13Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments

Indices jump on dovish statements from the Fed

Portfolio Management
Dec 13th, 2023 - On Wednesday, the Dow Jones increased by 1.4%, closing at 370,090.24. The S&P 500 increased by 1.37%, closing at 4,707.09. Also, the Nasdaq had an increase of 1.38%, closing at 14,733.96. All of them hit their 52-week highs. The Federal Reserve held the rates steady as expected. For the first time, the Fed admitted that inflation has eased over the past year and they also signaled upcoming rate cuts for 2024. Fed officials see core inflation falling to 3.2% in 2023 and 2.4% in 2024. The producer price index (which measures inflation before it reaches consumers), reported by the Labor Department, didn’t change from October to November. Tesla (TSLA) has announced that they are recalling 2 million of their vehicles in the US after a risk…
Read More
12Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments

Oracle’s negative results worry analysts, while Hasbro Job Cuts lead to a decrease in its stock price, whilst Google’s power is in danger

Portfolio Management
Dec 12th, 2023 - Today’s market performance of portfolio holding Oracle (ORCL) (0.4 units @111.10) was characterized by a huge sell-off, which caused a remarkable percentage decrease in the stock  price of -12.44%. This was mainly due to the negative reaction investors had in regards to Oracle’s results for the second quarter of its current fiscal year. Not only did sales for the period largely miss the target set by analysts by around $110 million, but revenue from key sectors like cloud services and license support also rose only by 12%, compared with the same period of the previous fiscal year. The latter is a very important factor to consider, taking into account that market operators are worried that Oracle will not be able to continue competing with the main…
Read More
11Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments

Macy’s shares surge after acquisition bid of $5.8 Billion

Portfolio Management
Dec 11th, 2023 - The real-estate investment firm “Arkhouse Management” and the asset manager “Brigade Capital Management” have jointly proposed a $5.8 billion acquisition of Macy’s; neither the two key investors nor Macy’s have publicly commented yet, the news comes from the Wall Street Journal, which reported it first. The offer, valuing Macy’s shares at $21 per share, represents a premium over the closing price of just $17 a share on Friday, although the stock had seen a significant decline, around 17%, from the beginning of 2023. The well known American department store chain is facing many challenges in competing with online retailers: Macy’s has made several efforts to revitalize its brick-and-mortar stores, including opening 30 new stores on strip mall locations, but hasn’t been able to take on e-commerce…
Read More
09Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments
AI regulations get approved, as Oracle gains traction

AI regulations get approved, as Oracle gains traction

Portfolio Management
Dec 9th, 2023 - EU Approves Regulations for Artificial Intelligence The European Union recently agreed on comprehensive regulations to oversee the realm of artificial intelligence (AI).During the discussions among key EU institutions, considerable focus was placed on technologies like ChatGPT, and the use of biometric identification tools such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanning. Differing viewpoints emerged among countries like Germany, France, and Italy. These nations advocated for a more indirect approach, preferring self-regulation by the responsible companies, although guided by government-introduced codes of conduct. Their concern primarily centered on the potential negative impact of stringent regulations on Europe's competitiveness in the global tech landscape. This legislation categorizes AI into varying risk levels, ranging from "unacceptable" technologies that warrant prohibition to lower-risk classifications. These AI tools amazed everyone, however, the…
Read More
08Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments
What is risk: How is financial risk evaluated

What is risk: How is financial risk evaluated

Portfolio Management
Risk is one of the main features that characterizes the entire financial world, and it heavily influences the type of security that investors will invest into as well as the particular kind of strategy they will follow while doing it. With respect to this last concept, it is important to know that risk is strongly correlated with the return on an investment. In fact, the potential return on a particular investment increases as the risk that affects that operation grows. This also means that, in the worst case scenario, the potential loss will be considerably higher. The standard deviation is the main measure of risk used when examining a particular type of instrument. When the standard deviation value for the security is very high, the corresponding volatility level of the…
Read More
08Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments

A positive Friday on Wall Street while the CMA keeps an eyes on Microsoft and OpenAI

