Lessons from Netflix for all consumer stocks

Lessons from Netflix for all consumer stocks

In this post let me take another step back to look at the one of the larger economic forces revealed by the Netflix miss. I’d argue that the Nexflix miss should put pricing power and questions of what price increases will hurt demand up near the top of your stock picking check list. Especially since the streaming service’ loss of 200,000 subscribers this quarter and the ported loss of 2 million subscribers next quarter qualifies as just the first shoe to drop.

Stock splits are now a trend: Who’s next?

Stock splits are now a trend: Who’s next?

Two data points! We’ve got a trend! First, Alphabet (GOOG). On February 1, the company announced a 20-1 stock split. And then Amazon (AMZN). On March 9, the company announced a 20-1 stock split. As everyone knows, two data points make a trend. So now the question is Who’s next?

Selling Amazon tomorrow–worrying signs in core e-commerce business

Selling Amazon tomorrow–worrying signs in core e-commerce business

Investors have really impressed by Amazon’s fourth quarter earnings report. And there were some impressive numbers in the report for the quarter. Amazon’s cloud services unit, AWS, saw revenue growth alleviate again to a 40% growth rate. Revenue growth from from advertising did decelerate to a 32% growth rate but that’s still really impressive given what other companies have been saying about a weak ad market in the quarter. Frankly, if Amazon were just the cloud and digital advertising businesses I’d be shouting buy even if the stock is trading at a trailing 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 49.81. But Amazon is also an e-commerce company and the numbers there didn’t look all that great.

Selling Amazon tomorrow–worrying signs in core e-commerce business

Trick or Trend: I know the consensus is that Amazon saved the market with its earnings report; I have to disagree

The story to end last week was Amazon’s (AMZN) big earnings surprise on Thursday. Fourth-quarter sales increased 9.4% to $137.4 billion. Profit was $27.75 a share, aided largely by a pretax gain from the company’s investment in Rivian, which went public in November. Analysts, on average, projected revenue of $137.8 billion and earnings of $3.77 a share. (I’d note that the $22.75 a share in earnings and the projected $3.77 are not comparable due to that huge one-time gain from the Rivian IPO.) Wall Street was especially impressed by the performance of Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud-computing division. AWS recorded sales of $17.8 billion, a 40% year-over-year increase, and operating profit of $5.29 billion. Adverting revenue for the quarter was was $9.7 billion, a 32% increase from a year earlier. Wall Street also gushed about the company’s decision to raise the price of its Amazon Prime membership by $20 a year to $139

Selling Amazon tomorrow–worrying signs in core e-commerce business

There’s damage to individual stocks–like Amazon–below the surface of this market volatility

If you look just at an index like the NASDAQ 100, an index dominated by BIG TECH, the volatility of the last month hasn’t done much damage. The index closed today December 21 at 15,986, up 3589 points. That’s almost exactly–with the difference in the decimal points–where the index stood on November 10 when it closed at 15,986. The index did drop through support at the 50-day moving average yesterday but rebounded to the upside today to clear resistance at 15,921. See nothing has happened! But you get a different picture if you look at the shares of a market leader such as Amazon (AMZN).

Apple, Amazon, Alphabet,Adobe, Applied Materials and other big techs rally hard–rest of stocks not so much

Apple, Amazon, Alphabet,Adobe, Applied Materials and other big techs rally hard–rest of stocks not so much

Today, Monday November 29, it’s a tale of two bounces from Friday’s big sell off. Technology stocks and especially big technology stocks are up big. At the close in New York Applied Materials was up 5.53%. Adobe (ADBE) was ahead 3.83%. Nvidia (NVDA) was higher by 5.95%. Amazon (AMZN) had gained 1.63%. Apple (AAPL) and Meta Platforms (AKA FB) were 2.19% and 1.47%, respectively. Qualcomm (QCOM) had gained 4.55%. Alphabet (GOOG) was higher by 2.32%. Microsoft (MSFT) had picked up 2.11%. NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) had climbed 5.41%. In most of these stocks today’s gains made up for Friday’s losses–or more. For example, on Friday Applied Materials had dropped 3.84% and NXP Semiconductors was down 3.88%. On the other hand, the “re-opening stocks” that got crushed Friday on fears that the Omicron Covid-19 variant would throw sand in the gears of the global economy showed only minor gains.

Stocks get more extended–and riskier–in some not so obvious ways

Stocks get more extended–and riskier–in some not so obvious ways

In my YouTube video posted today I dismissed (pretty much) my worry that this rally was getting narrower and therefore closer to a nasty end. Nvidia (NVDA), up 8.85% at the close ) I noted had dragged a few chip stocks with it after the company reported a significant earnings beat and increase in guidance yesterday. For the day Qualcomm (QCOM) was up 1.63% and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) ahead 1.86%. But stocks as a whole didn’t join in and some recent bellwether stocks actually retreated with Coca-Cola (KO) off 0.96%, Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) down 1.87%, and Disney (DIS) lower by 1.11%. Not good. What you’d like to see as more stocks join in–the rally gets broader–as prices go up if you’re looking for evidence that a rally might continue for a while. But, I noted in my video, not all is lost. Big tech stocks, which have largely been left on the sidelines in the rally, were up strongly today wit Amazon (AMZN) gaining 3.78% and Apple (AAPL) higher by 3.05%. If this group starts to participate the rally would be likely to have another leg. However, that’s not my only worry about this rally. I’m seeing evidence that the gains being racked up by stocks such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Apple are based on increasing vague speculation about trends that are way, way off in the future.

Saturday Night Quarterback (on a Sunday) says, For the week ahead expect…

Saturday Night Quarterback (on a Sunday) says, For the week ahead expect…

It’s BIG TECH earnings week with earnings from Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG), Facebook (FB) and Amazon (AMZN). Facebook kicks off earnings from this big tech group on Monday, October 25, after the close. Alphabet and Microsoft follow on Tuesday, October 26, after the close of trading with Amazon and Apple on Thursday October er 27 after the close. The stakes are high for these companies and their stocks and for the entire stock market.These five stocks account for almost 23% of the capitalization of the entire Standard & Poor’s 500. And the technology sector makes up 33% of the indexTo an extraordinary degree as goes the technology sector, so goes the market as a whole right now. And as these five stocks go, so does technology.