vestact posted: " Market Scorecard US markets rallied yesterday and extended gains in the afternoon once comments from the Fed indicated slower rate hikes in the future. The tech-heavy Nasdaq logged its biggest one-day percentage rise in more than two years. Vestac" Vestact - Money with a dash of funny
US markets rallied yesterday and extended gains in the afternoon once comments from the Fed indicated slower rate hikes in the future. The tech-heavy Nasdaq logged its biggest one-day percentage rise in more than two years. Vestact portfolios all have solid exposure to the technology sector, so this was very positive news!
The Fed raised US rates by 0.75% for the second meeting in a row, reiterating its desire to combat inflation. Jerome Powell added that the pace of the rate hikes will slow at some point and policy will be set meeting-by-meeting. This dovish shift in tone comes amid signs of an economic slowdown in the West, and declining petrol prices.
In company news, Enphase Energy rose by 18% on strong second-quarter results fuelled by soaring natural gas prices that are driving European demand for solar. Elsewhere, e-commerce giant Shopify closed up 12% despite reporting a loss in the second quarter and earlier cutting 10% of its global workforce.
At the end of an exciting session, the JSE All-share closed unchanged, the S&P 500 rose 2.62%, and the Nasdaq soared 4.06%.
Our 10c Worth
Michael's Musings
Last night, Meta Platforms (formerly known as Facebook) reported disappointing Q2 numbers, on already low expectations. It was the first time in the company's history that they didn't deliver year-on-year revenue growth, with a decline of 1%. Flat revenue but growing costs resulted in profits falling by 32%. The good news is that they managed to very slightly grow their user base in the face of stiff competition.
The hard thing for Meta is that they are being squeezed by increased competition on one side, and by shrinking advertising budgets on the other, so guidance for the rest of the year is pretty weak. The company is cutting back on hiring and lowering their expansion costs. Thankfully, Meta is still a massively profitable and cash-generative company, so these headwinds are certainly not a death blow. Over the last six months, $14.7 billion was spent on share buy-backs.
Meta is a company in transition, the social media division is slowing and they are spending billions building their augmented reality offering. We still think there's huge growth potential for online advertising spending outside North America.
It is still too early to make a call on Meta, but it is a company that we are watching closely. It is run by very clever people, who have navigated tough times in the past. At the same time, we are well aware of the current challenges. Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said last night: "I think we're going to come through this period as a stronger and more disciplined organization."
One Thing, From Paul
I've been away on holiday with my family for the last 10 days, but now I'm back. I was keeping an eye on the market all along, but got more and more relaxed every day as the overall indices recovered.
We went through some tough times in the first half of 2022, that's for sure! Losses are painful, even if you are hardwired to ignore them and wait for a recovery.
Speaking of pain, consider the case of the Walton family, who lost $11 billion in one day this week. The stock price of Walmart fell by 7.6% on Tuesday, after cutting its earnings forecast.
Sam Walton founded Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1950 and died in 1992. His descendants are Jim, Alice, and Rob (pictured below), plus daughter-in-law Christy and Christy's son Lukas. They own just under half of Walmart and are collectively worth around $285 billion.
Despite the occasional tough day, the Waltons must be happy to own a big chunk of that great company. Their dividend income at a 1.8% yield is around $5 billion a year.
Byron's Beats
The US Dollar is at a 20-year high and is back at parity with the Euro. This will be a strong theme for global companies in this earnings season because it creates challenging headwinds for those with significant operations outside of the US.
For example, if you subscribe to Netflix in South Africa and the Rand goes from R14/USD to R17/USD, your monthly fee of R199 becomes less USD for Netflix. This of course is exactly what has happened in a space of a few months.
Big tech companies will be hit particularly hard because of their large global reach. Currency-adjusted earnings are a case of swings and roundabouts, and a stronger dollar is no reason to sell a stock. At least as a Vestact client, your money is in USD, and it is getting stronger versus almost every other currency in the world. There are pros and cons.
Bright's Banter
Apple has hired one of Lamborghini's top car-development managers in an effort to step up work on electric vehicles. Luigi Taraborrelli is a 20-year veteran of the Italian carmaker, he will help lead the design of Apple's future vehicle. Taraborrelli's recent title was head of chassis and vehicle dynamics.
In Apple's car division, he will be joining former Ford executive Desi Ujkashevic, who used to be in the safety team, where she oversaw the engineering of interiors, exteriors, chassis, and electrical components for models including the Escape, Explorer, Fiesta, and Focus.
Hopefully, the Apple car is around the corner with such experienced individuals working on the project.
Asian markets are up modestly this morning, in line with global enthusiasm about a less aggressive US Fed. Stocks in Japan, mainland China, and South Korea are all in the green, but the market in Hong Kong has edged lower.
More heavyweight stocks report Q2 numbers tonight, including Apple and Amazon. We are hoping for positive surprises from these anchor companies.
US equity futures are slightly lower in early trade. The Rand is trading at around R16.65 to the greenback.
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