Portfolio Management
Dec 8th, 2023 - Friday’s indices performances: Nasdaq closed at 14403.97 (+0.45%), S&P 500 at 4604.37 (+0.41%) and Dow Jones at 36247.87 (+0,36%).  The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is reviewing the multi-billion partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI, examining if it constitutes a merger situation and potential control acquisition. Following this partnership, Microsoft has now a seat in OpenAI’s board, but it is a non-voting position.  The main reason why the CMA has started an investigation is because, as the CMA itself said, there have recently been a number of developments in the governance of OpenAI, some of which involved Microsoft. They are obviously referring to Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI, subsequent hiring by Microsoft, and subsequent re-employment by OpenAI. This move seems like an operation guided by Microsoft…
Read More
08Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments

Stocks end losing streak, with AI giants reaping rewards from new products

Portfolio Management
Stocks grew this Thursday, allowing the Dow Jones and S&P 500 to break three-day losing streaks. The Dow Jones closed at 36.117,38 (+0,17%), the S&P 500 closed at the height of 4.585,89 (+0,80%) and, lastly, Nasdaq grew the most, closing at 14.339,99 (+1,37%). Alphabet (GOOG) (0.8 units @ 133.93) shares jumped 5%, following the announcement of the Gemini AI model, which will compete with products from OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta. The stock is on pace to reach its best day since Aug 29, despite questions on whether the company will monetize the technology. Executives said Gemini outperforms OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, but didn’t say how it compares with OpenAI’s latest model GPT-4.  The stock closed with a positive growth of 5.34%.(A.Capoot) Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) shares rose over 8% after the company…
Read More
07Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments

Decline continues, as Google and Nvidia make announcements

Portfolio Management
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones decreased by 70.13 points, marking a 0.19% decline, ending the day at 36,054.43. The S&P 500 experienced a 0.39% decline, closing at 4,549.34, and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 0.58% to 14,146.71. Job openings decreased by 6.6% to 8.7 million in October, below the estimated 9.4 million, marking the lowest level since March 2021. The data fueled expectations of a loosening in the hot labor market. Due to declines in mortgage rates, the demand for refinancing home loans increased by 14% from the previous week. Portfolio holding, Google (GOOG) (0.8 @ $133.93), announced its largest and most capable AI model, Gemini. The company plans to license this new AI model through Google Cloud for use in their applications. Gemini is considered a rival to OpenAI’s…
Read More
06Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments

Nio benefits from its earnings reporting, while Moody’s downgrades China and Eli Lilly innovative drug hits weight loss markets.

Portfolio Management
Nio Inc. (NIO) seized the attention of market operators worldwide after today release of its  Q3 earnings reporting. The main feature of the document was a remarkable decrease in  losses per share, dropping from 0.52$ in the second quarter to 0.37$ at the current exchange  rate between CNY and USD. Also, Q3 LPS were lower than the expected value (0.41$), even  though revenue failed to meet expectations (total reported value of 2.7B$ against 2.72B$  estimated). Thanks to this achievement, investors’ expectations about Nio’s future  profitability improved a lot, with its shares price recording a percentage increase of +1.5% just before 16:00 EST.  Portfolio holding Eli Lilly (LLY) (0.2 units @582.99) has just announced that ZepBound, its  revolutionary weight loss treatment, is finally available at US pharmacies. This represents not  only…
Read More
05Dec 2023 by Cattolica Investment Club No Comments

Stocks of Spotify and Uber jumped after weekend news played out today

Portfolio Management
Today, Spotify (SPOT) announced a 17% cut to their workforce. The CEO, Daniel Ek, sent an email to its staff, explaining the reasoning for his move: the company wanted to significantly reduce its team size as a “hard but crucial step towards forging a stronger, more efficient Spotify for the future”. Indeed, he said that Spotify was taking a fundamental action to reduce costs, and added that the company took on way too many employees in 2020 and 2021, when capital was cheap and team expansion was an attractive investment. The music streaming service aims at being the world’s leading audio company. In order to pursue this goal it must adopt some specific strategies. Even though Spotify is already a monolith of the music industry, its economic growth has slowed…
Read More