Z-SYMBOLS

Please watch my new YouTube video: Is Wall Street ready to write off 2025?

Please watch my new YouTube video: Is Wall Street ready to write off 2025?

Today’s video is Is Wall Street ready to write off 2025? I’m seeing a gradual move on Wall Street from “Trump doesn’t mean what he’s saying about tariffs and mass deportations” to “Maybe he is serious.” On Monday, Trump announced 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum with a starting date of March 4, on top of other tariffs already announced. You can see the shift in commentary from big banks like Bank of America and JP Morgan. These companies are now saying that things that will negatively affect growth are happening much more quickly than things that will support the stock prices. New tariffs and economic uncertainty, which has caused the Fed to refrain from cutting interest rates, are happening now and will be hitting the market. Tax cuts and deregulation, which could goose growth, will take longer to implement and we may not feel those positive effects until 2026 or later. Wall Street is basically saying that 2025 will be a year of negative risks, but 2026 may be more of an upside if tax cuts and deregulation do, indeed, happen.

Please watch my new YouTube Hot Money Moves video: Gold via 747

Please watch my new YouTube Hot Money Moves video: Gold via 747

Today’s Hot Money Moves NOW is “Gold via 747.” It is extraordinary when big New York banks like Goldman Sachs have hired 747s to fly physical gold from London (where it’s cheaper) to New York. Most investors don’t own a 747 and may not be able to do this trade, but it is indicative of the high degree of uncertainty in the market. Flying gold from London to New York is a truly extreme move, and you wouldn’t see that without an underlying fundamental stress in the market. Gold is trading near all-time highs and you may not make a whole lot of money buying gold ETFs from here, but you would be avoiding some risk in the rest of the market. I have the GLD ETF in my Jubak Picks portfolio and will likely look for another to add.

China readies antitrust probe of Apple

China readies antitrust probe of Apple

China’s antitrust watchdog, the State Administration for Market Regulation, is laying the groundwork for a potential probe into Apple’s (AAPL) app store policies and the fees it charges app developers. Apple policies under scrutiny include the cut of as much as 30% on in-app spending that Apple collects and the company’s policy of barring external payment services and stores. The news is a reminder that China has weapons other than tariffs to employ in any trade war with the Trump Administration.

Please watch my new YouTube video: The Fed is caught between a rock and a hard place

Please watch my new YouTube video: The Fed is caught between a rock and a hard place

Today’s video is the Fed is between a rock and a hard place. Inflation has been stuck around 2.8% and the Fed would like to get it down to 2%. In January, the Fed paused any movement on interest rates but Wall Street remained hopeful for two cuts in 2025. The March 19 meeting will include a dot plot that will outline whether or not the central bank is thinking about any cuts for 2025. The problem is the Fed doesn’t know where the economy is going. There are too many uncertainties surrounding constantly changing Trump tariffs as well as the expected tax cut bill (which will result in higher yields and a market and economic stimulus). The budget also remains an unanswered question. These uncertainties, with the Fed also under huge political pressure from the Trump administration to make interest rate cuts, catch the Fed between a rock and a hard place and we won’t know how the Fed plans to address its dilemma until March.

AMD’s drop on huge revenue growth exemplifies risks in the tech sector

Yesterday, February 4, after the close of trading Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reported record revenue growth for the fourth quarter. The chipmaker even reported growth in market share at the expense of rival Intel (INTC).
Yet in after-hours reading the stock dropped 8.80%. Today’s regular session confirmed the tumble with a 6.27% tumble. The problem for AMD, revenue growth in the company’s data center unit, which competes in the market for AI chips with Nvidia (NVDA) revenue slowed. The problem for the tech sector as a whole, and especially AI stocks, is that the dip in the growth rate for data center revenue was to a “disappointing” 69% rate. That’s only disappointing in comparison to the a year-over-year growth rate of of 122% that the company reported for the third quarter of 2024. This raises the important question for AI and tech stocks: Are current valuations for the stocks predicated on unachievable exceptions for extraordinarily high growth rates for unrealistically long time periods?

