Author: Cattolica Investment Club

27 March, 2024 - H&M shares surged over 15% on Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results. The reason for this impressive increase is a significant profit increase and a raised operating margin target. H&M's operating profit was announced at 2.08 billion Swedish Krona (~$196 million), higher than analyst predictions of 1.43 billion Swedish Krona (~$134.6 million). Operating margin rose to 3.9% from 1.3% showing they are on their way to their 10% operating margin target. These results came despite the decreasing sales from 54.9 billion kronor to 53.7 billion kronor year on year. According to J.P. Morgan's Natasha Kaneva, despite a dip in oil prices on Wednesday, the reduction in Russia's output by 471,000 barrels per day in the second quarter could be sending Brent crude toward the…

March 26th, 2024 - Portfolio holding Apple (AAPL) (0.6 units purchased @183.96) is facing a series of difficulties in China  due to changes in the national macro environment and the fierce competition by Huawei, factors that  caused a 24% drop in iPhone sales in the first six weeks of 2024. The Cupertino based  company is trying to overcome this negative period, with a high probability that it will double down  on the chinese smartphone market. What underlines this objective the most is the latest Tim Cook’s  trip to China, during which he not only opened Apple’s newest flagship store in Shanghai and met key  suppliers, but also joined the China Development Forum in Beijing. In addition to this, the Chinese  minister of commerce Wang Wentao stated that Apple’s presence in…

March 26th, 2024 - Reddit, the beloved social media platform, made headlines with a staggering 30% jump in its shares following its recent IPO; Debuting at $34, the stock closed at an impressive $59.80 on Monday, reflecting investors' fervent interest. Together with existing investors, Reddit raised around $750 million in the offering, marking a significant milestone for the company's financial trajectory. What sets Reddit's IPO apart is its inclusive approach, allowing moderators and users, affectionately known as “Redditors”, to participate alongside institutional investors: this novel strategy echoes successful models employed by industry giants like Airbnb and Rivian, fostering a stronger sense of community ownership and democratizing the access to investment opportunities. Early investors, such as Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, saw their stakes in Reddit skyrocket: Altman's investment surged from…

23rd March, 2024 - This week saw an unprecedented rise in the IPO tech market, bringing to end a prolonged period of drought triggered by the public offering of Reddit and Astera Labs. The two companies, which patrolled the same world within the tech-investment space, represented the first known venture-backed tech flotation in the U.S. since September. Morgan Stanley emerged as the ultimate victor among other banks, landing the title lead position of both IPOs in the victory of dry spell which the bank had been experiencing. The revival follows after a period of stagnancy in the tech IPO market, with only 15 tech IPOs occurring in the past 2 years since 2021 which have proved to be bullish. The number of IPOs has been on the decline over the…

22nd March, 2024 - Despite beating revenue and profit analysts’ expectations, Nike stock fell nearly 7% after giving a soft outlook for the full year and announcing slowing sales in China. Going through the numbers, revenue rose by 0.3% to $12.43 billion, beating the estimated revenue of $12.28 billion, while EPS came in at 77 cents, surpassing again analysts’ estimates. An important turnaround for the company might be the Paris Olympics, in which the Oregon based firm has put a lot of trust and belief as it is going to launch several products and marketing campaigns around the event.  On Wednesday 21st, Reddit made a stellar debut after its initial public offering, soaring 48%. On Friday though, the social media company’s share price fell around 9%, cooling off, even though…

March 21, 2024 - Thursday was a pretty good day for Wall Street, the Dow Jones closed in on the 40,000 threshold for the first time in its 128 years as markets rallied to new highs closing in at 39,781.5. Also the other two major indexes reached new highs with the S&P 500 increasing 0.3% reaching an all time high of 5,241.53 and the Nasdaq grew 0.2% breaking its record to reach 16,401.85  The Justice department sued Apple in an antitrust case, saying that the company has a monopoly over the phone market that harmed consumers, developers and rival companies. As a result of the suit Apple (AAPL) shares fell more than 4% on thursday. The lawsuit claims that Apple’s anti-competitive practices extend beyond Iphone and Apple watch businesses, citing…

20th March 2024 - Today, the Federal Open Market Committee announced they kept interest rates between 5.25%-5.5%, aligned with investors expectations. Even though they kept the rates at the same level, the signal of three possible rate cuts fueled investors’ risk appetite. Additionally, the Fed’s announcements were approached positively because since the recent data was slightly hotter than expected, investors were prepared for worse. Fed chair Jerome Powell didn’t specify when they are expecting to start the cuts but following the announcements on the finished FOMC meeting, markets are expecting a 75% probability of the first cut at the June 11-12 meeting according to CME FedWatchTool. (https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html) Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed by 1%, Nasdaq and S&P 500 increased by 1.3%, and 0.9% respectively. Intel (INTC) is given…

19th March, 2024 - An important announcement regarding its competitive strategy in the near future has been released  by the oil giant Shell (SHEL). The company is about to shift its focus from the traditional retail  businesses to EV charging sites, with the London based company that opted for expanding the number of charging stations mainly in Europe and China. Shell will divest about 500 old sites (like the gasoline ones) per year in 2024 and 2025, with these closures contributing in reducing retail’s footprint  drastically (about 2.1%). With respect to these important changes, Shell decided to give more importance to public charging rather than in-home charging, with the latter being an alternative that is popular in the US. Shell plans to increase the total number of its charger points…

18th March, 2024 - Portfolio holdings Google (GOOG) (Purchased 0.8 units @ $133.93) and Apple (AAPL) (Purchased 0.6 units @ $183.96) had a positive run on Monday, rising 4.60% and 0.64% respectively. This came following a Bloomberg article outlining the possibility of a partnership between Google’s Gemini AI and Apple’s iPhone’s.  Both tech firms have had a tough start to the year, with Alphabet underperforming the Market and Apple being in the negative year to date. The Cupertino based firm has recently made the shift from building the Apple Car to working on Generative AI, meaning a large amount of funding has rendered itself available to focus on integrating and developing Artificial Intelligence for iPhones. Not a definitive win, but definitely a step in the right direction to commence a…

In a recent Interview, Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, illustrated his views for the rest of the year on global trading. As we all know the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and Panama Canal drought have driven up ocean freight with rates on key routes up 75% to 150% year-to-date. Despite these problems the CEO of the fifth largest ocean carrier tells that his views improved for the rest of the year after conversations with clients and logistic companies led him to rethink the forecasted projections on demand. This comes in the same week as the company reported a steep decrease in 2023 profits and a drop in dividends which led to a stock decline. The poor results reported were a consequence of the difficult last quarter of…