Buy (more) of the ProShares Short Russell 2000 ETF to short small caps in this credit crisis
Today I’m adding the ProShares Short Russell 2000 ETF (RWM) to my Jubak Picks Portfolio.
Today I’m adding the ProShares Short Russell 2000 ETF (RWM) to my Jubak Picks Portfolio.
I’ve hi-lighted the key characteristics of the coming global debt bomb explosion that investors MUST include in any plan to protect a portfolio from the explosion of this bomb.
Investors see a ton of third-quarter earnings reports this coming week with news from Microsoft, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Alphabet quite capable of moving the entire market. We’ll also get more consumer company (Coca-Cola and Kimberly-Clark for example) reports to show whether last week’s higher revenue but lower volume pattern continues. And Wall Street is expecting negative new from oil companies ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) when they both report on Friday.
In the third quarter electric vehicle sales in the United States jumped to more than 300,000 for the first time, Cox Automotive reported today. Electric vehicle sales were up 50% year over year in the quarter. And electric vehicles made up 7.9% of total industry sales. It’s not surprising that as vehicle sales volumes have surged, market leader Tesla (TSLA) has lost market share.
Clearly, inflation isn’t bad for everyone. Not if you have pricing power, anyway. Today, PepsiCo (PEP) reported earnings and sales that a beat Wall Street estimates, and raised its guidance for the next quarter.
Gold was up 1.9% in trading on COMEX today to $1876 an ounce on war in Israel and Gaza and fears that it would become a wider conflict in the region. I’ve been looking for an exit from two of my gold positions for a while now. And tomorrow is a good exit point, I think.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Exxon Mobil (XOM) is in advanced talks to buy Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) in a deal valued at $60 billion. Pioneer currently has a market cap of $55 billion. Through in th debt that Exxon would be buying and there’s not a lot of extra upside here, in my opinion. Today’s 10.45% jump in pioneer shares to care of a lot of any potential deal premium. (I’m assuming that the report is accurate. Today’s news story follows on earlier speculation that the two companies were talking.) Unless you think another bidder will emerge–difficult but not impossible at this deal size, I’d sell my shares here. I like Pioneer as an independent big dividend paye
The People’s Bank of China cut the amount of cash banks must hold in reserve for the second time this year. The move is an effort to boost flagging economic growth in China. The bank could have cut its benchmark interest rate in pursuit of the same goal. But that would have led to more selling against the yuan and the People’s Bank has been busy in the trenches in recent weeks trying to prop up the yuan agains the dollar. The question, of course, is whether the cut in reserve requirements will be enough, without a reduction in interest rates, to revive growth in China’s economy.
Shares of Moderna (MRNA) closed up 3.18% yesterday, September 13, on news that
1. The Food & Drug Administration has approved updated Covid-19 vaccine boosters (including one from Moderna) and that the Centers for Disease Control was recommending the boosters for adults and children older than 6 months. 2. The company announced that the newest results from Phase 3 clinical trials for an updated version of its flu vaccine, mRNA-1010, had met all primary endpoints in a Phase 3 trial, Compared to Glaxo’s Fluarix, Moderna’s vaccine showed higher antibody levels for all four influenza strains (two each for influenza A and B) recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as higher seroconversion rates. This comes after an earlier version of the vaccine failed to demonstrate superiority for the B strains. The company expects to meet with regulators very soon and, depending on guidance received, the flu shot could launch as soon as next year, CEO Stephane Bancel told Fierce Biotech. “We’ll know more in a few months when we speak to regulators, but [we’re] trying to go as fast as we can,” he said. Of these two pieces of news I’d say No 2 is way, way more important
Tomorrow September 8, I’m selling shares of U.S Oil Fund (USO) out of my Jubak Picks ad Volatility Portfolios to take profits on the 25% really in oil since June and to raise some cash in case September volatility delivers a bargain or two.
Today’s Quick Pick is Eli Lilly And Co (LLY). Lilly is my favorite big drug stock right now. The company recently announced second-quarter earnings and showed 22% year-over-year sales growth. The company has a promising pipeline of new drugs. Mounjaro, Lilly’s diabetes drug, is likely to get weight-loss approval from the FDA. They also have new products for Alzheimers, and Cardio Metabolic drugs coming out soon. The growing enthusiasm for diabetes and weight-loss drugs has the stock overvalued by about 46% according to Morningstar. Their competitors are in similar situations. Novo Nordisk (NVO) is 28% overvalued according to Morningstar. At this point, if you’re looking for somewhere to immediately put some money to work, I’d still go with Eli Lilly. In this case, you have to consider not just the absolute valuation but also weigh the prospects of both companies. In my opinion, Eli Lilly outshines Novo Nordisk if you look at the pipelines at the two companies
Today’s Quick Pick is: Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) or as most people know it, Google. Google is an extraordinarily good stock with pricing power. At 85% of the search market, Google is pretty close to having a monopoly. The good time to buy a stock like this is when there have been doubts about it. The recent worries were Microsoft’s addition of AI to their search engine, possibly having a huge impact on Google and a decrease in Google’s advertising market. These factors caused the stock to plateau for a time, but we’re now seeing the stock shoot upward. This has been solidified by second quarter earnings. Revenue growth returned to YouTube, searches increased, and second quarter revenue was up 7% year to year, cloud revenue grew 28% and operating margins grew to 29% from 28%. Morningstar says Google is about 17% undervalued. Google is a part of my long term 50 stocks portfolio, but I’ll be adding it to my 12-18 month JubakPicks portfolio as well.