Independent Investment Management and Financial Planning
This is now my third Tesla update commentary. Below is a chart showing the price of Tesla for the year along with dates of the previous two commentaries.
Tesla has set another milestone by becoming the MOST VALUABLE AUTOMAKER IN THE WORLD! As I write this sentence, Tesla is trading at about $1,300 per share, which equates to over a $240 billion market cap! Continue reading “Tesla Update #3 – Most Valuable Automaker in the World?!”
The S&P 500 just logged one of its worst quarters in history and one of its best quarters in history back-to-back in the first half of 2020.
Specifically, the S&P 500 lost 20% in Q1 while making about 20% in Q2. The only other times in history this has happened were both during the Great Depression (Q3 or 1932 and Q2 of 1938) (Source: @Sentimentrader).
I’ve written about the potential for huge price swings in both directions previously.
This puts the S&P 500 down a little over 3% on the year while the global stock market is down over 7%. Meanwhile, gold and bonds are up on the year.
The S&P 500 is now more concentrated than ever before with the largest five companies now accounting for over 21% of the entire S&P 500 (by market cap)! Those top five stocks are Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook.
The concentration recently surpassed the previous record from the year 2000, which amounted to approximately 19%. In 2000, the five largest stocks were Microsoft, GE, Cisco, Intel and Walmart.
Continue reading “The S&P 500 is More Concentrated Than Ever”
A question I’ve received frequently the last couple months from many different people is about the potential for inflation given the unprecedented response to the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic. It is an important question because it impacts the best investment approach going forward as well as other personal finance decisions.
I understand the rationale behind the question. After all, trillions of dollars have been pledged between the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury in the last few months in what essentially amounts to a “helicopter drop” of money on the economy. So, it is understandable that people are beginning to have concerns about the potential for inflation.
Ultimately, I believe we will get inflation mainly because the Federal Reserve will stop at almost nothing to make it happen, HOWEVER, we must allow for the possibility of getting deflation first. Continue reading “Deflation or Inflation?”
I hope you and your families are staying healthy and have been able to get outside to soak up some sunshine!
Yesterday, the S&P 500 crossed above the 3,000 threshold for the first time since early-March. Unfortunately, it wasn’t able to hold that level into the close (closed at 2,991) although it’s making another run at it today.
The S&P 500 has now rallied about 34% from the March 23rd closing low. That means it needs about another 13% to regain the all-time high of ~3,386 (February 19th). Continue reading “Prospective S&P 500 Returns Back Into Negative Territory”