June 16, 2022 | Daily JAM, Jubak Picks, Morning Briefing, Volatility |
Yesterday, the stock market was up with the Standard & Poor’s 500 gaining 1.46% on the day and the NASDAQ Composite up 2.49%. Listening to the Federal Reserve’s policy statement after the June 15 meeting of its Open Market Committee, Wall Street chose to hear a promise of interest rate cuts as early as the end of 2023 and certainly in 2023. Aggressive interest rate increases in 2022, from this perspective, are just a necessary precondition to those interest rate cuts. Today, the stock market is down with the Standard & Poor’s 500 falling 3.25% and the NASDAQ Composite off 4.08% at the close. The narrative on investors’ and traders’ minds today is the rising odds of a recession–75% odds in favor by 2024 a Bloomberg survey of economists says with 25% odds of a recession in 2023. For a day that trumps the hopes for 2024 interest rate cuts (which would, after all, only materialize if the economy has, indeed, tumbled into recession. I expect this “War of the Two Narratives” to continue for a while
June 3, 2022 | Daily JAM, Volatility |
My one-hundredth-and-thirty-fortieth YouTube video “Quick Pick Wyndham” went up today. My Quick Pick this week is Wyndham Hotels (WH), which owns a large portion (40%) of the U.S. market in branded economy and midscale hotels. This is gearing up to be a big summer for travel as the economy emerges from the pandemic, and I think inflationary pressures will push many consumers who decide to travel to look to save a buck or two on their trips. I will add shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts to my Volatility Portfolio on Monday, June 6.
June 1, 2022 | CHPT, Daily JAM, Volatility |
Yesterday, May 31, after the close electric-vehicle-charging company ChargePoint Holdings (CHPT) reported a huge jump in revenue–way above Wall Street and management projections–but a big miss on earnings. Today, June 1, the shares finished down 2.66%. Sales for the fiscal first quarter of 2023 came to $81.6 million. The Wall Street consensus projection called for $75.7 million. Management had guided investors to expect $72 million to $77 million for the quarter. In the first fiscal quarter of 2022, revenue was $40.51 million. That’s a year over year revenue growth rate of 101% But…
May 17, 2022 | BABA, Daily JAM, FXI, Jubak Picks, Perfect Five-ETFs, TCEHY, Top 50 Stocks |
Today, Tuesday May 17, China’s top economic official, Vice Premier Liu He, said that the government will support the development of digital economy companies and their public stock listings. The comments delivered after a symposium with the CEOs of some of the country’s largest private technology companies came just a day after the National Bureau of Statistics reported that industrial output fell 2.9% in April from April 2021, and that retail sales contracted 11.1%. Financial markets in China and the United States interpreted the remarks as a public show of support for China’s Internet companies
May 17, 2022 | ALB, CHPT, Daily JAM, EVGO, Millennial, TSLA, Volatility |
New registrations for electric vehicles jumped 60% in the first quarter of 2022 from the first quarter of 2021. according to Experian Automotive. Electric vehicles made up an all-time record 4.6% of the total market. The news was even more positive given that overall new vehicle registrations were down 18% in the quarter from the first quarter of 2021.
May 6, 2022 | Daily JAM, Videos, Volatility |
My one-hundredth-and-thirty-first YouTube video “Quick Pick: U.S. Natural Gas Fund” went up today. Natural gas hit an 18-year high in the United States on Thursday, May, even as oil was sliding. Consequently I’m looking for a pick that focuses on natural gas and not oil: my pick this week is United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG). I’ll use today’s drop in the price of natural gas and the 8.04% decline in UNG to add this pick to my Volatility Portfolio on Monday. I think that we’re going to see even higher gas prices as the war in Ukraine (and sanctions against Russia) grind on and as everyone rushes to build stock piles ahead of the inter heating season.
May 3, 2022 | AMD, Daily JAM, Volatility |
After the close on May 3, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reported first-quarter earnings of $1.13 a share, excluding some items. Wall Street analysts had projected earnings of 92 cents a share for the quarter. Sales rose 71% to $5.9 billion, topping projections of $5.3 billion. The results pushed shares up 9.10% in trading on May 4.
April 26, 2022 | Daily JAM, EQNR, LNG, Volatility |
Russia’s Gazprom has told Poland’s government that it will stop supplying natural gas to Poland beginning on Wednesday after Poland refused to pay the supplier in roubles. Western sanctions have made it almost impossible for Russian companies to collect payments in dollars or euros. The decision to stop natural gas supply to Poland also followed on the country’s announcement on Tuesday that it was imposing sanctions on 50 entities and individuals including Russia’s biggest gas company. Polish ministers told a press conference that Poland had sufficient supplies of gas to weather the interruption
March 31, 2022 | Daily JAM, DNNGY, EQNR, Jubak Picks, Volatility, VWDRY |
A couple of days doesn’t a trend make, but the trading action in European wind stocks has caught my eye in the last week or so. Yesterday, Wednesday, March 30, wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems (VWDRY) gained 5.80%. That took the stock to a gain of 4.60% in the past week. The stock is down 2.26% for 2022 to date as of the March 30 close. Wind developer Orsted (DNNGY) was up 3.27% to bring its gain in the last week to 7.71%. The stock is down 3.88% for 2022 to date. With Europe looking to reduce its reliance on imports of Russian natural gas, increasing the region’s wind power capacity is one solution.
March 23, 2022 | Daily JAM, DJP, Jubak Picks, Morning Briefing, Volatility |
How does the lyric go (as sung by Albert King)? “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I would have no luck at all.” Maybe that song should be the theme song for the global food market right now. This month China’s agriculture minister Tang Renjian told colleagues at a high-profile government meeting in Beijing this month: “China faces big difficulties in food production because of the unusual floods last autumn. Many faming experts and technicians told us that crop conditions this year could be the worst in history.”
March 18, 2022 | Daily JAM, EQNR, Volatility |
Norwegian oil and natural gas producer Equinor (EQNR) said Wednesday, March 16, that adjusted permits from the Norwegian government will allow higher natural gas production over summer from the North Sea Troll and Oseberg fields as well as the Heidrun fields in the Norwegian Sea. With European countries looking for alternatives to Russian natural gas Equinor can basically sell all the gas it can produce even at higher prices. Natural gas futures closed at $4.81 per million BTUs today in New York. That’s up from $3.80 on January 20. That’s a 26.6% increase. I added Equinor to my Volatility Portfolio back on January 21 as hedge against a Russian invasion of Ukraine and wide-reaching sanctions. That position is up 23.14% as of the close on March 18.
March 9, 2022 | Daily JAM, Millennial, OTLY, Volatility |
Oatly Group (OTLY) shares jumped 8% in premarket trading after the company reported fourth-quarter results before the New York open. And then, in New York trading the stock gave back the gains and was down 1.055 as of 1 p.m. New York time.
