Morning News: May 16, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 16th, 2024 at 7:06 am

Japan’s Economy Shrinks Again as Inflation Hits Consumers’ Pocketbooks

US Efforts to Reshape Global Supply Chains Gather Pace in Asia

U.S. Blocks Imports From 26 More Chinese Companies Over Forced Labor Concerns

Istanbul Pushes Ahead With IPO Plan for $10 Billion Gas Grid

Big Bets on Gas Demand Show Fuel Is Far From Fading

Milei Targets Labor Law That’s Set to Hand Banker $10 Million Severance

ECB Says Risks to Financial Stability Have Eased as Threat of Recession Recedes

America Is Still Headed for a Soft Landing

In About-Face, Wall Street’s Big Donors Warm to Trump

Silicon Valley Stirs Back Into IPO Life

Buffett’s Berkshire Reveals $6.7 Billion Stake in Insurer Chubb

The GameStop Mania Is Back. Is Wall Street Ready This Time?

Walmart Sales Surge as Wealthier Shoppers Flock to Retailer

Walmart Beat Inflation. Now It Must Offer More Than Deals

JD.com Beat Estimates With Higher Profit, Sales

Baidu Posts Quarterly Beat, Helped by AI Pursuits

Neuralink’s First Patient: ‘It Blows My Mind So Much’

E.U. Investigates Meta Over Addictive Social Media Effects on Children

Netflix and the N.F.L. Sign a Three-Season Deal

Education Dept. Extends Deadline to Consolidate Loans for Forgiveness

Florida and Texas Show Signs of Home Prices Falling

U.A.W. Effort to Organize Mercedes Workers in Alabama Has High Stakes

Singapore Air Staff Get Eight Months’ Salary Bonus After Record Profits

Why It’s So Hard to Track the Fashion Industry’s Emissions

Unilever to Keep Making Russian Ice Cream Even After Spinoff

Beer Sellers Use a Loophole to Break Into Weed Drinks Market

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Morning News: May 15, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 15th, 2024 at 7:07 am

China Considers Government Buying of Unsold Homes to Save Property Market

Qatar Says New Global LNG Projects Will Be Needed After 2030

Exxon Feels the Heat as More Investors Assail Climate Conduct

Copper Short Squeeze in NY Prompts Rush to Send Metal to US

BHP Shareholders See Room for One More Sweetened Anglo Bid

Thyssenkrupp Again Cuts Its Fiscal Year Sales and Profit Forecasts

Hapag-Lloyd Lifts Lower-End of Guidance as Red Sea Situation Raises Rates

European Development Bank Flags Higher Risk Premium Due to Lingering Cost of Russia’s War

Were Those Hot Inflation Numbers Just a Bad Dream?

NYCB Shares Rise as Loan Sale to JPMorgan Bolsters Liquidity

Bridgewater’s CEO Warns Investors on Overconfidence

Overdue Bills Are Rising With US Debt Delinquencies, Fed Survey Shows

Is Roaring Kitty the Internet’s Warren Buffett?

Are We Ready for AI That Sounds Like a Person?

Silicon Valley Is Searching for Its Piece of the AI Action

The Old-Fashioned Library at the Heart of the A.I. Boom

Elon Musk’s Big AI Contradiction

Tesla Board Rallies Retail Investors to Vote for Musk’s $56 Billion Pay Package

Why the Hybrid Boom Is Funding EVs

‘Stroads’ Aren’t Streets. They Aren’t Roads. And They Don’t Work

Why Is Car Insurance So Expensive?

Allianz Backs 2024 Guidance After Profit Jump

Kimberly-Clark Taps New Chief Growth Officer as It Heads Into Restructuring

The DNA Test Delusion

How MSNBC’s Leftward Tilt Delivers Ratings, and Complications

Burberry Profit Falls as Soft Demand, Turnaround Bite

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CWS Market Review – May 14, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 14th, 2024 at 5:52 pm

(This is the free version of CWS Market Review. If you like what you see, then please sign up for the premium newsletter for $20 per month or $200 for the whole year. If you sign up today, you can see our two reports, “Your Handy Guide to Stock Orders” and “How Not to Get Screwed on Your Mortgage.”)

