The Five Most Important Things That Happened Today
(and what to do about them)
1) Trump and Xi to Meet on June 22. That means we have five more weeks of trade war agony until markets have a chance to recover. Sell in May? Whoever said that? Click here.
2) Apple Cellphones Made in China on New Tariff List. This should set up the best entry point of the year for Steve Jobs’ creation. Stock will soar when the tariff is listed. Click here.
3) Uber Dives 20% from IPO Price, in one of the worst IPOs in market history. $15 billion in market cap lost in the first two days. You knew this deal was in trouble when they let the drivers in.
4) Bitcoin Soars $1,000 on Stock Panic. It seems investors prefer Ponzi schemes to blue chip tech stocks these days. What’s wrong with cash? Click here.
5) China Tariffs to Cost US Households $500 Each, in rising import costs. Don’t point at me! I buy all American with my Tesla. Click here.
Published today in the Mad HedgeGlobal Trading Dispatch and Mad Hedge Technology Letter:
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While the Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader focuses on investment over a one week to a six-month time frame, Mad Day Trader, provided by Bill Davis, will exploit money-making opportunities over a brief ten minute to three-day window. It is ideally suited for day traders, but can also be used by long-term investors to improve market timing for entry and exit points.Read more
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Ratcheting up the trade tensions, China is pulling the trigger on retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods, just days after the American administration said it would levy higher tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods.
American President Donald Trump accused China of reneging on a “great deal.”
The mushrooming friction between the two superpowers gives even more credence to my premise that hardware stocks should be avoided like the plague.
I have stood out on my perch in 2019 and proclaimed to buy software stocks and if you need one name to hide out in then I would confidently choose Microsoft (MSFT).
Microsoft has little exposure to China and will be rewarded the most on a relative basis.
The last place you want to get caught out is buying hardware stocks exposed to China and Apple is quickly turning into the largest piece of collateral damage along with airplane manufacturer Boeing.
Remember that 20% of Apple’s revenue comes from China and Apple bet big to solidify a complex supply chain through Foxconn Technology Group in China.
When history is recorded, CEO of Apple Tim Cook not hedging his bets exposing Apple’s revenue machine could go down as one of the worst ever managerial decisions by tech management.
The forced intellectual property transfers in China from western corporations was the worst kept secret in corporate America.
Being an operational guru as he is, and the hordes of data that Apple have access to, this was a no brainer and Cook should have mitigated his risks by investing in a supply chain that was partially outside of China, and not incrementally spreading out the supply chain through other parts of Asia is coming back to bite him.
China's most recent tariffs will come into effect on June 1, adding up to 25% to the cost of U.S. goods that are covered by the new policy from China's State Council Customs Tariff Commission.
The result of these newly minted tariffs is that importers will probably elect to avoid absorbing the costs themselves and pass the price hikes to the consumer sapping demand.
The American consumer still retains its place as the holy grail of the American economic bull case, but this will test the thesis.
For the short term, it would be foolish to hang out to Chinese companies listed in New York through American depository receipts (ADR) such as JD.com (JD), Alibaba (BABA).
Baidu (BIDU) is a company that I am flat out bearish on because of a weakening strategic position versus Alibaba and Tencent in China.
Even with no trade war, I would tell investors to short Baidu, and the chart is nothing short of disgusting.
Wei Jianguo, a former vice-minister at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce who handled foreign trade, said to the South China Morning Post that “China will not only act as a kung fu master in response to U.S. tricks but also as an experienced boxer and can deliver a deadly punch at the end.”
It is clear that any goodwill between the two heavyweight powers has evaporated and the hardliners inside the communist party pulled all the levers possible to back out at the last second.
Many of us do not understand, but there is a complicated political game perpetuating inside the Chinese communist party pitting reformists against staunch traditionalists.
This is not only Chairman Xi’s decision and appearing weak on the global stage is the last concession the communist government will subscribe to.
Along with the iPhone company, semiconductor stocks will be ones to avoid.
