Back from Africa – Not the Middle East!
Earnings out – some of the winners and losers…
Tesla stock does what???
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DHUnplugged #578: Out of Africa

Business

Investing

Careers

Management & Marketing

Business News

Shopping

News

Apple AI – Disappoints (or confuses)
NVDA – passes AAPL market cap
Treasury yields moving within a range
Beanstalk – what is that story again?
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NO SHOW NET WEEK - OUT ON BIZ FOR A FEW DAYS

Warm Up
- Apple AI - Disappoints (or confuses) - for a minute
- NVDA - passes AAPL market cap
- Treasury yields moving within a range
- Beanstalk - what is that story again?
- Fed in play
Market Update
- Large Caps dominate June (thus far) - Small-caps out of favor
- Buyers are hungry - any dip is bought
- Economic confusion - Jobs report
- NVDA - 10:1 completed (now what?)
Apple WWDC - Pins and Needles
- Features will go beyond artificial intelligence to personal intelligence.
- Will protect privacy at every step.
Capabilities:
- Will enable iPhone to create language and images.Language understanding will be natural.
- New writing tools can summarize text when you are working on a blog post.
- Users can create new emojis for conversation.
- Images can be created in three styles.
Actions:
- Will allow hundreds of "actions" such as "show me my photos from last week" or "show me the podcast my mom wanted me to listen to last week."
- Apple Intelligence is powered by large language models.
- Introduces Apple Private Cloud with personalized AI.
- Siri will be able to take AI enabled actions. It will allow for more natural language.
---- Market not impressed - was hoping for BIG AI announcement from Apple.
------ Stock down on this news - then POPS to ATH on Tuesday
Elon on Apple AI
- Elon Musk said he would ban Apple Inc. devices from his companies if OpenAI’s software is integrated into the products at the operating system level.
- The remarks followed a presentation Monday by Apple Inc., when it said that customers would have access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot through the Siri digital assistant. Apple plans to roll out the capabilities as part of a suite of new AI features later this year.
Jobs report
- May nonfarm payrolls increased by 272,000 (Briefing.com consensus 185,000).
- The 3-month average for total nonfarm payrolls increased to 249,000 from 237,000.
- April nonfarm payrolls revised to 165,000 from 175,000. March nonfarm payrolls revised to 310,000 from 315,000.
- May average hourly earnings were up 0.4%
- Unemployment rate moved up to 4%
--- YET - still HOPE for 1-2 rate cuts this year
OOPS
- Toyota - company has lost %15B market cap after false data found
- Japan's transport ministry found false data used to certify certain models a week ago on Monday.
- Other companies too - Toyota, Mazda, Suzuki, Yamaha
-- Companies falsifying data used in safety tests.
- Toyota chairman: "tested using methods that differ from the standards defined by the national authorities."
--- Collusion????
Gold - Short Supply?
- According to the World Gold Council - Gold hard to find
- New gold deposits are becoming harder to find around the world as many prospective areas have already been explored
- Gold Strategist: "I think the overwhelming story there is: after 10 years of rapid growth from around 2008, the mining industry is struggling to report sustained growth in production," said Reade.
- Bottom Line: "It's getting harder to find gold, permit it, finance it, and operate it,"
Game-Stop Already
- Shares tank 40% after another big run up - Keith Gill live stream
- Continues to post cryptic messages now that he is back
- Must be bored
Panic Buttons
- Retail giant Walmart says it is against putting panic buttons in stores - a move that the New York legislature wants to require under a new law aimed at keeping retail workers safe.
- Walmart's top corporate affairs officer told Reuters that the company opposes the panic button idea because it believes there are likely to be many false alarms.
- The panic button provision of the New York law would go into effect in 2027 for retailers with more than 500 employees nationwide.
New XBOX
- Microsoft unveiled ALL- digital versions of XBOX
- No more need for disks (take that Gamestop)
- The hardware refresh could help Xbox boost sales of its consoles which compete with Sony's PlayStation 5
CPI and PPI due this week
- CPI - expected to rise 0.1% MoM
- PPI - see above
- FED - FOMC rate decision Wednesday - would seem like they would need to be more aggressive with setting appropriate expectations
It is Balloon!
- North and South Korea sending "spy" balloons
- North is sending with pamphlets that fall on South Korea
- South Korea is mad that North Korea sending their garbage
- Built using 3D printers and components sourced online and sometimes equipped with GPS-tracking, these so-called "smart balloons" can cost up to $1,000 each.
- Most balloons contain devices pre-programmed to scatter 1,500 leaflets, 25 at a time, taking into account the hoped-for flight path, wind and other weather conditions.
- - many are just people/activists sending propaganda
Boeing
- Boeing received orders for only four new planes in May — and for the second straight month, none for its best-selling 737 Max, as fallout continues from the blowout of a side panel on a Max during a flight in January.
- The results released Tuesday compared unfavorably with Europe's Airbus, which reported orders for 27 new planes in May.
--- Is this BOEING or more related to travel slowdown?
---- BUT: Despite the slow pace of recent sales, Boeing still has a huge backlog of more than 5,600 orders.
General Odors
- GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said the company now expects sales of 200,000 to 250,000 EVs this year, down from a previously announced range of 200,000 to 300,000.
- General Motors is trimming its expected sales of all-electric vehicles this year, as U.S. adoption of EVs occurs slower than expected.
- But initiating a new buyback and increase in dividend
WOW
- Buc-ee's opens largest store spanning 75,000 square feet with 120 gas pumps
- Luling Texas
 

