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.
Yesterday, October 18, Abbott Laboratories (ABT) reported third-quarter 2023 adjusted earnings of $1.14 per share. That beat the Wall Street consensus projection of $1.10 a share. This was an important transitional reset quarter for Abbott
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.
I’m going to take advantage of today’s pop in Nvidia (NVDA) to sell the shares out of my very short-term Volatility Portfolio tomorrow, Tuesday, October 2. The shares closed up at the close today at $447.82, a gain of 2.95% on the day. I initiated the position in the Volatily Portfolio on Mach 25, 2023. It was up 66% as of the close today So why sell Nvidia here?
So what do you do with your portfolio for the rest of 2023? And what’s your best strategy to be prepared for 2024? In Part 1 of this Special Report I laid out the 10 developments that I thought would drive the financial markets for the rest of 223 and into 2024. Today, in Part 2, I’m going to give you the first 2 of 10 moves to take–with as much detail and as many specifics as possible–that you should be making now to position your portfolio for the uncertainties of the last quarter of 2023.
I haven’t done one of these in a while, but I think that this current market is throwing up lots of hints that might contribute to an investing thesis but that don’t deserve a full post. So here I go with Notes You Need again.
Now that Fed day is done and behind us, we return to our regularly scheduled programming. Back on September 15, I posted “A tough day for tech–Part 1” after news on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) reporting that the company was slowing orders with suppliers of chip making equipment because of sluggish demand for chips from its customers. Now onto Part 2 of bad news for tech stocks.
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
