It may seen illogical but the time to buy Call Options betting on a better than expected earnings report from Company A, B or C, is well before (two weeks? 10 days?) the earnings report date and the time to sell is before the earnings report itself. The price of an Call Option is likely to fall on the earnings report date even if the company delivers the positive surprise you were hoping for
Today, markets remembered that there was still money to be made in the near term–whatever the longer term tax picture might be. The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed up 1.09% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.67%. The NASDAQ Composite tacked on an impressive 1.44% and the NASDAQ 100 finished higher by 1.26%. The small cap Russell 2000 rose by 1.76% on the day. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) pushed higher by 1.45%.
I’m starting up my videos on JubakAM.com again–this time using YouTube as a platform. The twentieth YouTube video “6 picks for next week’s earnings flood” went up today.
Americans filed 547,000 first-time unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department reported. That marked a pandemic low for a second week in a row.
Yesterday, April 20, after the market close Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) reported first quarter GAAP earnings of $3.51 a share, $1.47 a share above Wall Street estimates. Non-GAAP earnings of $3.52 were 89 cents a share above analyst expectations. Revenue for the quarter climbed to $1.3 billion, up 18% from the first quarter of 2020. In 2020 sales of the company’s robotic surgery systems, dropped to $4.4 billion from $4.5 billion in 2019 as hospitals halted elective surgeries during the pandemic. I added the shares to my Jubak Picks Portfolio on February 15, 2021 on expectations with in a post-vaccine global economy sales of its da Vinci Surgical Systems would rebound strongly. In the first quarter the company shipped 298 de Vinci systems versus 237 in the first quarter of 2020. As of 3:45 p.m. New York time today, Intuitive Surgical share were up 9.50% to $888.10. That exceeds my target of $860 a share and I’ll be looking to sell the shares sometime in the next couple of weeks after I’ve received the full benefit from a positive earnings season for BIG TECH stocks.
Today, April 21, as of 3 p.m. New York time, the major indexes were on track to break their three-day losing streak. At 3 p.m. the Standard & Poor’s 500 was ahead 0.65% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had gained 0.74%. The NASDAQ Composite was higher by 0.73% and the small cap Russell 2000 had moved up 1.94%. Why the big change in tone from earlier in the week?
Yesterday, April 19, after the close United Airlines (UAL) reported a loss of $3.21 a share (excluding non-recurring items) or a $7.50 a share all in loss for the first quarter of 2021. Wall Street had been looking for an all-in loss of $6.97 for the quarter. Operating revenues of $3.221 billion also fell short of estimates at $3.253 billion.
This won’t help an already nervous market one bit. Today, April 20, after the close Netflix (NFLX) reported first-quarter subscriber growth way below projections. The stock was down 1.21% in after-hours trading as of 4:30 p.m. New York time.
At its “Spring Loaded” event tomorrow, April 20, Apple (AAPL) is expected to announce changes to its 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models. Analysts expect that both models will include Apple’s new A14X chip and that the high-end iPad will come with a mini-LED display. In a research note Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote that a mini-LED display, “will be a game changer around color performance, dimming capabilities, and high contrast capabilities for the consumer.” Apple’s iPad segment faces a tough comparisons for the second half of the 2021 fiscal year, as work-from-home and at-home education drove double-digit iPad growth in the second half last year.
NextEra Energy Partners (NEP), a subsidiary of utility NextEra Energy (NEE), will buy wind farms in California and New Hampshire from Brookfield Renewable Partners. The wind turbines have a combined capacity of 400 megawatts and have long-term contracts for their electricity. I added shares of NextEra Energy to my Dividend Portfolio on November 25, 2020. The stock is up 6.38% since then through the close on April 19.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), the globes biggest independent chip foundry, said last week that it expects the chip shortage that has left automakers scrambling for silicon and cutting back production will be over by the end of the third quarter. Whether that’s good news or not depends on how much weight you give to this company’s projections.
Earnings season will accelerate this week with reports from Coke, Johnson and Johnson, Snap, and Netflix