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DHUnplugged #706: Beanstalk Market

Sinkholes forming
Memes again – Huge Moves
Economy starting to stall
Face Ripper moves into the close
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Warm Up
- Sinkholes forming
- Memes again - Huge Moves
- Economy starting to stall
- Announcing a NEW CTP
Market Update
- Face Ripping - Last Friday
- Software Stocks hammered
- May finished in the green nicely
- Oil Drooping
- Roaring Kitty is back
Face Rip
- Stocks ramped on the last day of the month
- 300 points in 10 minutes to finish the day on Friday
- markets had a good month -
-- Large Cap Growth up 6% for the month
- US real estate up 5%
- Only area LataAm down for May
Sinkhole Forming Again
- MEGA Caps pulling market up - Primarily NVDA
- Monday S&P; 500 Flat - S&P; Equal Weight  -0.53%
Best Buy Earnings
- "Sluggish Demand"
-  Earnings per share: $1.20 vs. $1.08 expected   Revenue: $8.85 billion vs. $8.96 billion expected
- Best Buy has noticed a pullback in purchases of discretionary items as consumers manage higher costs because of inflation.
- Shares soar
Software stocks Soft
- Salesforce plunges 20% after it posted weaker than expected revenue
- The WisdomTree Cloud Computing Fund, an exchange-traded fund that tracks cloud stocks, slid 5% this week, the sharpest decline since January. Paycom, GitLab, Confluent, Snowflake and ServiceNow all lost at least 10% of their value in the downdraft.
- Dell PLUNGED - 20% too this week
Economics
- April Construction Spending -0.1% vs 0.2% Briefing.com Consensus; prior -0.2%
- May ISM Manufacturing Index 48.7 vs 49.6 Briefing.com consensus; prior 49.2
- May S&P; Global US Manufacturing PMI - Final 51.3 vs 50.9 prelim; prior 50.0
Focus on Manufacturing (Briefing.com)
- The May ISM Manufacturing Index checked in at 48.7% (consensus 49.6%), down from 49.2% in April. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 50.0%, so the May reading suggests there was a faster pace of contraction in the manufacturing sector last month.
- The key takeaway from the report is that it showed a faster pace of contraction in manufacturing activity that will stir worries about the economy missing its mark with a soft landing.
- The New Orders Index slumped to 45.4% from 49.1%, hitting its lowest level since May 2023.
- The Prices Index dropped to 57.0% from 60.9%.
- The Employment Index increased to 51.1% from 48.6%.
- The Backlog of Orders Index fell to 42.4% from 45.4%.
- The Supplier Deliveries Index held steady at 48.9%.
- The Production Index decreased to 50.2% from 51.3%.
- The New Export Orders Index rose to 50.6% from 48.7%.
Fed Cuts - Not Happening
- According to the latest issues of Barrons
- "The Federal Reserve isn’t likely to lower interest rates in 2024.  Elevated inflation, a resilient economy, and a still-strong, if softening labor market argue against the need for easing monetary policy, especially as these conditions are expected to persist through year end."
WAIT A MINUTE
- Rate cut bets for September are back a 66% probability after a slightly weaker than expected JOLTS report
- 10YR Yields @ 4.35% (Down from 4.6% last week)
GDPNow
- Atlanta Fed GDPNow model estimate for Q2 real GDP growth is 1.8%, down from 2.7% on May 31
- Latest downward revision follows today's release of the ISM Manufacturing Index for May and Construction Spending Report for April.
As Usual - Backwards
- OPEC+ prolongs cuts for one year
