Category: Daily in Portfolio Management

Mar 12th, 2024 - Bitcoin's meteoric rise continues to dominate headlines as it reaches yet another milestone, surging to a record high of $72,022.16: this latest jump represents a 3% increase from previous levels and underscores the cryptocurrency's enduring appeal to investors.  Driving this surge are the substantial inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, which totaled an impressive $2.7 billion last week; such influx of capital reflects growing institutional interest in Bitcoin as a viable investment asset. Not to be outdone, Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also experienced a significant rally: breaking the $4,000 barrier for the first time since December 2021, Ethereum's surge is fueled by its close correlation with Bitcoin's performance. Additionally, anticipation surrounding the upcoming Ethereum network upgrade, known as "Dencun," has contributed to investor…

On Friday, Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) (Purchased 0.2 units @ $582.99) announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has postponed approving its Anti-Alzheimer’s drug “Donanemab'' to further evaluate the safety and efficacy of the drug. The date of the advisory committee meeting has yet to be set by the FDA, and the timing of expected FDA action on Donanemab will be delayed beyond the first quarter of 2024, as Eli Lilly itself reported. As a result of the news, the company fell around 2%.  Nvidia (NVDA) (Purchased 0.24 units @ $471.73) was protagonist of an interesting session on Friday. The stock was up around 5% intraday, and then it changed its course and plumbed to a -4% performance-ish. The last time this happened to Nvidia was more…

US stocks rose on Thursday as the S&P 500 hit a new record high closing at $ 5,157.36 with an increase of 1.03%. On the other side techs took the lead with the NASDAQ gaining as much as 1.5% and the Dow Jones gained about 1.3%. Shares of portfolio holding Novo Nordisk (NVO) surged over 10% on Thursday to a new record high. The company saw its global market cap ranking rise to 12th, overtaking Tesla. General optimism is the result of the reveal by the company that a Phase I trial of the pill version of the experimental drug amycretin showed 13.1% loss of weight in participants after 12 weeks. At the end of the day shares were up 8.95%. (Y.Zhan) Shares of Avangrid (AGR) rose 13% on Thursday,…

At the meeting held by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, FED Chair Jerome Powell stated that he is expecting the rate cuts to happen this year, unsure of when it will start. Jerome Powell said he wants to see a little bit more data to start cutting rates and expressed concerns that starting cutting rates too soon may cause inflation to get stickier; however he also mentioned that starting too late might endanger economic growth. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are anticipating a 55% probability of a rate cut on 12 June. Investors reacted to those announcements with enthusiasm which drove the broader index S&P 500 0.51% higher, followed by a 0.58% and 0.2% increase by Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones respectively. The share price of the specialty…

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…