I expected the jump in the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Call Options (expiration of September 17 and strike at $90) before yesterday’s earnings report. Didn’t get it. Then. But today this option is up 72.17% to $9.90 on a 7.36% gain in the price of the shares to $97.74 (as of 2:20 p.m. New York time.) So I’m selling.
With everything tech (just about) selling off today (along with the rest of the market) and with the shares of the tech companies due to report today dropping as well, I think the odds have improved for a bounce in those reporting companies on earnings surprises. Microsoft (MSFT) is due to report today after the close and I think there’s a good likelihood that the company will post even better than expected numbers from its Azure Cloud business.
As of 12:15 p.m. the Standard & Poor’s 500 was down .01% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 0.75%. Tech stocks were down much more with the NASDAQ Composite off 1.85% and the NASDAQ 100 lower by 1.82%. The tech companies due to report earnings today after the close were all down. Apple (AAPL) was lower by 1.68%. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) had dropped 2.01%. And Microsoft (MSFT() was off 1.66%.
I hope it’s no surprise to you–I’ve been yammering away on this topic for the last two weeks after all–but next week is a big week for earnings from bellwether tech companies. The market reaction to those earnings will determine whether the current earnings based rally goes on for a while or if, instead, we get a sell on the news retreat. Tuesday, April 27, is the first big day with Apple (AAPL), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Alphabet (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) all reporting.
The September 17 Call Options on Advanced Micro Devices with a strike price of $90 gained another 9.09% today. The company reports earnings after hours on Tuesday July 27. I’d certainly be thinking about selling and taking my profits on these options before the actual earnings announcement.
I’m starting up my videos on JubakAM.com again–this time using YouTube as a platform. My thirty-fifth YouTube video “QuickPick–For bank disruptors, buy Square” went up today.
Nvidia (NVDA) finally began trading at a price adjusted for the stock’s announced 4 for 1 split. At the close the shares traded at $194.10, a gain of $7.98 a share (or a pre-split $31.92 gain), up 4.29% on the day. The solid move higher bodes well for Nvidia’s future price trend since it argues that there are a significant number of investors who still want to climb on board.
Ater the close on Tuesday, July 19, Netflix reported second quarter results that showed a stunning slowdown in the growth of new subscribers. In the quarter Netflix added just 1.54 million new customers. All of the growth came from the Latin American and Asia-Pacific regions. Netflix los 430,000 customers in the U.S. and Canada market. Adding to the bad news the company projected that in the third quarter it would add just 3.5 million subscribers. That’s well below the Wall Street consensus projection of 5.86 million. In this context revenue and earnings are an afterthought.
Just a reminder: To profit from anticipation of strong and maybe even better than expected tech stock earnings using Call Options, you want to buy the options before the actual earnings announcement. You’re betting on a rush to get in on the good earnings news before the actual news. Which means that if you’re looking to buy Call Options on Apple (AAPL) or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) you want to do it NOW, since these companies announce second quarter earnings next week on July 27. Here are my preferences in tech stocks earnings options play
As of 2:40 New York time the September 15, 2021 VIX Call Options with a strike at 20 (VIX210915C00020000) were trading at $5.90 a share, up 40.48% on the day on a move higher in the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) of 30.35% to 24.05. I’m selling this volatility hedge out of my Volatility Portfolio with a profit of 17.5% since I added it to this portfolio on June 1.
On Thursday, July 15, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), the world’s leading chip foundry, reported earnings of 93 cents a share for the second quarter, up 18% year over year. That was inline with analyst estimates. Sales rose 28%. The company raised its revenue guidance for the third quarter to a range of $14.6 billion to $14.9 billion. The midpoint of that range, $14.75 billion, was above the Wall Street consensus estimate of $14.57 billion. Sales in the third quarter of 2020 are $12.4 billion.Taiwan Semiconductor said that it now expects sales to grow more than 20% this year, an increase from the 20% target announced earlier in the year. For 2020-2025, the company raised its revenue forecast to a compound annual growth rate of 15% from a previous target of 10% to 15%. But the stock dropped 5.5% on July 15 and fell another 1.52% on Friday, July 16. Why?
On July 15, General Motors announced that Brightdrop, its new unit for recharging electric vehicles, would expand to the recharging of commercial fleet vehicles (such as FedEx.) GM named EVgo (EVgo), already partnering with GM to expand its network of fast charging stations, as a preferred partner in the fleet effort. Yesterday shares of EVgo jumped 14.18% on the news. Today, Friday, July 16, the stock gave back 2.57%. EVgo is already a member of my Volatility Portfolio where it is up 4.81% since I added it on May 19, 2021 through a purchase of shares in the the SPAC that would take the company public via a reverse merger. I’ll be adding EVgo shares to my “Millennial Portfolio (for investors with more time than money)” on Monday