- OPEC+ agreed on Sunday to extend most of its deep oil output cuts well into 2025 as the group seeks to shore up the market amid tepid demand growth, high interest rates and rising rival U.S. production.
- Meanwhile - Crude oil prices dropped hard on the news
Emerging Markets
- We have been "constructive" on this area
- Almost half of the companies have missed analyst estimates, average profits have slumped 10% compared with the prior-year period and for every dollar of predicted earnings, companies are bringing home only 86 cents.
- Looks like at an inflection point -
- Two years ago most EM companies beat earnings by a wide margin (stocks didn't follow)
France - Rating
- Standard & Poor's (S&P;) decision to downgrade its rating on France's sovereign debt should in the short term deliver more political sting than pain in financial markets.
- Days ahead of a June 9 EU parliamentary election, S&P; cut France's long-term sovereign debt rating on Friday to "AA-" from "AA", citing expectations that higher than expected deficits would push up debt in the euro zone's second-biggest economy.
Boeing
- Fitch Ratings lowered its 2024 forecasts for Boeing's aircraft delivery and free cash flow on Friday as the planemaker grapples with investigations and slumping production of its strongest-selling jet.
- China also a problem halting some orders
- Meanwhile - stock up on Monday on this news"
- Still - only one of 2 global planemakers and the only one in USA
More Boeing
- A second attempt at launching Boeing's new Starliner space capsule on its inaugural test flight with NASA astronauts on board was automatically halted with minutes to go before liftoff by a computer-abort system, mission officials said.
- The scrubbed launch, capping a string of 11th-hour technical issues that ground teams worked through and resolved earlier in the countdown, adds another indefinite delay for the highly anticipated and much-delayed test flight.
Guilty Verdict Pays
- The Trump campaign said Friday it nearly doubled its single-day fundraising record after a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty in his criminal hush money trial.
- The Republican’s campaign said it raised $34.8 million from small-dollar donors in less than seven hours following the historic verdict Thursday afternoon that convicted the former president of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
What is With Jeans?
- GAP rose nearly 30% post earnings
- the apparel company lifted its full-year operating income forecast on the heels of a first-quarter earnings beat. Gap executives now expect operating income to grow roughly 40%, compared with a previous estimate that called for low-to-mid teens expansion.
- We also saw a similar move for ANF - Abercrombie & Fitch
Proves the Point
- Give out FREE or CHEAP Money :
- Royal Caribbean +2.2% cruising to a new all-time high today; stock has been in a steady uptrend since late October
- HUGE debt load - 
Roaring Kitty
- Posted screenshot of his holdings - Supposedly, he still owned 5 million shares of GameStop and 120,000 call options with a strike price of $20 that expire on June 21, the screenshot showed.
- Stock went up as much as 80% Monday
- Profit of $25M in one day?
- NOW E-trade looking to ban his account from trading on their platform - what gives?
NYSE Glitch
- Share of Bershire hataway seems to loose 99% of its value on Monday - but is was a mere glitch

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DHunplugged #705: Sinkholes Forming