The Return of Roaring Kitty

Yesterday, shares of GameStop (GME) soared 74%. At one point, the stock was up another 110% today, meaning it doubled on top of yesterday’s explosive rally.

On Monday, trading was so heavy in GME that within the first 90 minutes, the stock was halted nine times. Trading volume was 30 times heavier than normal.

So what caused this rally? A great earnings report? A possible merger? Nope, none of these.

The answer is that Roaring Kitty tweeted.

Confused? Allow me to explain.

GameStop rallied on the news of the return of Roaring Kitty. That’s the nom de Twitter of Keith Gill, the hero of the meme stock universe.

Three years ago, Mr. Kitty’s advocacy of GameStop spurred a frenetic rally in the stock. In six months, GME went from $1 per share to $120 per share, and it was all led by posters on Reddit, the WallStreetBets subreddit in particular.

At one point, 140% of GME’s shares were held short. Some prominent hedge funds who were short GME saw their trades get completely blown out of the water. For once, the plucky amateurs routed the smug Wall Street professionals, and Roaring Kitty was their unofficial leader.

Mr. Kitty’s Twitter account has been dormant for three years. The silence was broken Sunday evening when he tweeted what appears to be a man leaning forward with a game controller. The consensus is that Roaring Kitty has announced his return to action.

He posted again on Monday. It’s a short video with the words “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” If nothing, he has a sense for the dramatic.

I’ll confess, I’m a big fan of Roaring Kitty and I’m very interested to hear what he has to say. About GameStop, the stock has not performed very well. After peaking at $120 in January 2021, the shares dipped below $10 a few weeks ago. Perhaps that sparked Kitty’s interest. We’ll see.

Of course, there’s a longer story involved. Wall Street is no stranger to manias and bubbles. In the 19th century, Charles Mackay wrote, “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

When Roaring Kitty first pushed his analysis on Twitter in August 2020, he cc’d several Wall Street big shots, one of whom was your humble editor. Sadly, I don’t recall seeing it. I only learned of it later. I wish I had paid attention.

The important point I want to stress is that there’s more to a trading bubble than share prices. For example, the meme stock craze happened in the early Covid period. That was a very unusual time. People were looking for an outlet. Plus, the Federal Reserve had slashed interest rates and the government had spent tons of money to help keep the economy afloat.

As a result, investing risk was removed from the market. I’m not saying that those decisions directly caused GME to rally, but it helped set up the environment where an explosive rally could thrive.

Not only that, but the rise of Reddit helped spur a culture of relentless amateur investors who wanted to take down traditional Wall Street. That’s why Bitcoin is a close relative to meme stocks.

There’s still a lot of anger at Wall Street and I certainly understand why, but 2024 is not like 2020. Covid has gone away. The Fed has raised interest rates. Investors have moved on. (I always find it interesting how often GameStop is incorrectly called GameStock. That’s a classic case of an error which tells you the truth.)

Is GameStop a good investment? I’m skeptical. Last year, GameStop reported a net profit of $6.7 million. Many ballplayers make more than that. GameStop has a market value of around $13 billion. In other words, it’s going for 2,000 times earnings.

Bloomberg quoted one analyst on GameStop: “Game sales are flattish, hardware sales are down, and the shift to digital downloads continues, so it’s highly unlikely GameStop can stop shrinking.” That doesn’t sound good. GameStop is due to report earnings in a few weeks.

As I said, I’m a fan of Roaring Kitty and I want to hear what he has to say, but for now, I’ll watch GameStop from a safe distance.

