Category: Daily in Portfolio Management

Portfolio holding Apple (AAPL) (0.6 units purchased @183.96) continues to struggle as new data  regarding iPhone's sales in China have been disclosed by the research firm Counterpoint. Taking into  account the first six weeks of 2024, there was a significant worsening in the sales trend of the main  product of the Cupertino company (–24% year on year). Also, Huawei, considered as Apple’s main competitor in the Chinese premium smartphones market, saw its unit sales rising sharply by 64%.  Looking at the Counterpoint report, it can be noticed how Apple and Huawei achieved different results  with respect to their chinese market shares. Apple’s one went down to 15.7%, while Huawei's share  increased up to 16.5%. In addition to the fierce competition by Huawei, Vivo and Xiaomi are trying to  reduce Apple’s…

In a significant blow to Apple, the European Union has imposed a hefty €1.8 billion fine for the tech giant's antitrust violations in the music streaming market; this marks a crucial moment in Apple’s history as it is the first time the giant has faced such penalties for breaching EU competition laws. Following the announcement of the fine, Apple's shares experienced a notable drop of approximately 2.5 percent during morning trading. Such decline reflects investors’ concerns about the potential financial ramifications of the EU's decision on the company's bottom line. The European Commission, led by Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s competition chief, found Apple guilty of abusing its dominant position by restricting developers from informing consumers about alternative, more affordable music services outside of the Apple ecosystem. Such behavior, spanning over…

2nd March, 2024 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded its 13th biennial ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi with a significant breakthrough: another two years extension of the moratorium on e-commerce tariffs lasting until 2026. Indeed, the negotiations failed to reach consensus on sticking points like the treatment of agriculture and fisheries subsidies. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala raised the issue of WTO's resilience in turbulent conditions, yet insisted on the importance of addressing the outstanding issues. The meeting's agenda was hindered by the anger over inflation and foreign competition that had developed in great economies. The climax of the trade negotiations was the announcement of the preservation of the e-commerce exclusion which seemed to be contrary to what was said about the failure of the negotiations. Doubts about the WTO's…

Nvidia (NVDA) (Purchased 0.24 units @ $471.73) was up on Friday by almost 4% but was outshined by AMD, that saw a +5% performance thanks to AI server demand from Dell Technologies, that posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings and registered a +30% performance on Friday. The fourth quarter revenue was $22.3 billion, above analysts’ expectations even if it was down 11% from last year. The main factor that made the stock value jump were orders for AI-optimized servers, which grew around 40%. EPS of $1.59 and net income of $1.16 billion were below analysts’ estimates, but the net income was up 89% since last year. Talking about its fiscal year, Dell had revenue of $88.4 billion, ahead of analysts’ projections and almost doubled the expected net income of $4.9 billion, posting…

US stocks went on to close the best February result for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq in nearly a decade, after investors digested a crucial inflation reading. The S&P 500 closed with a +0.5% finishing at 5,095.88, the Nasdaq grew even more with a +0.9% closing the day at its highest close on record. Meanwhile the Dow Jones popped 0.1% reaching 38.996,39 at close. C3.ai stock jumped 26% on Thursday after the company beat expectations after reporting an adjusted loss of $0.13 per share, beating expectations $0.28 per share. This growth comes as Wall Street’s artificial intelligence has yet to show signs of slowing down, with C3.ai as the latest beneficiary of the frenzy around it. The software  firm posted earnings on Wednesday that beat expectations, sending the stock as…

Wednesday's report showed that the US economy grew at a 3.2% annual pace from October through December. The data came slightly lower than the 3.3% estimates. Bitcoin skyrocketed to $64,000 on Wednesday morning, going above $60,000 for the first time since November 2021. The bullish atmosphere initially started with the possibility of an ETF launch. After being approved, Bitcoin moved flat until February 7, when the movement to $64,000 started. Another bullish event for Bitcoin is the approaching halving, which will take place in April. The halving by reducing mining reward by half, thus limiting supply. The share price of Salesforce (CRM) decreased by 5% in the extended trading after the company announced earnings per share and revenue that topped estimates but fell short of the revenue forecast for the…

Today, Dave Ramsden, deputy governor of the Bank of England, released an important statement  about the inflation trend in the UK during the Association for Financial Markets in Europe meeting.  According to Ramsden, the general increase in the level of prices seems to be persistent, although  factors like services’ prices as well as salaries growth have experienced a remarkable decrease in the  last months. He also stated that it is vital to understand if this prices’ growth will continue for a period  of time that is sufficiently long before taking into consideration drastic cuts in BoE rates’ levels, which  are already high.   Macy’s (M) (+3.37% at 4:00 PM EST) just reported 2023 Q4 revenue and earnings. According to the  data of the Cincinnati based company, there was a decline in…

Google recently encountered significant backlash for its AI image generation tool, prompting a rapid reassessment and temporary suspension of the service: the controversy stemmed from numerous historical inaccuracies and questionable outputs produced by the tool, resulting in widespread criticism and a notable decline in Alphabet's shares, which fell almost 4% on Monday to $138.51 as of early afternoon. The image generator, integrated into Google's Gemini suite of AI models, permitted users to input prompts to generate images, however, it quickly drew attention for its flawed depictions, including instances of racially diverse portrayals within historically specific contexts. This debacle highlighted broader concerns within the AI industry regarding ethics and oversight. Margaret Mitchell, a prominent figure in AI ethics and former leader of Google's AI ethics group, emphasized the necessity for nuanced…

Despite the robust performance of the U.S. economy and the flourishing tech sector, the year 2024 has seen a surge in workforce reductions within the technology industry, raising concerns and signaling a significant shift in the landscape of employment and investment strategies. While indicators such as Nvidia's impressive earnings and the soaring Nasdaq index suggest a thriving tech environment, the reality for tech workers paints a starkly different picture. According to Jeff Shulman, a professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, these layoffs reflect the evolving dynamics of work and technology, as well as a shifting investor preference towards growth over profitability. Data from Layoffs.fyi reveals a concerning trend: the number of tech dismissals in 2024 has surpassed that of the previous year, with over 42,000 employees…

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) (Purchased 0.2 units @ $245.03) was up by around 5% on Friday after the California based firm fell following second quarter results. Revenue was in line with analysts’ estimates, reaching $1.98 billions, while EPS beated analysts’ expectations by far, attesting at $5.47. However, guidance was much lower than expected for FY 2024, which led to a sharp decline. The stock is now rising again due to the broader market rally caused by Nvidia’s sharp increase.  Warner Bros. Discovery missed analysts’ expectations for revenue and earnings due to poor advertising revenue and due to the streaming service company failing to provide free cash flow guidance for 2024. As a result of that, the company fell 12% in early trading on Friday. Going through the numbers, the company…