Short Week – 4 days of trading – then EOM
The Miracle Flight – I have witnesses this with my own eyes
Cruise anyone?
Global Warming – New Info In
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Warm Up
- Short Week - 4 days of trading - then EOM
- The Miracle Flight - I have witnesses this with my own eyes
- Cruise anyone?
- Global Warming - New Info In
Market Update
- 40,000 ! Then we fail
- Fed Officials Hawkish behind closed doors
- BBQFlation
- Split Excitement!
- Hindenburg Omen
Fed - Two Faced
- Federal Reserve officials grew more concerned at their most recent meeting about inflation, with members indicating that they lacked the confidence to move forward on interest rate reductions.
- Minutes from the April 30-May 1 policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee released Wednesday indicated apprehension from policymakers about when it would be time to ease.
- The meeting followed a slew of readings that showed inflation was more stubborn than officials had expected to start 2024.
BBQFlation
- Your Memorial Day barbecue will cost upward of 10 percent more than it did this time last year according to Datasembly
- Datasembly follows the cost of groceries across the country every week. Its recently released data points to this year's Memorial Day festivities costing the average American family about $30.18 or 10.19% more than 2023.
- Burgers jumped from $7.04 in 2023 to $8.07 in 2024, or a change of 14.63% in cost. Hamburger buns cost two cents more, from $3.04 on average to $3.06.
Hindenburg Omen
- Indicator was triggered last week.
- only right about 25% of the time
- Was thought to be able to predict market crashes - let's see what happens.
FED HEAD
- The Federal Reserve should wait for significant progress on inflation before cutting interest rates, Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari told CNBC on Tuesday.
- Asked what conditions were needed for the Fed to cut rates once or twice this year, Kashkari said: “Many more months of positive inflation data, I think, to give me confidence that it’s appropriate to dial back.”
- He said the central bank could potentially even hike rates if inflation fails to come down further. “I don’t think we should rule anything out at this point,” Kashkari added.
Could we finally get relief from these thieves?
- The U.S. Department of Justice is suing to break up Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, over alleged antitrust violations.
- The lawsuit, joined by 30 states and filed Thursday, follows a DOJ investigation into whether Live Nation maintains a monopoly in the ticketing industry, a probe launched in 2022 and bolstered by fan complaints following a botched roll out for tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras tour.
- In a statement, Live Nation said the DOJ's allegations of a monopoly are "absurd."
- "The DOJ's complaint attempts to portray Live Nation and Ticketmaster as the cause of fan frustration with the live entertainment industry. It blames concert promoters and ticketing companies—neither of which control ticket prices—for high ticket prices. It ignores everything that is actually responsible for higher ticket prices, from increasing production costs to artist popularity, to 24/7 online ticket scalping that reveals the public's willingness to pay far more than primary tickets cost," said Dan Wall, Live Nation executive vice president for corporate and regulatory affairs.
DONATIONS- New Shirt Design?
Miracle Flights
- The 1986 Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to provide a wheelchair to passengers with disabilities at the airport. The problem: Many travelers are faking it, Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle says.
- "There is massive, rampant abuse of special services. There are people using wheelchair assistance who don't need it at all," Biffle said at a Wings Club luncheon on Thursday in New York.
- He said he had seen Frontier flights where 20 people were brought to the plane with wheelchairs, but only three wheelchairs were used upon arrival.
- It costs the airline between $30 and $35 each time a customer requests a wheelchair, Biffle said, and abuse of the service leads to delays for travelers with genuine need for assistance.
More Airline
- Boeing revealed on Friday that it’s seen a 500% increase in the number of employee submissions about quality and safety concerns during the first two months of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago.
- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says that climate change is one of the culprits behind an increase in flight turbulence.