Bristol-Myers’ Impact on Earnings Season

We’re just about done with Q1 earnings season. More than 90% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported results. There are a few more reports due to come in. So far, the earnings season is much better than expected (or feared). Earnings growth for the S&P 500 is tracking at 5.15%. That’s up 1.46% from just a month ago.

That’s the best growth rate since Q2 2022. More than 76% of companies have beaten their earnings estimates.

There is, however, a statistical footnote to these results and that’s Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY). If you exclude BMY’s massive loss, then earnings growth for the whole index rises to 8.3%. One company’s loss weighed the whole market down by 3%.

For the quarter, BMY lost $11.9 billion or $5.89 per share. The loss was primarily due to BMY’s buying neuroscience drugmaker Karuna. BMY actually beat its revenue estimate, but the company also announced a cost-cutting program, and it will lay off more than 2,000 workers.

Stock Focus: Allison Transmission Holdings (ALSN)

My friend JC Parets has started calling small, underfollowed companies “Eddy Elfenbein-type stocks.” I’m flattered.

I have another one for you this week which is Allison Transmission Holdings (ALSN). As you might guess, Allison makes automatic transmissions for trucks, buses, and industrial and military vehicles. Except for its earnings reports, Allison almost never makes the news.

It’s a profitable business. Allison currently has a market value of $6.5 million. Over the last 12 years, the shares have gone from $17 to $75. The quarterly dividend has gradually increased from six cents per share to 25 cents. Allison has increased its dividend for the last five years in a row.

Currently, seven analysts follow the stock which is more than I would have guessed. Tesla is followed by more than 30 analysts.

Last month, Allison reported Q1 earnings of $1.90 per share. That was one penny better than estimates. The shares are currently going for just under 10 times this year’s earnings estimate, and only 8.6 times 2025’s earnings.

I’m going to keep a close eye on Allison. This is a good stock with impressive margins. If only it had a Roaring Kitty of its own.

That’s all for now. I’ll have more for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review.

– Eddy

P.S. If you want more info on our ETF, you can check out the ETF’s website.

Morning News: May 14, 2014
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 14th, 2024 at 7:05 am

Foreign Private Investors Set to Top Central Bank Bond Buying

Macron Puts French Banks in Play With Plan to Transform Europe

Funds Calling Themselves ‘ESG’ Face New Restrictions in Europe

Big-Name Funds Pile into Real Estate Debt as Banks Retreat

Biden Adds Tariffs on Chinese Chips, Critical Minerals, EVs

Will Biden’s Trade War With China Get Results?

Chinese Lithium Miners Undeterred by EV Battery Overcapacity

How China Rose to Lead the World in Cars and Solar Panels

US East Coast Ports Are Spending Billions to Profit From Asia’s Shifting Exports

OPEC Sticks to Oil-Demand View, Posts Fall in Overall Output

Anglo Goes for Bold Breakup Plan in Move to Fend Off BHP

Macron Calls Defending Europe’s Car Industry ‘a No-Brainer’

Self-Driving Cars? Not Yet. Here’s Why Your Ride Still Needs a Human Co-Pilot

For David Solomon, ‘Times Are Good’ for Goldman and Economy

High Interest Rates Are Hitting Poorer Americans the Hardest

What Forecasters Say About Interest Rates (and Why They Disagree)

How One of the World’s Oldest Hedge Funds Went Bankrupt

How the ‘Harvard of Trading’ Ruined Thousands of Young People’s Lives

A Jobs Program Broke the Rules to Succeed. Now the Rules May Change

Melinda French Gates Exits Foundation With $12.5 Billion

GameStop Shares Extend Meme Rally as Retail Traders Pile In

GameStop Mania Won’t Pack a Punch Like in 2021

Alibaba Quarterly Profit Sinks Despite Rise in Sales

Tencent Profit Jumps as High-Margin Businesses Grow

Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures

Paris Olympics May Bring $12 Billion Economic Boost

Federer-Backed On Boosts Forecast After Sneaker Demand Rises

Tinder, Bumble Look for Love in New Places as Fewer People Swipe Right

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Morning News: May 13, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 13th, 2024 at 7:04 am

