Author: Cattolica Investment Club

Jan 14th, 2024 - BlackRock (BLK), the world's largest asset manager, with 70 offices in 30 countries, and clients in more than 100 countries, is acquiring Global Infrastructure Partners for $12.5 billion, with $3 billion in cash and 12 million shares. Together, the companies will manage assets worth more than $150 billion, creating an infrastructure fund that will rival the industry’s largest players. The CEO Larry Fink sees it as pivotal for retirement savings. The deal coincides with BlackRock's Q4 results, crossing $10 trillion in assets. Despite shares dipping 0.8% to $786.64, they've grown 4% in the past year. The transaction, enhancing BlackRock's role in high-coupon, inflation-protected investments, is set to finalize in Q3 2024. BlackRock also announced the creation of a new unified Global Product Solutions group that will…

Jan 12th, 2024 - On Friday, airline stocks, such as Delta Airlines and United Airlines, respectively lost 8% and 9% of their value. An ETF that includes airline shares was down 4.8%. The S&P 500 started the market day well, but was immediately dragged down by the airline sector. There are three reasons beyond this tumble:  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will audit the Boeing 737 Max 9 production line to ensure quality control and security. The announcement has arrived one week after the shocking Alaska Airlines accident; Delta has posted a disappointing forecast on its full-year EPS (earning per share) of $6 to $7, below the previous estimate that was of more than $7.  Oil prices grew around 4% after the US and UK launched strikes in Yemen after…

Jan 10th, 2023 - On Wednesday, all major indexes rose. The S&P 500 increased by 0.57% to close at 4,783.45. The Dow Jones added 0.45% to close at 37,695.73, while the Nasdaq increased by 0.75% to end at 14,969.65. Yesterday, a tweet was sent from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) official X account regarding the acceptance of Bitcoin's ETF. However, it was later revealed to have been made by an unauthorized third party. The Bitcoin price began exhibiting volatile movements, leading to over $300 million in liquidation of leveraged futures positions. The premarket share prices of Coinbase (COIN) and MicroStrategy (MSTR) fell more than 3% after the tweet incident. The share price of the biopharmaceutical company TG Therapeutics (TGTX) dropped by more than 15% after announcing to investors…

Jan 3rd, 2024 - On Wednesday, the Nasdaq fell by 1.18% to 14,592.21, marking its fourth consecutive day of losses. The S&P slid by 0.80% to close at 4,704.81, while the Dow Jones decreased by 0.76% to close at 37,430.19. The Labor Department reported a decrease in worker demand to its lowest level since March 2021, aligning with the expected 8.8 million at 8.79 million. This data is viewed as a positive metric for the realization of the so-called ‘soft landing.’ Xerox (XRX) slid more than 10% after announcing plans to cut 15% of its workforce to change its organizational structure. The reorganizing plan focuses on the company’s core business of printing and increasing efficiency. SoFi (SOFI) Technologies decreased by almost 14% after Keefe, Bruyette&Woods announced an ‘underperform’ downgrade. One…