- “The reality is, the effects of climate change are already upon us in terms of our transportation,” Buttigieg said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, forecasting that turbulence is something that will continue to “affect American travelers, whether here or abroad.”
Still Going
- Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis said on Saturday it has urged Tesla shareholders to reject a $56 billion pay package for Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, which if passed would be the largest pay package for a CEO in corporate America.
- The report cited reasons like the "excessive size" of the pay deal, the dilutive effect upon exercise and the concentration of ownership. It also mentioned Musk's "slate of extraordinarily time-consuming projects" which have expanded with his high-profile purchase of Twitter, now known as X.
Follow Up - SEC ETH ETF
- The SEC approved a rule change that would pave the way for ETFs that buy and hold ether, one of the world's largest cryptocurrencies.
- The decision comes less than six months after the SEC approved bitcoin ETFs. Those funds have proven to be a big success for the industry, with net inflows already surpassing $12 billion, according to FactSet.
NVDA Earnings
- Earnings Per Share: $6.12 adjusted vs. $5.59 adjusted, per LSEG consensus estimates.
- Revenue: $26.04 billion vs. $24.65 billion expected by LSEG
- Nvidia said it expected sales of $28 billion in the current quarter. Wall Street was anticipating earnings per share of $5.95 on sales of $26.61 billion, according to LSEG.
- 10:1 Stock Split and dividend increase
- Looking to go into the DJIA?
- Shares moved > $1,000 after the very upbeat report
NVDA Spilt
- 10:1 on June 7th
- What happens after that? (Shares and options cheaper)
Target Earnings
- Target on Wednesday posted a year-over-year sales decline and missed Wall Street’s earnings estimates, as consumers fatigued from high prices bought both fewer discretionary items and groceries.
- Target stuck with its prior full-year forecast, saying it expects comparable sales will range from flat to up 2% and adjusted earnings per share will be $8.60 to $9.60. Company leaders said the retailer is on track to return to sales growth in the second quarter.
- Earnings per share: $2.03 vs. $2.06 expected
- Revenue: $24.53 billion vs. $24.52 billion expected
- It marked the first time since November 2022 that Target missed earnings expectations.
- Shares of the company closed about 8% lower on Wednesday.
Cruise Lines Making a comeback?
-Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. raised its full-year 2024 EPS guidance for the second time in May 2024 at its Investor Day. While the cruise industry was the epicenter during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s one of the remaining industries to experience positive normalization as the travel boom continues to flourish.
- Norwegian Cruise Line reported a Q1 2024 EPS beat of nine cents and revenue growth of 20.3% YOY to $2.19 billion, falling short of $2.23 billion.
- Norwegian Cruise Line raised its full-year 2024 EPS estimates twice in May to $1.43 versus $1.26 consensus estimates.
PSA from GameStop and AMC
- Thank you to all of the suckers that bought our stocks during the recent run0up. We were ready this time and sold right into your buying frenzy. At Gamestop, the company  took in more than $1 billion at a nosebleed valuation, right before shares tumbled back to reality.
T+1
-Starting today, trades of stocks and several other securities will need to be settled by the end of the next business day. Settlement involves the actual swap of money for a security. This so-called “T+1 settlement” is an acceleration of the previous process, which allowed for two business days.
- The move is the latest evolution to make the plumbing of Wall Street look more like the front-end, which is increasingly moving toward trading apps and around-the-clock markets.
Stock Market Trivia
- Where's the oldest stock exchange in the world? The Antwerp Belgium Bourse opened its doors in 1460 and kept going until 1997.
- What was the first exchange in the US? Philadelphia Stock Exchange, founded in 1790, predated the NYSE by two years.
- What was the first listed company on the NYSE?  Bank of New York Shares of the Bank of New York were traded under the fabled buttonwood tree on Wall Street in 1792.
- What's the name for the method of communications used by stock traders frantically running around a trading floor and using hand signals? Open outcry is the (perhaps soon-to-be extinct) way to communicate transactions through shouting and hand signals.
- What "Greed is good" character is Michael Douglas reprising for Oliver Stone? Gordon Gekko

