Category: Daily in Portfolio Management

April 16th, 2024 - Today, Bank of America (BAC) released an important statement in which it disclosed its disappointing  Q1 2024 profits, which marked a decrease of around 18% compared to their 2023 Q1.  The factor that determined this very poor performance was the huge difference  between the deposits’ costs and the combination of assets’ yields and loans’ growth, with the interest  paid on deposits exceeding BoA’s earnings. At the same time, other US financial giants like JP Morgan  Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup reported negative results because of the same trend experienced by  BoA. To have a clearer idea of how bad the situation is for Bank of America, it is sufficient to look at  the increase in the interest rate paid on US interest-bearing deposits, which rose from…

April 15th, 2024 - In the first quarter, Goldman Sachs witnessed a 28% increase in profits, well beyond what analysts expected, as a result of their strong performances in these months. Bloomberg’s compiled analyst forecasts were nearly $1 bln short for the bank’s reported net income for the first three months of the year, which actually amounted to $4.1 bln, up from $3.2 bln a year earlier. The reason for this memorable achievement lies into the refocus led by the CEO David Solomon: he decided that it was time for Goldman Sachs to “play to their core strengths”, that is to say centering again on investment banking and trading businesses, asset and wealth management and slightly “put aside” the concern upon consumer business. Investment banking experienced its most successful quarter…

April 11th, 2024 - Tech giants led a stock rally on Thursday as investors weighed encouraging wholesale inflation data against yesterday’s harrowing price report. The Nasdaq surged 1.7%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.7% and the Dow Jones ended the day flat. Nike (NKE) have been under fire in the past months, with shares plummeting 25.34% in the past year. However, several BB (Bulge Bracket) analysts are currently reporting the probability for a pivot in the green. Today shares of the company increased 3% after the stock was upgraded at Bank of America. The last few years were quite rough for the company as it lost almost half of its value since mid-2021, but this might be the sign that better days are waiting ahead for the company and its…

April 8th, 2024 - It is thought by many that good times for always increasing gold prices may have come to an end and the price of the commodity could experience a downturn shortly. The spot yellow metal price has hit a fresh record of $2,375.5 per ounce on Monday confirming the positive trend of the “safe haven” in times of uncertainty like these. Notwithstanding that, there are strong beliefs that it could be the moment for the ongoing growth to cease, therefore for prices to decrease as several other factors come into the game.  The first among them is the so-called “catch-up effect”: investors think gold has to catch up with other assets and keep investing in it, as a consequence of actually projecting such expectations as reality, they…

6th April, 2024 - The financial guru from CNBC, Jim Cramer, had brought into the notice the rosy prospect of microcap stocks, particularly in healthcare as one of the best investment options for the year 2024. Stating that the most notable effect is the revival of the smaller companies, Cramer indicated five companies that though seem to be less known, still have the potential for great growth. Among the listed companies is Integer Holdings, a popular medical-device manufacturer which is in the sector of product design. Cramer noted the company's favorable standing due to the constant health-care occupation rates and the fact that there is a backlog of patient procedures that had been postponed during the pandemic. Another stock that Cramer advises is Progyny, a fertility benefits management firm which…

April 4th, 2024 - Stocks tumbled on Thursday in a session of volatile trading ahead of the March jobs report. The Dow Jones lost 530.16 points, 1.35%, to close at 38,596.98, suffering its worst session since March 2023. The S&P 500 dropped 1.23% to end at 5,147.21 and Nasdaq dipped 1.40% to close at 16,049.08. Levi Strauss (LEVI) stock jumped over 20% on Thursday after the company reported solid first quarter results and enjoys added exposure through a new Beyonce song. The results came in with a revenue of $1.56 billion against an estimate of $1.55 billion and adjusted earnings per share resulting at $0.26 versus an analyst estimate of $0.21. At the end of the day the growth settled at 12.38%. Shares of Conagra Brands (CAG) closed on Thursday…

03 April 2024- At a conference held by Stanford University in California, Jerome Powell commented on the current stance of the US economy and he answered some questions. Recently, the data on job gains and inflation came higher than expected, when commenting on this data, Jerome Powell said that it doesn’t change the big picture which is solid growth but a rebalancing labor market. Powell also said they have to step back and watch for the upcoming data to see if recent data is just a ‘bump’ on their way to the 2% inflation target. Powell again cited that seeing rate cuts is appropriate at some point this year. However, Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic had more hawkish comments about the current situation. He thinks that one cut might be…

April 2nd, 2024 - General Electric (GE) recently terminated its break up process through which 3 different companies  were created (GE Healthcare, GE Aerospace and GE Vernova that came to life at the beginning of  2023). This huge operation was announced in late 2021, after GE saw its dimension increasing hugely  thanks to an important diversification strategy carried out before the beginning of the breaking up.  The latter was the culmination of a strategy aimed at helping GE facing the consequences of the 2008  global financial crisis that heavily affected GE Capital, the most relevant division of the company. GE  began trading as separate entities on Tuesday, with Larry Culp (CEO of GE Aerospace) and Scott Strazik  (CEO of GE Vernova) who rang the NYSE opening bell. Analysts currently estimate…

April 1st, 2024 - The upsurge in demand for energy to power data centers, therefore the amount of the latter required to fuel the ongoing AI revolution could lead to a “golden era” for natural gas, according to executives. Managers’ belief, strongly supported by data, is that renewable energy sources and batteries won’t be enough to cope with the soaring energy needs, and that fossil fuels will still play a crucial role in the energy landscape. The energy issue is widely controversial since the US Government is still providing incentives to developers of clean energy with the aim of bringing the carbon emissions of the electricity grid to zero; but at the same time, it looks like those won’t be able to bear the AI growing needs in the future…

30th March, 2024 - In the rocky start of 2024, Tesla, the electric car giant, had a big drop. Its stock fell almost 30%, making it the worst in the S&P 500 index. This was very different from the larger market's good rise, with the S&P 500 going up by 10.2%, its best in a first quarter since 2019. Tesla had three main problems: not great predictions, more issues in the big Chinese market, and a series of controversial moves by the company's CEO, Elon Musk. At first, things seemed good for Tesla as it said it had record-breaking sales in Q4, with 485,000 cars, and met its year-end goal for 2023 with 1.8 million cars. But the good feelings from this were soon gone when the company said it…