Two sells before the tariffs start–more to come, I suspect

Stocks moved down slightly on Friday–with the Standard & Poor’s 500 off 0.50% and the NASDAQ Composite down 0.28%–as investors started to revise their belief that President Donald Trump wasn’t really serious about raising tariffs.
Now that the White House as made it clear that the first round of tariffs–on Canada, Mexico, and China–will go into effect on Tuesday, I think we’ll see more downward movement in stocks. I don’t expect the drop to be swift or especially severe to start. That will have to wait until the economy starts to register the effects of higher prices for so much that we import. But I’d like to get ahead of this revision in sentiment with some sells now.

China’s DeepSeek news leads to AI stock rout–do you think AI stocks might have been overvalued?

China’s DeepSeek news leads to AI stock rout–do you think AI stocks might have been overvalued?

News that DeepSeek a China AI startup had developed an open-source AI model that matched the performance of U.S. AI models from OpenAI, Alphabet, and Meta platforms at a fraction of the cost sent AI stocks reeling today, Monday, January 27. Nvidia (NVDA) shares fell 17%. Broadcom (AVGO) similarly fell 17%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4%. A gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps slid 3.2%. The Russell 2000 slipped 1.3%. Wall Street’s “fear gauge”—-the VIX—soared 20% the most since mid-December to almost 18.The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined 10 basis points to 4.53%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%. Bitcoin fell 3.9%. Here’s what freaked out the markets today.

Saturday Night Quarterback Part 2, on a Sunday says, For the week ahead expect…

Saturday Night Quarterback Part 2, on a Sunday says, For the week ahead expect…

This week its earnings, earnings, and earnings. From the tech giants and more. This week, we’ll discover three things. First, are tech company earnings as good as the market clearly expects. I think that with the exception of Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA) the answer will be Yes. Second, how much of this good news is already priced into the recent rally. These stocks could retreat even on news that’s as good as expected. An advance will, I think, require a surprise or two. And, third, how worried is Wall Street really, given the recent boom in all things AI, about capital spending at the big AI companies and falling profit margins.

China’s DeepSeek news leads to AI stock rout–do you think AI stocks might have been overvalued?

Special Report: 10 stock picks for the 3 hottest sectors in 2025–and when to buy them: Part 1 AI

In 2025 you will want your portfolio fully weighted toward AI, ENERGY, and WEIGHT-LOSS DRUG stocks.
Not just any stock in those sectors, of course. All three sectors will be full of surprises and they won’t play out the way the conventional wisdom now believes. Some stocks in these sectors will do just okay as a rising tide lifts all boats. But some stocks will be GREAT. These winners could be the foundation for another great year for your portfolio. In fact, I expect that 2025 will be a tough year for an investor to make money even if stocks do finish higher. That’s because the year will be filled with more than the usual twists and turns designed make you sell on fear just when you should be holding on or even buying more. And don’t think that the year won’t include more than one of those moments rallies designed to suck you in at the top because–well, because you fear missing out. Yes, FOMO, fear of missing out will be alive and well in 2025. To do well in 2025, you’ll have to not only pick the hot trends, but also understand when that trend is about to zig zag and which stocks you’ll want to ride through all the noise and chaos. Giving you what you need for profits in 2025vis what this Special Report: 10 stock picks for the hottest sectors of 2025 is all about.And there’s no better sector to demonstrate the challenges of 2025 than Artificial Intelligence, the first of my hottest sectors for 2025. (The next two hot trends, energy and weight-loss drugs will follow in the next few days.)

Apple’s iPhone sales dove in China for the December quarter

Apple’s iPhone sales dove in China for the December quarter

Sales of Apple’s iPhones dove 18.2% in China during the December quarter, according to independent research firm Counterpoint Research. The company’s flagship handsets, China’s top sellers a year earlier, relinquished the top spot to Huawei Technologies. Apple slipped to third in the world’s largest smartphone market over the three months with a market share of roughly 15%. The drop in China drove a global slump of 5% in iPhone sales during the key shopping period, Counterpoint reported.