The Case for C3.ai

It’s not unusual for an emerging investment trend that’s been percolating to burst onto the scene with a frenzy of hype after a momentous event. This happened for Artificial Intelligence (AI) two weeks ago when Microsoft released a flurry of news about the ChatGPT AI app.

Southwest Airline's Sugar High

The first one, at Christmas time, was bad weather. Not much anyone can do about that. Southwest had no choice but to cancel 2500 flights. The second time Southwest ruined thousands of people’s travel plans, that was all on Southwest. The airline’s phone system and scheduling system both failed.

Chinese Balloons and Philippine Military Bases

Almost a year ago, Russian president Vladimir Putin officially broke the globalized world economy when he decided to unleash hell on his neighbor, Ukraine. Now it’s true, the fault lines of the quid pro quo economic system politely called globalization were laid bare by the COVID pandemic and the breakdown of the supply chain between the U.S. and China.

Coming up Roses

As of yesterday, pretty much everything we’ve been talking about over the last month blossomed. We were looking for the S&P 500 to take a run at 4100. It did even better, closing yesterday at 4179. We were looking for Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to make a convincing move above $100 that would carry it up to $110. Amazon finished yesterday at $112.91.

The Strong Arm of U.S. Chip Rules

If you aren’t aware of the Biden administration’s actions regarding China’s semiconductor industry, it’s pretty simple: American companies have been banned from selling advanced semiconductors to China. The ban also covers the equipment needed to make and test semiconductors.

The Case Against Intel

Last week, semiconductor giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) reported earnings that were…um…bad. Intel shares closed at $30.03 on Thursday, January 26. The stock opened for trading Friday morning at $27.07, down 10% after a surprise earnings miss.

Trading Plan Update

I love it when a plan comes together. And it’s even better when that plan involves making some loot. We had been looking for the right entry point for an Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) trade

Today's Trading Plan

Amazon shares have performed much worse than Microsoft over the last year. But if investors get the feeling that Amazon can put up similar metrics for its Amazon Web Services as what we saw from Microsoft, I think Amazon will rally.

Ford's Big Mistake

Iconic American carmaker Ford just made a big mistake. In an effort to get around supply constraints for nickel and cobalt for electric car batteries, Ford decided to use lithium iron phosphate batteries for all of its electric F-150 Lightning trucks.

An Irresponsible Message

Given the state of relations between the U.S. and China, China’s ongoing struggle with COVID and its effect on supply chains for companies like Apple, and the importance of the Chinese consumer on companies like Tesla, it’s a pretty good bet that something “China” and “stocks” will be in the news pretty often.

Pharma and Globalization

They say the current shortage of amoxicillin – along with a bunch of other drugs, like ibuprofen and acetaminophen and local anesthetics like lidocaine – is the result of higher than average demand.

Tomorrow's Trading Plan

Back on January 4 and January 7, I was looking at the potential for the stock market to put together a decent rally. Well here we are on January 16 and stocks have been acting downright frisky.