Wow, talk about a busy week ... or a confusing week. I'm truly discombobulated. I'll try to wrap it up here.
Sports:
- WBNA: Caitlin Clark will secure a spot on the WBNA All-Star team, though among fans she's polling 5th right now;
- NBA: seems incredibly anticlimactic; if so, blame the Spurs; never showed up or choked
- PGA: starts tomorrow; important tournament; not seeing any true champion golfer yet this year;
- I wonder when they will quit with the clips of Tiger
- could have been a senior spokesman;
- instead the networks only have Jack Nicklaus
- FIFA Soccer World Cup: 0% interest -- their "flopping" is worse than what we see in the NBA;
- NASCAR: depends; my interest in the sport depends on how I feel any given weekend.
Investing:
- boring; in a trading range
- "the Fed": worst showing for a new Fed chairman since 1994;
- this guy is a hawk, likes to hear himself talk;
- is going to make Jay Powell look great;
- five task forces ("we have a task force for that") doesn't instill a lot of confidence
- I still find it amazing how much influence the Fed has on investors
- if we do see a rate hike, it will be 25 basis points in September; whoop-de-do!
- would a Trump appointee really raise rates before mid-term elections?
FOMC meetings (dates subject to change). Meetings marked with * are associated with a Summary of Economic Projections. At the end of each * meeting, the FOMC announces its decisions on U.S. interest rates, followed by a press conference led by the Federal Reserve Chair.
- January 27-28
- March 17-18*
- April 28-29
- June 16-17* -- first for new chairman; no change; hawkish
- July 28-29
- September 15-16*
- October 27-28
- December 8-9*
Mideast:
- really? Who knows: no one is happy it seems.
- everyone talking past everyone;
- supposedly an MOU of sorts will be signed in a couple of days; hardly worth the paper it's written on
US economy / investing:
- still doing very well; the spenders are still spending; the rich are getting richer -- much richer;
- astronomically rich
- COLAs (social security, military pension): to trend toward 4%
- it's still all about tech, particularly CPUs;
- was 1 CPU: 8 GPUs (that's why Nvidia was doing well)
- now 1 CPU: 1 GPU (really favors AMD, INTC) (this is why Nvidia is no longer doing well)
- Cramer late to the party; he's now all in on INTC ("Mad Money" - June 17, 2026)
- could be 4 CPUS: 1 GPU
- along with CPUs, GPUs, TPUs, it's also about memory -- very, very, very limited -- MU
- streaming, networks (Paramount, Skydance, Netflix, Roku, Fox, etc) becoming a huge story
- the big story: "Household Hubs" -- Apple TV, Amazon, Google, a few others
- taking a long time for "Household Hubs" to replace Spectrum, Roku
- the above from yesterday; today a big story on Fox Sports / ESPN broadcasting, link here.
- energy (yesterday) --> tech (today) --> Big Banks (tomorrow) --> pharmacy (?)
- EVs: no idea what's going on -- Rivian could be the big story and first indications, it does not look good;
- Rivian:
- excitement now, but for the year, at best flat; for five years, a disaster
- Lucid:
- partnered with Uber; new CEO; not holding my breath;
- all one can do, is --
- stay fully invested (stocks, bonds)
- dry powder: I prefer ETFs to cash per se
- take profits; long term horizon;
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Personal
Mileage: my old 2011 Honda Civic -- a bit more driving these past two weeks.
Pageviews: earlier today, 1402 hours, June 17, 2026; the blog will go over 61 million pageviews by tomorrow morning, if not by the close of business today on the West Coast, 8:00 p.m. ET. At the moment: 60,996,775 pageviews.
Later, 1516 hours, today, June 17, 2026, the blog went over 61 million page views -- now at 61,012,060. Wow. That was fast.
Later, 2049 hours, today, June 17, 2026 -- 61,040,507. About 6,000 pageviews per hour after the new Fed chairman speaks = a rate of136,545 pageviews / 24 hours.
Later, 0652 hours, June 18, 2026: 61,115,057
61,115,057 - 61,040,507 = 74,550 over 10 hours = 7,455 / hr = 178,920 pageviews / 24 hour.
Later, 1719 p.m. CT, June 18, 2026: 61,218,538
61,218,538 - 61,115,057 = 103,481 over 12 hours = 206,962 pageviews / 24 hours.