By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 23rd, 2024
Encouraging signs on the U.S./China trade talks sent stock prices sharply higher pushing the Dow index up. Here’s what we know about Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), and Tesla (TSLA) stocks.
President Trump signed a bill to avoid another government shutdown and simultaneously declared a national emergency on the southern border to get funding for the wall. Democrat leaders promised to sue.
Good news for the market. The government deal and encouraging signs on the U.S./China trade talks sent stock prices sharply higher today. Large cap multinational companies surged, pushing the Dow index up 1.74%. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ indexes were up 1.09 and 0.61% respectively.
AAPL is Still the Biggest Holding in Buffett’s Portfolio
Berkshire spent the last half of the year snapping up more shares of banks and insurers, moves that made the company a major shareholder in four of the five largest U.S. banks. The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate boosted its stake in JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. in the last three months of the year.
Do not forget that Berkshire reduced its Apple stake by 1% in a period that marked its first holiday quarter sales decline in 18 years and saw shares plunge 30%. It’s still the biggest holding in Buffett’s portfolio, and the stock has rebounded about 8% this year.
Apple recently announced financial results for its Q1 2019 . The Company posted quarterly revenue of $84.3 billion, a decline of 5% from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $4.18, up 7.5%. International sales accounted for 62% of the quarter’s revenue.
Berkshire also appeared to have shed a $2.13 billion stake in database software company Oracle Corp after having first disclosed it in November. It is rare for Berkshire, which owns some stocks for decades, to unwind an investment so fast.
The changes were disclosed in a Thursday regulatory filing detailing Berkshire’s U.S.-listed stock portfolio as of Dec. 31, which shrank $38 billion in the quarter to $183.1 billion amid a broad selloff in stocks.
Charlie Munger, a long-time partner of Warren Buffett at Berkshire, addressed the firm’s stake in AAPL at an event today. He explained:
“I don’t know why Apple’s stock is going up or down. I know enough about it that I admire the place, but I don’t know enough to have an opinion why it’s going up or down. Part of our secret is we don’t attempt to know a lot of things.”
Meanwhile, Apple is planning an “all-new” MacBook Pro design for this year, well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said in a research note obtained by MacRumors. The lineup is reportedly led by a model with a screen of between 16 and 16.5 inches, which would make it the biggest screen in a Mac notebook since the 17-inch models stopped being sold in 2012.
Tesla’s Scaling Capabilities Starting to Scare the Industry: Apple of Automotive World?
In the meantime, billionaire Elon Musk confirmed that he exited OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research group, on “good terms” amid disagreements with team members over the project’s direction.
Musk also cited a desire to focus on “solving a painfully large number of engineering and manufacturing problems at Tesla (especially) and SpaceX.”
Musk has previously warned against the existential threat posed by artificial intelligence.
He said:
“We should be very careful about artificial intelligence,” Musk told the Guardian in 2014. “If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon.”
Meanwhile, Musk is also at the helm of electric-car pioneer Tesla. Two weeks ago, German automaker Daimler confirmed that it is in talks with the South African business mogul to collaborate on an electric van inspired by the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.
During the third quarter, Tesla earned $311.5 million in net income. After one-time adjustments, Tesla reported a $516 million profit, Tesla’s third profitable quarter ever.
Shares of Tesla closed at $296.38 a share down about 15% from where they were a year ago. Tesla is expected to report fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.19 a share and revenue of $7.08 billion, based on average estimates of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
The potential partnership comes at a crucial inflection point for Tesla, which is being hunted by Big Auto like a pack of rabid hyenas. Tesla is facing mounting competition from Volkswagen, General Motors, and Ford, which are all ratcheting up their electric-car game.
Just for a reminder, Tesla is now in the process of building a factory in Shanghai, where in the first phase it will produce batteries and Model 3. Gigafactory Shanghai is expected to produce the more affordable base versions of the Model 3 and Model Y while the higher cost versions will continue to be produced in the USA.
Cypress Increases Its Stake in Amazon by 31.22%
Last but not the least are news coming from Peak Asset Management LLC, who increased its stake in Transmontaigne Partners LP by 150.97% based on its latest regulatory filing with the SEC. At the same time, Peak Asset Management LLC bought 17,362 shares as the company’s stock rose 6.66%. Do not forget that the hedge fund held 28,862 shares of the natural gas distribution company at the end of 2018 Q3, valued at $1.11 million, up from 11,500 at the end of the previous reported quarter.
Have in mind that Cypress Capital Management Llc Wy increased its stake in Amazon Com Inc by 31.22% based on its latest 2018 Q3 regulatory filing with the SEC. Cypress Capital Management bought 153 shares as the company’s stock declined 15.37% with the market. The institutional investor held 643 shares of the consumer services company at the end of 2018 Q3, valued at $1.29M, up fro m 490 at the end of the previous reported quarter.
Cypress Capital Management Llc Wy who had been investing in Amazon Com Inc for a number of months, seems to be bullish on the $789.83B market cap company. The stock decreased 0.91% or $14.7 during the last trading session, reaching $1607.95. About 4.34 million shares traded. Amazon.com, Inc. has risen 41.49% since February 17, 2018 and is uptrending.