Category: Portfolio Management

Hotter than expected inflation report Thursday afternoon caused yields to increase, given that the Federal bank might not be cutting rates as soon as markets previously expected. This general negative trend has rendered investor sentiment from positive to mildly negative, as major indices fell.  Meta Platform’s recent performance (up 39.8% ytd), can also be linked to the house approval of a bill that might ban TikTok in the United States. Another bullish factor is Morgan Stanley’s recent analysis, which confirms that Meta is the Internet Coverage company with the highest potential amongst its peers.  However, there might still be hope for the Chinese social media, given that the bill approved by the house of representatives forced the app to either stop operating in the US, or be sold. Former Treasury…

13th March, 2024 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.1% on Wednesday, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell by 0.19% and 0.54%, respectively Tesla's (TSLA) stock price dropped by 5% after Wells Fargo downgraded its rating to underweight from equal weight. They also lowered its price target to 125$ from 200$. Colin Langa, an analyst from Wells Fargo mentioned the cooling EV market and the increasing competition as primary reasons. Langa also cited that despite the price cuts, the demand is not increasing which may lead to a decrease in profitability. Since the beginning of 2024, Tesla has lost 30% of its value, bringing the share price from $245 to $170. One of our portfolio holdings, Eli Lilly (LLY) (Purchased 0.2 units @ $582.99), announced a partnership…

12th March, 2024 - A very important suggestion about how the FED should deal with interest rates’ cuts in the US has been  presented by JP Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, during an Australian Financial Review business meeting. At this moment, the majority of investors think the US’ central bank will not introduce changes in March  and May, while the first remarkable cut is expected to be applied in June. Next week the FED will meet, determining if these expectations will be met or not, while Powell stated that they’re about to have  all the sufficient information and confidence it needs to introduce these changes. On the other hand, Dimon is very skeptical about the possible schedule of such cuts, thinking that the FED should step in only after June and…

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…