I just don’t see the upside here. Even companies that are announcing solid earnings beats are issuing cautious guidance. And as we can see from the example of UnitedHealth Group (UNH) when a stock misses this market doesn’t just take it out to the woodshed for punishment, but stands it up against the barn and shoots it.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema found on Thursday that Alphabet (GOOG) violated antitrust law in the markets for advertising exchanges and tools used by websites to sell ad space, known as ad servers.
Today’s Quick Pick is Amazon.com (AMZN)–despite the current tariff panic. While the stock is down due to the broad market sell-off and concerns over tariffs impacting its supply chain, I believe Amazon’s size and logistical power will help it mitigate these challenges. The company can pressure suppliers, adjust pricing algorithms, and shift sourcing to keep costs lower than competitors, potentially gaining an edge as inflation rises. Though these advantages may not be evident in the upcoming April earnings report, I expect Amazon to emerge stronger in the long term, making it a compelling buy once the market shifts from indiscriminate selling to evaluating winners and losers.
Today’s Quick Pick is Tencent Holdings ADR (TCEHY). Tencent is the world’s biggest computer gaming company and operator of China’s biggest chat platform. I’ve had them in my long term portfolio for a while, but the reason I’m suggesting this stock now is the AI boom happening in China. China is able to build AI models more economically than U.S. AI companies models and Tencent is a big player in the space. Last I checked, they were about 20% undervalued according to Morningstar. If you’re looking for stocks that will move independently from the U.S. market, China’s internet and AI sector is a good place to be.
On Monday, March 24, I’m adding these Tencent ADRs (TCEHY) TO my Jubak Picks and Volatility Portfolios.
Apple (AAPL) has confirmed that it’s delaying the release of a new AI Siri digital assistant. The company now expects to roll out the software sometime “in the coming year.” The effort will give Siri “more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps,” the iPhone maker said in a statement. “It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features.” Apple’s struggles to finish the new AI capability for Siri has been a one secret for the last month or so after Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported on the delay. The Siri AI features were first touted in June 2024 at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference. When Apple announced the features at WWDC, it didn’t provide an arrival date for the Siri upgrade, Gurman reported. Within the company, though, the plan was to include the new technology in iOS 18.4, which comes out in April.
Sales of the heaviest category of trucks in North America collapsed in February. ACT Research reported on Wednesday that February preliminary North America Class 8 net orders were down 34% year-over-year to 18,300 units.
Last night, in after hours trading, shares of Nvidia (NVDA), which had closed up 3.67% in the regular session, traded down a twitch, slipping by 0.04%. Today, Thursday, February 27, the shares started off in decent shape but then sold off all afternoon, closing down 8.48%. What was so disappointing about Nvidia’s results? And what should you do about this drop?
President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation of copper imports in what is a first step toward potential tariffs on the metal. The move launches a process that Trump previously used to put tariffs on steel and aluminium, opening a new front in his trade war. We’re at the early stages in this effort but I think a copper tariff play is a reasonable buy right now–especially since coopper demand and copper prices are forecast to climb tariffs or no tariffs. The biggest winner would be Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), the largest producer of copper in the United States. I’ll adding shares of Freeport my Jubak Picks portfolio tomorrow, Thursday, February 27.
The Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ), which tracks the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index (NDX), closed below its 50-day moving average on Monday for the first time in just over three weeks. The ETF was down another 0.83% as of 3:30 p.m. New York time on Tuesday.
In a week when Nvidia’s upcoming earnings report has all eyes on AI stocks, Microsoft (MSFT) has canceled some leases for U.S. data center capacity, according to TD Cowen.
OpenAI’s biggest backer has voided leases in the US totaling “a couple of hundred megawatts” of capacity—the equivalent of roughly two data centers.
I expect the earnings report of the week will be Nvidia’s (NVDA) report after the close on Wednesday, February 26. For the fiscal quarter ending January 2025, the consensus EPS forecast is $0.79. The reported EPS for the same quarter last year was $0.49. Analysts expect NVIDIA’s earnings to grow 43.68% next year from $2.77 to $3.98 per share.