Putin Turns to a Technocrat to Crank Up Russia’s War Machine

Elon Musk’s Diplomacy: Woo Right-Wing World Leaders. Then Benefit

Global Chips Battle Intensifies With $81 Billion Subsidy Surge

U.S. Awards $120 Million to Chipmaker to Expand Facility in Minnesota

Intel Nears Deal With Apollo for $11 Billion Ireland Partnership

China to Start $138 Billion Bond Sale on Friday to Boost Economy

An Inflation Test Looms Over the Economy and the Election

Why Is Inflation So Stubborn? Ask Your Local Small Business

The Case for Forever High Interest Rates

Funds Go All-In on FX Trades Driven by Central Bank Drama

All the Rage in Private Equity: Mortgaging the Fund

UBS Announces Equity Conversion Provision for Almost $5 Billion in AT1 Debt

Priced Out of Housing, Communities Take Development Into Their Own Hands

Indian Renewable Energy Firm Plans Maiden Dollar Bond Sale

Biden to Hike Tariffs on China EVs and Offer Solar Exclusions

Nevermind Those EVs — Oil Demand Keeps Growing

The Surprising Force Stalling Climate Progress: California Restaurants

The Solar Storm Fried GPS Systems Used by Some Farmers, Stalling Planting

SoftBank Commits $5 Billion to AI After Three Years of Losses

Cybersecurity Risk Rose in Past Year, Say Compliance Professionals

Squarespace to Go Private in $6.6 Billion Takeover by Permira

GameStop Surges as ‘Roaring Kitty’ Return Adds Fuel to Rally

Kids Hooked on Video Games Prompt a Flurry of Lawsuits

Fast Food Forever: How McHaters Lost the Culture War

At the Home of BTS, Turmoil Over a Rising K-Pop Star

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Morning News: May 10, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 10th, 2024 at 7:03 am

A German Initiative to Keep Workers Employed by Retraining Them

ECB June Rate Cut ‘Most Likely’ If Outlook Holds, Elderson Says

Britain Shakes Off Recession as Economy Grows Faster Than Expected

Biden Set to Impose Tariffs on China EVs, Strategic Sectors

Why Higher Fed Rates Are Not Totally Off the Table

Hedge Funds Draw Pension Money to Riskiest Corner of a $1.3 Trillion Credit Market

UBS Mulls Bonus for Investment Bankers Who Lure Rich Clients

Ackman Scolded Over DEI Views at Closed-Door Milken Session

Corporate America Is Sitting Out the Trump-Biden Rematch

Severe Solar Storm Threatens Power Grids and Navigation Systems

Did You Make Your Connecting Flight? You May Have A.I. to Thank

Microsoft’s Hedge Against OpenAI Makes Perfect Sense

Tech Conference Touched on Everything From AI Fears to a Belching Robot

The Dangerous and Lucrative Business of Space Clean-Up

‘I’m Not Your Mom’: Tech Exec’s Videos Spark Clash Over China’s Work Culture

China Auto Sales Fell in April Amid EV Price War

Does Your EV Hurt, or Help, the Economy?

Elon Musk Changes Tune on Tesla Superchargers After Mass Firing

Honda Motor Expects Annual Profit to Fall, Announces Share Buyback

Novavax Soars on $1.2 Billion Sanofi Vaccine Licensing Deal

‘The Caitlin Clark Effect Is Real,’ and It’s Already Changing the WNBA

Why Your Chocolate Fix Is About to Get More Expensive

California Says Restaurants Must Bake All of Their Add-on Fees into Menu Prices

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Morning News: May 9, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 9th, 2024 at 8:08 am

The Debate Is Heating Up Over China’s Factory Output

China’s Exports Return to Growth in April, Boosting Economy

Why China’s Xi Faces a Pressing Challenge in Europe

Bank of England Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged, Signals It’s Closer to Cutting