The list starts out with the chip companies leveraged the most to Chinese revenue as a proportion of total sales including Qualcomm (QCOM) with 65% of revenue in China, Micron (MU) who has 57% of sales in China, Qorvo who has half of sales from China, Broadcom who has 48% of sales from China, and Texas Instruments rounding out the list with 43% of total revenue from China.
The first 5 months of the year saw constant chatter that the two sides would kiss and makeup and chip stocks benefitted from that tsunami of positive momentum.
The picture isn’t as pretty when you flip the script, and chip stocks could suffer a gut-wrenching summer if the two sides drift further apart.
After Microsoft, other software names I would take comfort in with the added bonus of strong balance sheets are Veeva Systems (VEEV), PayPal (PYPL), and Adobe (ADBE).
The new tariffs will burden American households to up to $2 billion per month going forward, and new purchases for discretionary items like extra electronics will be put on the back burner extending the refresh cycle and saddling chip companies and Apple with a glut of iPhone and chip inventory.
Buy software companies on the dip.
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With the Dow Average down 1,400 points in six trading days, you are being given a second bite of the apple before the yearend tech-led rally begins.
So, it is with great satisfaction that I am rewriting Arthur Henry’s Mad Hedge Technology Letter’s list of recommendations.
By the way, if you want to subscribe to Arthur’s groundbreaking, cutting edge service, please click here.
It’s the best read on technology investing in the entire market.
You don’t want to catch a falling knife but at the same time, you want to diligently prepare yourself to buy the best discounts of the year.
The China trade war has triggered a tsunami wave of selling, tearing apart the tech sector with vicious profit-taking few trading days.
No doubt that asset managers are frantically locking in profits for the rest of the year and protecting ebullient performance from a first quarter to remember.
This week shouldn’t deter investors from picking up bargains that were non-existent since December because the bulk of the highest quality tech names churned higher with lurching momentum.
Here are the names of five of the best stocks to slip into your portfolio in no particular order once the madness subsides.
Apple
Steve Job’s creation weathering the gale-fore storm quite well. Apple has been on a tear reconfirming its smooth pivot to a software service-tilted tech company. The timing is perfect as China has enhanced its smartphone technology by leaps and bounds.
Even though China cannot produce the top-notch quality phones that Apple can, they have caught up to the point local Chinese are reasonably content with its functionality.
That hasn’t stopped Apple from vigorously growing revenue in greater China 20% YOY during a feverishly testy political climate that has its supply chain in Beijing’s crosshairs.
The pivot is picking up steam and Apple’s revenue will morph into a software company with software and services eventually contributing 25% to total revenue.
They aren’t just an iPhone company anymore. Apple has led the charge with stock buybacks and will gobble up a total of $150 billion in shares by the end of 2019. Get into this stock while you can as entry points are few and far between.
Amazon (AMZN)
This is the best company in America hands down and commands 5% of total American retail sales or 49% of American e-commerce sales.
It became the second company to eclipse a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. Its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud business pioneered the cloud industry and had an almost 10-year head start to craft it into its cash cow. Amazon has branched off into many other businesses since then oozing innovation and is a one-stop wrecking ball.
The newest direction is the smart home where they seek to place every single smart product around the Amazon Echo, the smart speaker sitting nicely inside your house. A smart door bell was the first step along with recently investing in a pre-fab house start-up aimed at building smart homes.
Microsoft (MSFT)
The optics in 2018 look utterly different from when Bill Gates was roaming around the corridors in the Redmond, Washington headquarter and that is a good thing in 2018.
Current CEO Satya Nadella has turned this former legacy company into the 2nd largest cloud competitor to Amazon and then some.
Microsoft Azure is rapidly catching up to Amazon in the cloud space because of the Amazon-effect working in reverse. Companies don’t want to store proprietary data in Amazon’s server farm when they could possibly destroy them down the road. Microsoft is mainly a software company and gained the trust of many big companies especially retailers.
Microsoft is also on the vanguard of the gaming industry taking advantage of the young generation’s fear of outside activity. Xbox-related revenue is up 36% YOY, and its gaming division is a $10.3 billion per year business.
Microsoft Azure grew 87% YOY last quarter. The previous quarter saw Azure rocket by 98%. Shares are cheaper than Amazon and almost as potent.