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DHUnplugged #704: The Miracle Flight

Big Week – Big Earnings on Wednesday
Oil Unusually stable
Helicopter Accident – Another “fog” incident?
Meme stocks come back to earth
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Warm Up
- Big Week - Big Earnings on Wednesday
- Oil Unusually stable
- Helicopter Accident - Another "fog" incident?
- Meme stocks come back to earth
- We have an Osbourne Effect
Market Update
- 40,000 ! Get the party hats!
- ATH, ATH, ATH
- Commods - Copper and Gold (AND silver)
- VIX - lowest since 2019
- Someone better against Tesla (Big name)
Banks
- The Federal Reserve and two other U.S. regulators are moving toward a new plan that would significantly reduce a nearly 20% mandated increase in capital for the country's biggest banks following lobbying efforts by industry CEOs like JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend.
- Required increases in capital for banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs meant to ensure they have sufficient buffers to absorb potential losses — would on average be about as much as originally floated, the Journal added.
- Top officials from all three agencies involved in the pending capital rules — the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — are still discussing substantive and technical revisions and there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached, the WSJ reported.
Goodbye?
- In a response to a question Monday about the bank's succession planning, Dimon indicated that his expected tenure is less than five more years
- That's a key change from Dimon's previous responses to succession questions, in which his standard answer had been that retirement was perpetually five years away.
- Stock dropped 4% on that conversation
No Direction - Grasping ....
- Snap Inc. Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel said he’s investing more aggressively in bringing artificial intelligence and machine learning to Snapchat to make it more interesting for its users, the next major shift after years spent overhauling its advertising business.
- “There was a recognition that we’d fallen behind the curve on the machine learning side, which, to some degree, was reflected in the business performance,” Spiegel said in an interview. “We needed to improve there and bring together some of our most senior machine learning folks to just talk about what it would look like for us to get to state of the art and really invest.”
Meanwhile
- VIX is sagging
- The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the 30-day implied volatility of the S&P; 500, closed Friday at the lowest level since November 2019 as the benchmark stock index traded in a tight range just below the all-time high.
- Aside from an April pop, the VIX has been muted for much of 2024 as shares climbed.
 VIX Chart
Interesting
- Online home goods retailer Wayfair is opening its first namesake store, near Chicago, following a string of other digitally native companies that have turned to brick-and-mortar for growth.
- So they think the low cost failed execution is going to do better in the higher cost brick and mortar arena?
- The company says people need to still sit in and try furniture.... (WHAT?)
AI - Here we go
- OpenAI has disbanded its team focused on the long-term risks of artificial intelligence just one year after the company announced the group, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to CNBC on Friday.
- News of Sutskever's and Leike's departures, and the dissolution of the superalignment team, come days after OpenAI launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with an updated user interface, the company's latest effort to expand the use of its popular chatbot.
NVDA Earnings Tomorrow
- Tech analysts are all excited that this is going to be another amazing quarter
- Stock pushing up from April lows on belief that the AI trade is still happening and gaining strength
More NVDA (BIG!)
- Amazon halted orders of key Nvidia (NVDA) chip because they want to wait for updated version, according to FT
--- Osbourne Effect?
---- The Osborne effect is a social phenomenon of customers canceling or deferring orders for the current, soon-to-be-obsolete product as an unexpected drawback of a company's announcing a future product prematurely. It is an example of cannibalization.
--- The site reports Nvidia will begin production of Blackwell in the second half of 2024 and enter the market in earnest in 2025 with the goal of shipping 40,000 units by next year
- This new report adds several details regarding Nvidia's launch plans, including that the flagship configuration will be a 72-chip cabinet that will reportedly sell for a whopping $3 million.
- Nvidia is expected to earn $30 billion from this one product alone through 2025. 
MJ
- he U.S. Justice Department on Thursday unveiled a historic proposal to ease restrictions on marijuana, a rule that if enacted would also enable more research on its medicinal benefits.
- The proposal, first announced in April, would reclassify cannabis from a so-called schedule one drug to a schedule three. Schedule one drugs, such as heroin, are considered highly addictive with no medical benefits, while schedule three drugs are considered to have a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.
- "Additionally, no safety concerns were identified in the FDA’s review that would indicate that medical use of marijuana poses unacceptably high safety risks," the proposal says.
- Still not 100% done it appears
MEME
- Gamestop - back to ground level but...
- The initial move caused losses of $1 billion for short sellers - hopefully they reloaded
- AMC - back to reality as we know company has ongoing plan to sell into price spikes in open market
Crypto
- Something going on  with ETH -
--- Approval or some other move by SEC was expected this week -
---- Delay or Approval of ETF would be good (ETH spiking 10% late afternoon Monday)
- SEC seems to be looking for a revised plan by ETF creators on ETH - (not bad news at all)
Big Short
- Big Short’ trader Danny Moses is still betting against Tesla, says core business is ‘falling apart’
- Big sale in China - heavy discounts now
US Steel BOD - Pressing Nippon Steel Offer
- Correcting the record...
- Letter from BOD:  For all the reasons noted above, this is not only the best deal for U. S. Steel and its stockholders, but also for our employees, the communities in which we operate, our customers, U.S. national security and the American economy overall. We look forward to closing in the second half of this year and moving forward together with NSC as the “Best Steelmaker with World-Leading Capabilities.”
- Will this happen?

TRUMP Stock
- Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Donald Trump's Truth Social platform, disclosed a net loss of $327.6 million in the first quarter of the year, with total revenue at $770,500, according to its earnings report, filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- TMTG CEO Devin Nunes said that the company is exploring "a wide array of initiatives and innovations to build out the Truth Social platform including potential mergers and acquisitions activities" in a statement on Monday. (Horseshit)
 