Malaysia Central Bank Holds Rates Steady, as Widely Expected

What CFOs Are Saying About Higher-for-Longer Rates

Ex-Goldman Banker Fights Extradition Over Ghana Bribery Case

More Regulators Eye Whistleblower Award Programs Hoping for Insider Tips

Two Chinese Megacities Lift Home Purchase Curbs to Attract Buyers

With China’s Property Market Struggling, India, Korea and Vietnam Are Hot

‘Seriously Underwater’ Home Mortgages Tick Up Across the US

Gen Z Is Relying on Debt More Than Millennials Did at This Age

What’s a Golden Visa and Where Can You Still Get One?

What Happens When a Happening Place Becomes Too Hot

Floods in East Africa Damp Mother’s Day Cut-Flower Shipments

Meet My A.I. Friends

Apple’s New iPad Ad Leaves Its Creative Audience Feeling … Flat

Tim Cook Can’t Run Apple Forever. Who’s Next?

‘It’s a Money Loser’: Tax Breaks for Data Centers Are Under Fire

Reddit Seeks New Users, Revenue to Keep the Momentum Going

Norfolk Southern Shareholders Vote Thursday to Keep or Fire CEO

BAE Systems Backs Guidance as Defense Spending Remains High

Moderna’s New RSV Vaccine Undercuts the Promise of mRNA

Sony and Apollo’s Plan for Paramount: Break It Up

Disney, Hulu and Max Streaming Bundle Will Soon Become Available

Brands Face Growing Pressure From Activist Shareholders Over LGBTQ Marketing

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Morning News: May 8, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 8th, 2024 at 7:03 am

Sweden’s Central Bank Cuts Key Rate as Europe Moves Ahead of the Fed

BOJ Governor Says Early Rate Hike Possible if Prices Rise Faster Than Expected

Profits Are Booming—and That’s Shielding the Economy

JPMorgan Limits Segantii Exposure Amid Insider-Trading Case

FTX Has Billions More Than Needed to Pay Bankruptcy Victims

Hedge Fund Tycoon Loses Ruling Over $40 Million WWII Shipwreck Treasure

Americans Are Racking Up ‘Phantom Debt’ That Wall Street Can’t Track

Rents May Be Last Tamed in Inflation Fight

Billions in Chips Grants Are Expected to Fuel Industry Growth

Apple’s China iPhone Shipments Soar 12% in March After Discounts

Google’s Pixel Leaves Little Room to Breathe for Sony Phones

TikTok’s Legal Bet on the First Amendment

South Africa Moots New Coal-Plant Closure to Secure $2.6 Billion

The Company Preaching America’s Nuclear Revival

EU’s von der Leyen: China Must Be Stopped from Flooding EV Market

South Korea Plans $7 Billion Push to Pivot EV Battery Industry Away From China

Will Tesla’s EV Charging Slowdown Supercharge Competitors?

Companies Are Balking at the High Costs of Running Electric Trucks

Toyota Motor Projects Annual Profit Drop, Announces Share Buyback

Activist Investor Seeks to Force Out Norfolk Southern’s Management

Uber Bookings Miss on Early Holidays, Weak Regional Demand

Shopify Reports Higher Revenue, Sees Growth Slowing

Neutrogena Lost Dermatologists and Missed Out on the $42 Billion Beauty Boom

How Uniqlo’s ‘Millennial Birkin’ Is Beating Designer Bags

Premier League Strikes Deal With Fanatics on Trading Cards

Refinery29’s New Owner Plans to Cover Sports, Buy More Media Companies

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CWS Market Review – May 7, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 7th, 2024 at 8:19 pm

(This is the free version of CWS Market Review. If you like what you see, then please sign up for the premium newsletter for $20 per month or $200 for the whole year. If you sign up today, you can see our two reports, “Your Handy Guide to Stock Orders” and “How Not to Get Screwed on Your Mortgage.”)