Square (SQ)
CEO Jack Dorsey is doing everything right at this fin-tech company blazing a trail right to the doorsteps of the traditional banks.
The various businesses they have on offer makes me think of Amazon’s portfolio because of the supreme diversity. The Cash App is a peer-to-peer money transfer program that cohabits with a bitcoin investing function on the same smartphone app.
Square has targeted the smaller businesses first and is a godsend for these entrepreneurs who lack immense capital to create a financial and payment infrastructure. Not only do they provide the physical payment systems for restaurant chains, they also offer payroll services and other small loans.
The pipeline of innovation is strong with upper management mentioning they are considering stock trading products and other bank-like products. Wall Street bigwigs must be shaking in their boots.
The recently departed CFO Sarah Friar triggered a 10% collapse in share price on top of the market meltdown. The weakness will certainly be temporary, especially if they keep doubling their revenue every two years like they have been doing.
Roku (ROKU)
Benefitting from the broad-based migration from cable tv to online streaming and cord-cutting, Roku is perfectly placed to delectably harvest the spoils.
This uber-growth company offers an over-the-top (OTT) streaming platform along with the necessary hardware and picks up revenue by selling digital ads.
Founder and CEO Anthony Woods owns 21 million shares of his brainchild and insistently notes that he has no interest in selling his company to a Netflix or Apple.
Roku’s active accounts mushroomed 46% to 22 million in the second quarter. Viewers are reaffirming the obsession with on-demand online streaming content with hours streamed on the platform increasing 58% to 5.5 billion.
The Roku platform can be bought for just $30 and is easy to set-up. Roku enjoys the lead in the over-the-top (OTT) streaming device industry controlling 37% of the market share leading Amazon’s Fire Stick at 28%.
The runway is long as (OTT) boxes nestle cozily in only 40% of American homes with broadband, up from a paltry 6% in 2010.
They are consistently absent from the backbiting and jawboning the FANGs consistently find themselves in partly because they do not create original content and they are not an off-shoot from a larger parent tech firm.
This growth stock experiences the same type of volatility as Square.
Be patient and wait for 5-7% drops to pick up some shares.
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“These trade relationships are big and complex and do need a level of focus and updating and modernization, so I’m optimistic that the countries can work these things out for the benefit of everyone.” – Said CEO of Apple Tim Cook
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When John identifies a strategic exit point, he will send you an alert with specific trade information as to what security to sell, when to sell it, and at what price. Most often, it will be to TAKE PROFITS, but, on rare occasions, it will be to exercise a STOP LOSS at a predetermined price to adhere to strict risk management discipline.Read more
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The Five Most Important Things That Happened Today
(and what to do about them)
1) China Retaliates, raising tariffs of most US goods, ratcheting up the trade war. US markets are crushed, with the Dow average down 500 and Chinese plays like Apple (AAPL) and Boeing (BA) especially hard hit. Click here.
2) FourOil Tankers Attacked, at the Saudi port of Fujairah, sending oil soaring. America’s “two war” strategy may be put to the test, with the US attacking Iran and North Korea simultaneously. Click here.
3) Bitcoin Tops 7,000, on a massive “RISK OFF” trade. The cryptocurrency is clearly replacing gold as the fear trade. Click here.
4) Antitrust Suit Proceeds against Apple, on its monopoly position in the App Store, says the Supreme Court. The stock craters $12.00. Another buying opportunity is setting up here. Click here.
5) Heard at SALT. Some 95% of all financial transactions in China take place on smartphones, compared to only 4% in the US, so they are well ahead in fintech. Can they come here?
Published today in the Mad Hedge Global Trading Dispatch and Mad Hedge Technology Letter:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, OR A GAME OF CHICKEN),
(SPY), (TLT), (UBER), (BA), (SOYB)
(THE TIDAL WAVE OF EUROPEAN EV SUPPLY)
(TSLA)
You Can’t Do Enough Research
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(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, OR A GAME OF CHICKEN),
(SPY), (TLT), (UBER), (BA), (SOYB)
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