Who's got your back in the world of finance when the going gets tough? And some other thoughts. When Georgia changed its voting laws, and over 100 CEOs and business leaders signed a letter in protest, did they even read the law? File this under my "You Invest, They Win." Are you surprised to see BlackRock CEO Larry Fink or Vanguard? You can check out the list below. Sell in May go away? Has there been a better time to be a seller of real estate? 2006 comes to mind. If you're a buyer, stay off the beaten path. Here's Your Survival Guy's tip of the day. Keep a chunk of your stock … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2021
Reports of Oil’s Death Greatly Exaggerated
The drop in oil consumption resulting from the pandemic-caused drop in demand generated crowds of analysts happy to report the death of the oil industry. Those reports, just like those of Mark Twain's death in 1897, were greatly exaggerated. Exxon and Chevron are reporting surging profits. The FT's Justin Jacobs and Derek Brower report: ExxonMobil and Chevron surged back to profit in the first quarter as the crude price rally helped repair Big Oil’s finances after the huge pandemic-induced losses of 2020. Exxon reported net earnings of $2.7bn, up from a loss of $610m a year earlier and a … [Read more...]
Strong GDP Set to Accelerate in the Second Quarter
First-quarter GDP estimates came in at a robust 6.4%, with growth likely to accelerate to more than 8% next quarter. Over the coming weeks, economic activity in the U.S. will surpass its pre-pandemic high. With the Fed pumping over a trillion dollars of liquidity into financial markets annually and the Six Trillion Dollar Man (Joe Biden) proposing new schemes to run up the deficit, GDP is poised to increase at its fastest rate in decades this year. Josh Mitchell reports: A burst of growth put the U.S. economy just a shave below its pre-pandemic size in the first quarter, extending what is … [Read more...]
Pandemic Spending Pushes Amazon Profits to Record
The pandemic created a perfect storm for Amazon. With more people shopping, and more people working from home using cloud services, Amazon's profits have soared. Sebastian Herrera reports for The Wall Street Journal (abridged): Amazon. AMZN 0.37% com Inc. reported record quarterly profit as demand remained robust for its deliveries, cloud-computing and advertising businesses, capping a blockbuster earnings season for the world’s largest technology companies. The Seattle company’s profits in the year since the pandemic started exceeded $26 billion, more than the previous three years … [Read more...]
Junk Bond King Predicted This About Real Estate
The rise and fall of junk bond king Michael Milken was well documented in the book, Den of Thieves. Years later, I remember him saying in an interview that the next “big thing” would be the securitization of residential real estate. In other words, you could look up the price of your neighbor’s house and trade it much like a stock. Today, that’s pretty close to reality. You can buy stocks that own thousands of single-family homes or visit Zillow to see your neighbor’s “Zestimate.” As I wrote to you here, when we were in Key West in March, we took a random house tour simply out of curiosity. … [Read more...]
Apple Increases Its Dividend by 7% on Record High Profits
Apple Inc. raised its dividend by 7% today to 22 cents a share and increased an existing share repurchase program after results showed record-high profits. Tim Higgins reports in The Wall Street Journal: Apple Inc. AAPL -0.60% signaled that the historic rise in sales it has achieved during the pandemic is set to continue, addressing a key investor concern as the company reported a profit that more than doubled to a record high for the first three months of the year. New, more expensive models of the iPhone 12 have been a hit with customers, and revenue from Mac computers and iPads also … [Read more...]
The Six Trillion Dollar Man
Just how much taxpayer money is Joe Biden going to spend? So far $6 trillion and counting if he gets his way. Karl Rove writes in The Wall Street Journal: President Biden has 53% approval in the RealClearPolitics average as his 100th day looms. That’s 12 points higher than President Trump at this point in his presidency—but still the second-lowest such rating for any president elected since modern polling of presidential performance began in 1945. Yet the Biden administration acts as if it has a broad mandate to pursue the most ambitious left-wing agenda in history, involving a massive … [Read more...]
Thanks to the Pandemic by 2025, America’s Biggest Retailer May Be Online
According to a report by Edge by Ascential, which claims to deliver "one of the industry's most accurate and actionable sales-driving data, insights and advisory solution sets," by 2025, Amazon.com will outpace Walmart in retail sales. Bloomberg's Spencer Soper reports: Amazon.com Inc. will supplant Walmart Inc. as the biggest U.S. retailer by 2025, according to a new report, suggesting the e-commerce giant has too much momentum for Walmart to stop despite big investments in its own e-commerce offerings. By 2025, U.S. shoppers will buy US$632 billion worth of products at Amazon and retail … [Read more...]
What Does It Take to Be A Successful Investor/Survivor?
What does it take to be a successful investor? Good question. How about this—what does it take to be a successful survivor? Do you really need the word “successful?” You either are, or you’re not. Right? Being an investor shouldn’t be confused with being a speculator—someone who hopes prices go up. An investor thinks about the work that goes into creating generational wealth. The best way I know how you do that is by being an investor in yourself. I learned a great lesson about being an investor when delivering newspapers as a kid. One of my customers tipped me four nickels for every … [Read more...]
World’s Largest Asset Manager Is Using Your Money for Everything But Profit
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is run by Chairman and CEO Larry Fink. Fink has decided that with the power of his position, he's going to force companies to support his political goals. Is this really who you want running your money? He's acting like it's his money, not yours. Pay attention to what's going on here. Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker and Annie Massa report: If BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink ever had second thoughts about injecting his voice into such weighty issues as climate change and voting rights, he doesn’t anymore. “I’ve been very loud at what I’m saying and … [Read more...]
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