Category: Daily in Portfolio Management

Swiftonomics, a term coined to describe the economic influence of Taylor Swift, encapsulates the intersection of pop culture and economics. As one of the world's most influential artists, Swift's activities generate significant economic ripples, affecting various industries and market behaviors.  Concert Tours and Local Economies Taylor Swift's concert tours are a prime example of Swiftonomics in action. Her tours, such as the "Reputation Stadium Tour" and "The Eras Tour," attract millions of fans worldwide, leading to substantial economic benefits for host cities. When Swift performs in a city, there is a noticeable spike in local spending on hotels, restaurants, transportation, and merchandise, peaking at the "Reputation Stadium Tour", which grossed $345.7 million, and its economic impact on local businesses was estimated to be even higher. Market Power and Pricing Strategies…

The value of Copper, often referred to as "Dr. Copper" for its role as an economic indicator, is experiencing a significant rally in its market value. Prices have surpassed $10,000 per ton for the first time since April 2022, reaching around $10,220 per ton, driven by soaring global demand and tight supplies, rising 29% from year to date. Copper's critical role in the global transition to net-zero emissions by 2050 underscores its increasing importance. As the world accelerates efforts to combat climate change, copper will be central for the development of different green-initiatives and must overcome the different hurdles in its way in order to solidify its status as the most vital metal in the energy transition. Copper's role is expanding beyond traditional sectors like construction and electronics to new,…

Many of the most important power companies have started to either change or review their targets to develop renewable energy because of high costs in development and low costs of electricity. This comes as a sign of the general difficulties that present in transitioning away from fossil fuels. The continent’s largest renewable energy producer, Starkraft, announced the review of their annual targets for new renewables capacity, while EDP, an important Portuguese energy company started cutting back its plans quoting high interest rates and low power prices. On the other hand also Denmark’s Ørsted, recognized as the world’s largest offshore wind developer, downgraded its targets for renewable energy for 2030 by more than 10GW, a measure enough to potentially supply millions of homes. The downgrade of this particular target came as…

May 16th, 2024 - ChatGPT maker OpenAI held its "Spring Update" event on Monday, where it announced a new desktop app, a web UI refresh, and the launch of its most advanced model, GPT-4o. The demo showcased how edge devices, starting with Macs and iPhones, can benefit from AI. By integrating voice, text, and images, the demo also highlighted AI's potential to significantly boost productivity. Much of the demo utilized a "hardwired" Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone to reduce latency in real-time interactions.  In this context, analysts at Bank of America reiterated a Buy rating on AAPL, saying they expect the tech giant “to be a net beneficiary of AI at the edge” with “gross margin upside and momentum in services' '. Among Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s renowned products are smartphones, personal computers, tablets,…

May 8th, 2024 - Today, Shopify (SHOP) (-19.3% at 10:35 AM EDT), a notorious Canadian e-commerce firm  operating in multiple countries, disclosed its expectations about quarterly revenue growth  and the forecasted values are the worst in the last two years. Among the several factors that  led to this poor result are the decreasing consumers’ spending trend in recent times as  well as the fact that the core of Shopify’s clientele represented by small and medium-sized  companies has been heavily hit by the ongoing inflation. The company’s forecast for the  second quarter of 2024 did not meet Shopify’s investors’ expectations at all, considering that  the latter experienced an average revenue growth of 26% in the last quarters (with respect  to this, LSEG data drove analysts to predict a growth rate of…

May 1st, 2024 - In the current year, 2024, market trends have 3 main characteristics: medium growth, high inflation and elevated geopolitical risks. Such factors hinder investment strategies and opportunities across most asset sectors.  Said geopolitical uncertainties influence the equity market, as it can be deduced from growth expectations of 2-3% in the S&P 500. Thus warning investors to exercise extreme caution, specifically when dealing within the markets impacted by these economic hardships. Contrastingly, companies involved in AI show greater promise of growth. In fact, after careful consideration, the following companies have the highest growth potential: MSFT, NVIDIA (its one year return is over 211%- best performing stock for may 2024). Another possible investment would be Crowdstrike holdings inc. (CRWD). The company specialises in cybersecurity and has demonstrated robust performance…

April 28th, 2024 - After the challenges of the year 2022 as a whole, digital ad companies finally succeeded in not only recovering but mostly exceeding the expectations analysts had for the first months of 2024, reporting strong achievements and wonderful results for their investors this week, publishing their first-quarter results.  Companies have gone through tough times due to the crazy inflation of 2022 and the subsequent measurements of cutting costs and layoffs, mainly spread across 2023. Another major challenge digital companies had to face was the one of Apple's IOS privacy changes, which obviously made it harder for ads to track users and to “popup” anytime. Both the macroeconomic context and policy-making entities have played a significant role in hindering the giants but, efficient strategies, reallocations of investments and…

24 April 2024- One of our portfolio holdings, Boeing (BA) (Purchased 0.15 units @ $248.79) announced its first fiscal quarterly results better than expected. The analysts were expecting the adjusted loss per share to be $1.76 compared to $1.13 declared. The company also shared its revenue which is slightly above the expectations. $16.57 billion compared to the $16.23 billion estimated. Boeing had a tough year starting with their 737-MAX incident, followed by the FAA putting a restraint on the company’s output due to some issues of noncompliance in the supply chain. They lost almost 35% in value year to date. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, who announced that he will step down at the end of the year, expressed that their priority is to address safety concerns and that they started…

April 19th, 2024 - Netflix reported better-than-expected revenue and earnings for the first quarter of 2024 thanks to subscribers growth of 16% YoY. The streaming company posted an EPS of $5.28 and a 14% revenue growth to $9.37 billion, and they both have beaten analysts’ expectations. The company struggled in premarket because of a poor revenue guidance for the full year, compared to what analysts’ were expecting.  Paramount is in talks with Skydance Media for a merger, but as the New York Times reported, there is a potential opportunity of a takeover by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management, which are in discussion for a potential joint all-cash bid to acquire the media and streaming company. Apollo already tried to acquire the company in the last months, but Paramount’s…

April 17th,  2024- One of our portfolio holdings, purchased recently, United Airlines (UAL) (1 unit @$41.78) announced its quarterly result after markets closed on Tuesday. United Airlines reported first-quarter revenue of $12.5 billion, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.4 billion. And an adjusted quarterly loss of 15 cents per share, outperforming analyst estimates of 57 cents per share. They also increased their capacity by %9 despite their projected fleet orders partly not coming due to Boeing’s halt in production of Boeing’s MAX 737. They announced that they expect to add 61 planes to their fleet revised from their previous 101 estimate, plus they are planning to lease 35 Airbus A321 in 2026 and 2027. The company CEO Ed Bastian said they had a good quarter driven by the increased…