It’s still early, but so far, May is looking a lot better than April. The S&P 500 has rallied for the last four days in a row. On Tuesday, the index briefly stuck its head above 5,200. More importantly, the S&P 500 has overtaken its 50-day moving average. That comes after 15 straight days of closing below it. Still, I’m not convinced that the coast is clear.

What makes me say that? On Friday, the government reported that the U.S. economy created 175,000 net new jobs last month. That’s a decent figure but it was well below expectations. Economists had been expecting a gain of 240,000. Also, the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9%. That’s still low, but it’s the highest in over two years.

Oddly enough, the immediate impact of the jobs report has been positive—not because it’s good news itself but because it could push forward the Fed’s plans to cut rates, and that would be good for the market.

In other words, bad news is good news because it may spur the Fed to action. I realize that may sound odd, but welcome to Planet Wall Street.

In the jobs report, I was particularly disappointed to see that average hourly earnings increased by only 0.2% for April. That needs to improve. Over the past year, average hourly earnings are up 3.9%. Both numbers were 0.1% below expectations. These are crucial numbers for Wall Street because it may signal that consumers are close to being tapped out.

Here’s a look at the year-over-year increase in average hourly earnings. Notice how it’s increased but the rate of increase has consistently fallen.

The government also calculates a broader unemployment rate, called the U-6 rate, which includes “discouraged” workers. For April, the U-6 rate rose to 7.4% which is the highest since November 2021. The labor force participation rate stayed the same at 62.7%.

We’re also seeing more part-time workers shift to fulltime. Last month, the number of fulltime workers increased by 949,000 while part-time workers dropped by 914,000.

Here are some details about jobs growth in different sectors:

Consistent with recent trends, health care led job creation, with a 56,000 increase.

Other sectors showing significant rises included social assistance (31,000), transportation and warehousing (22,000), and retail (20,000). Construction added 9,000 positions while government, which had shown solid gains in recent months, was up just 8,000 after averaging 55,000 over the previous 12 months.

The recent gains had been heavily tilted to government and healthcare jobs. I’d like to see those gains broaden out.

Moses Sternstein points out that the jobs market isn’t so much growing as it’s “closing in the gaps.” The number of jobs that need to be done has stayed roughly the same but the number of people available to fill those jobs has been fewer than expected. As a result, job gains are modest while the unemployment rate is low. One effect of this has been higher wages for low-end workers.

That’s part of the reason why we’ve seen an imbalance in inflation. Services like haircuts have been hit hard by inflation while goods like new TVs haven’t moved that much. It all comes down to how much the product is dependent on labor costs.

So where does this put the Fed? That’s hard to say, but the futures market now thinks the first Fed rate cut will come in September. Prior to the jobs report, we were looking at a cut in November. There’s also a slight chance of another rate cut before the end of the year. Any rate cuts are good for stocks and that’s probably why the market has rallied the last few days.

We’re still in Q1 earnings season. Overall, the results have been quite good but only relative to expectations. Q1 earnings growth is currently tracking at 5.31%. That’s up from 2.99% one month ago.

So far, 77.4% of companies have beaten Wall Street’s earnings estimates while 59.1% have beaten on sales. A little more than half have beaten on both.

Stay tuned for next Wednesday, May 15. That’s when we’ll get the CPI report for April. There hasn’t been much improvement here in several months.

Apple’s Massive $110 Billion Share Buyback

Last week, Apple’s (AAPL) board of directors made news by announcing a new $110 billion share buyback plan. That’s an astounding amount of money. Of the ten largest share buyback announcements of all time, Apple owns six of them.

The plans also raised some questions about how a company ought to use its excess cash. Is a buyback plan the best thing to do with shareholders’ money? Is Apple no longer an innovation giant, or has it become a high-cash-flow value stock?

