At the close today, July 26, the Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN) was up 2.55% and the Teucrium Wheat Fund (WEAT) was ahead 4.11%. Both of those commodity plays outgained the U.S. Natural Gas Fund (UNG) with its 1.38% move higher. But for consistent gains–and the potential for more–I’d have to say that natural gas is my favorite commodity.
Walmart (WMT) cut its profit outlook after the market close on Monday, July 25. The company isn’t scheduled to report July quarter earnings until August 16. Walmart shares dropped 9.94% in after-hours trading. Adjusted earnings per share will fall as much as 13% in the current fiscal year as U.S. shoppers take a pass on big-ticket items and focus on buying groceries (with their lower profit margins.) This is Walmart’s second warning this year
The federal government has agreed to purchase 105 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s rebooted vaccine for $3.2 billion, the Washington Post reported on Friday. At $30.50 a dose, that’s a premium over the initial contracts the government made for the original vaccine in 2020, when the vaccines were $19.50 per dose. the government is expected to sign a new contract with Moderna (MRNA) shortly. Pfizer (PFE) is a member of my Dividend Portfolio. The shares are up 35.14% since I added them to the portfolio on August 28, 2020. The stock is down 11.89% year-to-date for 2022 as of the close on Friday, July 22. However, they are up 4.40% in the last month. Pfizer pays a 3.12% dividend.
We’ve had a great one-week rally/bounce/whatever in chip stocks. Nvidia, for example, was up 17.42% for the week that ended on Thursday, July 21. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was up 8.71% in that same period. But I think there are good reasons for thinking that this move was just a very short-term gain in a long-term Bear Market that remains in place. So today, I’m taking some chip money off the table.
The Chips for America Act looks headed to a cloture vote in the Senate on Thursday. As the $52 billion bill now stands, it includes $39 billion for semiconductor companies to “build, expand, or modernize domestic facilities.” Here are the winners as I see them.
I’m making a switch today (well, actually tomorrow) in the Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio Out goes the iShares Large Cap China ETF (FXI). In comes the ProShares Short MSCI Emerging Markets (EUM). My weighting remains the same at 15% of the five-ETF portfolio.
The bill, known as the Chips for America Act, is a pared-down version of a broader set of competition measures and would authorize $52 billion in grants and loans for chip manufacturers, as well as a new, four-year 25% investment tax credit for chip making. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has pressed for a vote today with final passage as early as next week.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 was on track for a decent day–the index was up 0.79% at 12:43 p.m. New York time–and then Bloomberg broke a story, picked up everywhere, reporting that Apple (AAPL) intended to slow hiring and reduce spending growth next year. The S&P 500 finished the day down 0.84% and Apple shares closed down 2.06%.
My one-hundred-and-fifty-ninth YouTube video “Trend of the Week Hedging with Commodities Lives” went up today. The strong dollar has knocked commodity plays around. But the reasons for buying these hedges still hold. Inflation. Supply shortages (especially in agricultural commodities.) I think there’s still a strong case that commodities are a good way to hedge this market.
Shares of Citigroup climbed by 13.23% on Friday, July 15, after the company reported earnings of $2.19 a share. Revenue came in at $19.6 billion. Wall Street had projected earnings of $1.689 a share and revenue of $18.4 billion. So it’s not surprising that the stock rose strongly after the report. Or that the gains dragged other bank stocks higher too. For example, Bank of America (BAC), which reports on Monday, July 18, gained 7.04%. Wells Fargo (WFC) climbed 6.17%. To which I say, Thank you, and I’m selling.
Analysts at New York investment house Cowen now expect worldwide mobile phone shipments this year to decline by 6% from a year ago to 1.36 billion. In 2023, the company projects shipments will dip by another 2% to 1.33 billion units. Perhaps most worrying for investors is Cowen’s analysis of where the market problems lie: In weakness in the high-end smartphone market.
Today, July 12, shares of American Airlines (AAL) closed up 9.98%. The company announced that it expects to post a pretax profit of $585 million in the second quarter as vacationers pack planes during the summer peak season. The company expects revenue to be about 12% higher than in the same quarter in the pre-Pandemic year of 2019.
