron in deep doo-doo
- Chevron / Hess need to find another path
EVs
- the narrative continues
- VW will close first automotive plant in Europe; first ever automobile plant closed in modern era
AI
- follow the money
- follow the data centers
- follow the chips
- investors
- stay focused:
- copper, fiber, chips (CPUs, FPUs, NPUs),
- data centers, hyperscalers, natural gas, utilities
INTC:
- down as much as 20% after hours; lowest in a decade;
- announced two-year warranty on all PCs affected by their fried CPUs;
- will cost INTC huge amounts of money (think Ford, warranty costs)
- still hasn't released a fix for fried CPUs; fix not expected until mid-August
AAPL
- it will take a week to sort out the takeaways from the most recent quarterly earnings
- analysts don't get it: it's an "ecosystem"
- services revenue is now becoming the story;
- Apple, Inc. has more than 2.2 billion active and installed devices
- does average Apple user spend $10 per month on Apple services?
- warranties
- AppleCare+ ($3/month)
- cloud storage (minimum: 99 cents/month; next level, $2.99/month; as much as $69.99/month)
- TV+ ($9.99 / month)
- ads
- Apple Music ($10.99 / month)
- Apple's total net sales run about $400 billion annually
- new record set this last quarter but Tim won't release actual numbers
- Apple ecosystem, Apple users:
- at a minimum: two mobile devices -- an iPhone and laptop
- most common: three mobile devices -- an iPhone, laptop, and tablet or watch
- rare, but not unusual: three mobile devices and a desktop computer
- perhaps not as rare as folks think: four mobile devices and a desktop computer
- each member older than ten years of age in a family has two mobile devices
- need for speed
- NVDA/AMD: moving at freeway speeds
- AAPL: taking the frontage roads
- INTC: in the ditch
- Apple's installed user base:
The Fed:
- panelists on CNBC fit to be tied that JPow and Fed "lied." Not following the data;
- had they stayed true to their word, would have announced a cut by now.
- anger / frustration will soon be forgotten; eager to see how long the buying opportunity lasts;
- September is a huge month for dividends; many folks hope buying opportunities last through the autumn;
Mad Money (CNBC): reruns --
- current episode: S18 E731 -- trying to find the date -- sounds like yesterday -- Thursday, August 1, 2024
- this is important because I missed today's episode; want to see the rerun tomorrow; eager to see what Cramer had to say about the debacle in today's (August 1, 2024) market
- cutting retail prices may drive foot traffic (think McDonald's) but it will hit margins --> will hit earnings --> will hit Wall Street; this is not rocket science
- Diageao YTD: -14.36% despite huge sales volume
Never quit reading.
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From Reddit Tonight