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DHUnplugged #703: Euphoric

Emerging markets breaking out of long consolidation
PPI HOT – Market does not care
A Meme stock face ripper!
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Warm Up
- Inflation reports PPI today and CPI tomorrow
- Sentiment is dropping - wondering why
- Meme stock face ripper
- EV days - losses not acceptable
- PPI and CPI this week
Market Update
- Another good week - seems like coming out of downturn
- Rates down- 10Y Treas falling over past week
- S&P; 500 near record
- Emerging markets breaking out of long consolidation
- PPI HOT - Market does not care
Fed talk
- Fed's Goolsbee and Kashkari
- There has been cross currents in the data.
- There has been some bumps in the road on inflation in 2024.
- The Fed is in a wait and see mode
- Cautious about how restrictive policy is.
- More data is needed before they can predict a rate cut.
- There is a high bar for another rate hike, but not ruling it out.
- Leases trending up is a concerning signal.
----- What does any of that tell us?
------ We need to start a movement to SHUT THE FED UP (STFU)
Latest Inflation Readings
- The Producer Price index for final demand increased 0.5% month-over-month in April (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%) following a downwardly revised 0.1% decline (from 0.2%) in March. The index for final demand, excluding food and energy, also increased 0.5% month-over-month (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) following a downwardly revised 0.1% decline (from 0.2%) in March.
- On a year-over-year basis, the index for final demand was up 2.2%, marking the largest increase since April 2023, while the index for final demand, excluding food and energy, was up 2.4%, unchanged from March.
- The key takeaway from the report is that nearly three quarters of the increase in final demand prices was due to a 0.6% increase in the index for final demand services, something that will detract from the Fed's confidence that inflation is on a sustainable path to its 2% target.
Powell speaking AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says he doesn't think next rate move will be a hike, more likely a hold; time will tell if policy is sufficiently restrictive; PPI reading was quite mixed
Getting AI Overload
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says "not gpt-5, not a search engine, but we’ve been hard at work on some new stuff we think people will love! feels like magic to me" 
Sentiment
- Consumer sentiment fell sharply in May to the lowest level in six months as Americans cited concerns about stubbornly high inflation and interest rates and fears that unemployment could rise
- May Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment - Prelim 67.4 vs 76.5 Briefing.com consensus; April Final was 77.2
Fed Put
- Markets melting up since last Powell comments
- There is  a new spin on the old "Fed put." The latter rested on an unspoken assurance that the Fed would step in with easier policy to forestall a market meltdown.
- The new version doesn't guarantee a rate cut soon, but it has created an unspoken assurance that market participants can trade around the idea that the next monetary policy move is likely to be a rate cut.
Meme Stocks
- Gamestock was up 80% and  many of the other names moving hard
--- Seems like the original Gamestock dude - Roaring Kitty put out a tweet on Monday and the stock went bananas...
More Squeeze
- Shares of the vaccine maker soared 99% Friday, after the company signed a $1.2 billion licensing agreement with Sanofi that includes commercializing a combined Covid-19 and flu shot.
- The move boosts a stock that had plunged about 99% — prior to the deal — from its 2021 peak amid waning demand for its Covid vaccine.
AMC - NICE FELLAS!
- AMC has a fundraising deal known as an at-the-market offering that lets it create new shares opportunistically to sell to buyers in the open market. The deal is part of AMC’s long-term effort to secure the capital needed to execute its turnaround, even if that means diluting investors seeking to cash in on short-term rallies.
NeuralLink
- Elon Musk's startup Neuralink on Wednesday said part of its brain implant malfunctioned after it put the system in a human patient for the first time.
- In January, Neuralink implanted the device in a 29-year-old patient named Noland Arbaugh as part of a study to test its safety.
- Seems that several of the "threads" that connect devise to the brain have retracted from patients brain
- Neuralink did not disclose how many threads retracted from the tissue.
More Musk
- U.S. prosecutors are examining whether Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about its electric vehicles’ self-driving capabilities, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
- Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems assist with steering, braking and lane changes - but are not fully autonomous. While Tesla has warned drivers to stay ready to take over driving, the Justice Department is examining other statements by Tesla and Chief Executive Elon Musk suggesting its cars can drive themselves.
- Eventually something will stick
Vapes
- Five million disposable vapes are thrown away each week, equal to the lithium batteries of 5,000 electric vehicles over the course of the year, the government said.
- The U.K. government on Monday announced it will ban disposable vapes, citing an "alarming rise" in the number of young people using them.
Bad Boys
- High-end brothels in the Boston and eastern Virginia regions provided sex for pay to "elected officials, high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors
- Three people were arrested in connection with operating the pricey sex shops, which required "interested sex buyers" to provide employer information and references before booking sessions with prostitutes, authorities said.
- The brothels charged customers about $350 to "upwards of $600 per hour depending on the services and were paid in cash," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts, which is prosecuting the defendants.
Follow Up - UNH Hack
- UnitedHealth Group said on Monday that hackers stole health and personal data of potentially a "substantial proportion" of Americans from its systems in February, as the largest U.S. health insurer scrambles to contain the damage.
- The disclosure suggests patients' healthcare information remains vulnerable. An initial review of the compromised data showed files with protected health information or personally identifiable information "which could cover a substantial proportion of people in America," the company said in a statement on its website.
Drink Less?
- Consumers are choosing an alcohol-free lifestyle either part-time or all of the time, and 41% of consumers surveyed say they intend on drinking even less in 2024, according to a report published by NC Solutions.
- Regarding the survey, 1,000 Americans 21 years of age and older were questioned on their current drinking habits and future plans for alcohol consumption.
- Gen Z was recognized as the generation that started the recent "sober conscious" movement, and 42% of those surveyed believe they have gestured toward the change and turned it into a trend.
- Yes BUT!!!!!!!!!! They are smoking weed in place of....
McDonalds 
- McDonald’s is working to introduce a value meal in U.S. stores to help offset an increasingly challenging environment for consumers.
- The $5 meal could include four items: a McChicken or McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets, fries and a drink.
- The potential new offering comes at a time when low-income consumers are beginning to pull back on spending, particularly at fast-food brands.
- “Consumers continue to be even more discriminating with every dollar that they spend as they faced elevated prices in their day-to-day spending, which is putting pressure on the [quick-service restaurant] industry,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said on the company’s earnings call on April 30.
- - Many Franchise owners balking
Trump Media - Insider Trading
- So much bad stuff surrounds this stock
- A financial executive was convicted Thursday of enabling his boss and others to make over $22 million illegally by trading off his tips ahead of the public announcement that an acquisition firm was taking former President Donald Trump’s media company public.
- Garelicks' co-defendants pleaded guilty before trial, admitting that they made over $22 million illegally
Apple Worm
- A newly released ad promoting Apple's new iPad Pro has struck quite a nerve online.
- The ad, which was released by the tech giant Tuesday, shows a hydraulic press crushing just about every creative instrument artists and consumers have used over the years — from a piano and record player, to piles of paint, books, cameras and relics of arcade games. Resulting from the destruction? A pristine new iPad Pro.
- Message - Crushing human creativity
- The ad had been pulled back and Apple has issues and apology
OpenAI - New Model
- OpenAI on Monday launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with a new user interface.
- The update brings GPT-4 to everyone, including OpenAI’s free users, CTO Mira Murati said in a livestreamed event.
- She added that the new model, GPT-4o, is “much faster,” with improved capabilities in text, video and audio.
More Open AI - Rumors
- OpenAI plans to announce its artificial intelligence-powered search product on Monday, according to two sources familiar with the matter, raising the stakes in its competition with search king Google.
Seems that this was fleeting - Google got hit for 2% on the headline, but when Altman clarified, Google shares recovered.
Ford EV
- Ford Cuts Battery Orders as EV Losses Top $100,000 Per Car
- Ford Motor Co. has begun cutting orders from battery suppliers to stem growing electric-vehicle losses, according to people familiar with the matter, as it throttles back ambitions in a rapidly decelerating market for plug-in models.
Softbank
- SoftBank posted a 7.24 billion Japanese yen ($4.6 billion) gain on its Vision Fund in the fiscal year ended March, the first time the flagship tech investment arm has been in the black since 2021.
- SoftBank's flagship tech investment arm, the Vision Fund, had a tough time in the fiscal year that ended in March 2023, posting a record loss of around $32 billion amid a slump in tech stock prices and the souring of some of the business' bets in China.
Excitement Around WWDC
- At its WWDC keynote on June 10, Apple is expected to reveal a series of AI tools, including an improved version of ?Siri? that uses generative AI to be more conversational and capable, with the ability to "chat" with users instead of just responding to individual queries.
- Apple plans to market this revamped version of ?Siri? as a more security-focused alternative to rival AI services|- Apple is also working to improve how Siri handles tasks such as setting timers, creating calendar appointments, adding items to Reminders, and summarizing text.
 
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DHUnplugged #578: Out of Africa

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