I have some thoughts about this. Ideally, I’d prefer to see a company pay out cash dividends. Apple increased its dividend by one penny to 25 cents per share. The best thing about this is that it gives shareholders the option of using their dividend payment to buy more shares, which is effectively what the buyback does automatically.

I also fear when a company holds too much cash. This often leads to unwise acquisitions. This is known as the Bladder Theory of Corporate Finance.

I have no problem with the idea of share buybacks, but I think they’re often abused. For example, too often share buybacks merely use shareholder money to buy an overpriced stock. This is what happened at Cisco (CSCO) for many years.

I also don’t like it when companies offer large stock options to their senior executives but share buybacks tend to mask how much money is at stake.

Here I have to give Apple credit. The company has gradually reduced the number of shares outstanding. In fact, over the past year, Apple’s profit declined but its earnings-per-share increased slightly thanks to fewer outstanding shares. According to MarketWatch, over the last 10 years, Apple has reduced its share count by 37%.

If you’re going to do a buyback, that’s the way to do it.

IES Holdings Revisit

Three weeks ago, I told you about IES Holdings (IESC). This is one of those great companies with an impressive track record that’s virtually ignored by Wall Street. Since 2012, it’s up 90-fold. Literally, IESC isn’t followed by a single analyst on Wall Street.

The company “provides infrastructure services including electrical, communications, low-voltage, network, AV, and security alarm systems to the residential, industrial and commercial markets.”

In the newsletter, I wrote: IESC’s next earnings report will probably be out in early May, but I can’t say what Wall Street’s consensus is since there isn’t one.” Well, on Friday, IESC released its earnings report, and it was a good one.

For its fiscal Q2, IESC’s revenues rose by 24% and its operating income was up 146%. Q2 earnings rose from $1.07 per share last year to $2.29 per share for this year. IESC has $106 million in cash and not a dime of debt. During Friday’s trading, shares of IESC jumped 18%. In two weeks, IESC gained 50%.

I certainly can’t take credit for predicting that would happen, but it does show you that there are plenty of good stocks to own that aren’t part of the Magnificent Seven.

That’s all for now. I’ll have more for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review.

– Eddy

P.S. If you want more info on our ETF, you can check out the ETF’s website.

Morning News: May 7, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 7th, 2024 at 7:04 am

What India’s Addition to JPMorgan’s Bond Index Means

Chris Dixon’s Campaign to Overhaul Crypto’s Grifty Reputation

Revolut Launches UK Crypto Exchange as Digital Assets Recover

Behind Nigeria’s Arrest of Binance Employee, Claims of a Bribe Request

Wall Street Bonuses to Rise this Year as Deals Return

High-Tech Trading Firms Race to Grab Bond Market Turf

The Big Questions Hanging Over a Blackstone Fund

UBS Returns to Profit as CEO Ermotti Affirms Buyback Plans

Insider Trading Allegations Hit Asia’s ‘Block-Trade King’ for Global Banks

OpenAI Releases ‘Deepfake’ Detector to Disinformation Researchers

Amazon to Invest $9 Billion in Singapore Cloud Infrastructure

LMR Partners Adds US Oil Strategy in Commodities Push

Saudi Aramco Net Income Falls on Declining Crude Oil Volumes

China’s Solar Panel Giants Say Prices Are Near the Bottom

Third Point’s Loeb Says AI Will Boost Texas Power Producer Vistra

A New Kind of Power Company Will Put a Battery in Every Home

Tesla Autopilot Probe Escalates With US Regulator’s Data Demands

Apple Needs to Move the iPad Beyond the Toddler Stage

Disney Beats on Profit, Raises Outlook Despite Revenue Miss

Instacart, Uber Join Forces to Add Uber Eats to Instacart App

Let’s All Take a Deep Breath About China

China’s New Love of Coffee Is Coming for Yours

How the US Drives Gun Exports and Fuels Violence Around the World

Taylor Swift Draws Five Times as Many US Luxury Travelers as the Olympics

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