Even good earnings news and guidance from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) couldn’t reverse the drop in tech stocks that accelerated yesterday, July 17, when the NASDAQ Composite recorded its worst day since 2022 with a 2.7% decline.
The small-cap Russell 2000 index gained 1.90% yesterday, July 15. That beat the 0.28% gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500. And the 0.53% gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And a 0.27% gain for the NASDAQ 100 index.And today, as of noon, New York time, the Russell 2000 is up another 2.25% versus a gain of just 0.30% for the S&P 500 and 1.21 for the Dow Industrials.The NASDAQ 100 is off o.20% All his continues the outperformance trend of last week that I wrote about in yesterday’s Saturday Night Quarterback post.
I can’t give you a definitive call on the top for this stock and this rally, but I cam sure of one thing, I don’t want to sell Nvidia before the company’s new Blackwell chip architecture has hit full launch speed in late 2024 and 2025. My read is that this is the “perfect” AI chip for this moment in the AI boom.
I think there are reasons to worry about Nvidia’s valuation and its ability to continue to generate revenue and earnings growth at a pace that would support a forward price to earnings ratio above 40, but I think those re worries for 2025. In 2024, I don’t see anything that disrupts the AI boom story. Over the next six months or so I’d like to be buyer, especially id I can get the shares on a temporary drop. So yesterday’s drop to $118 was a promising development. There was technical support at the 50-day moving average near $100 so there was a chance the stock would move lower. Today, Tuesday, June 25, though, shares of Nvidia rallied, closing ups 6.76% at $126.09. This doesn’t mean the drop is over or the opportunity is lost,
Can you say rollercoaster? In 2022, the biotech company generated sales of nearly $18.9 billion, all of it from sales of its Covid-19 vaccine but it expects revenue of only $4 billion this year. On February 14, 2023, shares sold for $175.62. On $86.04 on February 14, 2024 they traded at $86.04. Today, June 11, they closed at 148.39. I added them to my Volatility Portfolio at $157.10 on April 14,2023. That position was still down 5.54% as of the close on June 11. But I think the rally is still in its early stages. Why the turnaround now?
Traders and investors reacted to Apple’s (AAPO) AI announcements during the first days of the company’s World Wide Developers Conference with enthusiasm today sending the stock up 7.26% in June 11 trading. That’s a new all-time high for the stock. Technology analysts were at best mixed. Their more tepid response set the tone yesterday when the stock dropped 1.9%. Typical was this from KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brandon Nispel in a client note: Apple’s AI enhancements aren’t compelling enough for the average consumer to purchase a new device. I’m with the tech folks on this and today I made Apple a sell in my Special Report: Trade Wars! Trade Wars!
This Special Report; Trade War! Trade War! gives you my recommendations for what to sell, where to take profits, and where to trim as seen through the lens of a likely global trade war. Here are my choices with my first 3 sells
Yesterday, May 22, after the market close, Nvidia (NVDA) crushed Wall Street projections for revenue and earnings for the company’s fiscal first quarter of 2025. Nvidia reported that revenue soared 262% year-over-year to a record $26 billion, marking an 18% quarter-over-quarter increase. Adjusted earnings per share climbed 461% to $6.12. The Wall Street consensus had called for revenue of $24.65 billion and earnings per share of $5.59. And it even beat the Wall Street “whisper number,” which in a bullish momentum situation like this runs considerably above the official consensus. Data center revenue hit a record $22.6 billion, up 427% year over year. Data center revenue represents 87% of Nvidia’s total sales. For the current fiscal second quarter of 2025 Nvidia told investors to expect sales of $28 billion, up 107% year over year.
Today’s Quick Pick is Cloud Service Infrastructure Stocks. Normally I’ll choose a specific individual stock for Quick Picks but in this case, I thought I should highlight the entire sector. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of AI technology’s effect on the economy as a whole but it’s also important to look at the individual companies and sectors that benefit from the demand this technology brings to the market. AI has created a revival of growth in the cloud service infrastructure sector, as demand for more processing on databases to run AI programming continues to increase. The sector has seen a revenue growth of about 21% year over year in the first quarter of 2024. The sector is dominated by three companies with Amazon (AMZN) holding the largest share at 31%, and Microsoft (MSFT) with 24% and Alphabet (Google) (GOOG) with 11.5%. This is a $300 billion market, and those three companies have about 66% of it. Smaller players like Alibaba (BABA) and Oracle (ORCL) have A LOT smaller shares at 4% and 3%. However, even that 3% of the market puts Oracle’s cloud revenue at $5.1 billion in the most recent quarter. Revenue in this sector is likely to continue to grow and it looks like good news for all of these companies that set the tone for the market. This is yet another way to get in on the AI boom.
Today’s video is Go Away in May? Historically, the months between November and May were much more profitable than the months from May to November. The saying “Go away in May” came from that distribution of returns, suggesting investors should get out of the market during the less profitiable May to November period. This advice holds particularly true for tech stocks, which have very clear seasonal revenue patterns. For example, in March of 2023, Apple (AAPL) earned $1.52 per share, in June earnings per share went down to $1.26, in September they went back up to $1.46 and then the company blew it out in December to $2.18. While this isn’t indicative of the entire tech sector, it’s a good example of this seasonal pattern, especially for technology stocks with big consumer businesses. So what about this May? I’d say, you can probably “go away”–but maybe a little late than usual. NVIDIA’s (NVDA) earnings come out on the 22nd of May and will likely be giant. Current Wall Street estimates have earnngs per share at $5.14, up from $.88 a year ago. After that,the technology sector is relatively quiet. The next big tech event to look out for is Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, which could result in “buzzy” tech announcements about AI. After that, I don’t see a lot of reason to be overweight technology and I’ll look to take some profits. I think this amounts to a modest Go Away in May call.
