Apple Intelligence powers markets to new records

Good Morning. US Markets continued to trend up this week, especially the tech-heavy Nasdaq, returning 3.24% gains.

CNN's Fear & Greed Index currently stands at 38 (Fear) out of 100.

The top five trending stocks currently on Reddit are NVDA, SPY, AMD, GME, and DTE. The full list is here.

Apple unveiled new Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, featuring ChatGPT integration into Siri for personalized assistance. This development is expected to drive significant iPhone 15 Pro upgrades.

Bank of America said Broadcom could be the next stock to reach a trillion-dollar market cap.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway recently increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum. This move reflects significant confidence in the oil and gas sector and increases Berkshire's stake in Occidental Petroleum to a commanding 28.46%, now representing 4.59% of Berkshire's total portfolio.

Elon Musk secured 77% approval from Tesla shareholders to reinstate his $44.9 billion pay package.

Source = NY Times

Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) reported higher-than-expected earnings. Announces a 10-for-1 Stock Split. Net revenues increased 43% year over year to $12.48 billion. AI-related revenues surged 280% year over year to $3.1 billion. Read more

Adobe Systems (ADBE) reported $5.31 billion in revenue for the quarter ended May 2024, representing a year-over-year increase of 10.2%. EPS of $4.48 for the same period compares to $3.91 a year ago. Read more

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) announced fiscal 2024 Q4 and full-year 2024 results. Total quarterly revenues were up 3% year-over-year in USD and 4% in constant currency to $14.3 billion. Read more

The surprisingly robust performance of the U.S. economy is driven by strong consumer spending, low unemployment, and resilient business investments. It emphasizes that despite various challenges, the economic indicators point towards sustained growth and stability in the near term. Read more

The article from Discipline Funds addresses concerns about the high concentration in the stock market. Read more

Kevin Flanagan of Wisdom Tree analyzes the Federal Reserve's monetary policy at the midyear mark. Read more

The New York Times opinion piece discusses the growing national debt in the U.S. and why we should not obsess about it. Read more

Midyear outlook from Advisor Perspectives on the U.S. economy and stock market, highlighting a positive economic trajectory driven by strong consumer demand and resilient corporate earnings.
Below are some key points -

1. Over the past two years, the establishment survey suggests 6.9 million jobs have been created, while the household survey suggests it's less than half of that, at 3.2 million. The household survey tends to be more accurate.

2. Services have reaccelerated after clear decelerations in both services and manufacturing over the past couple of years.

3.  Imports continue to surge due to stronger economic growth in the US.

4.  Real incomes are depressed relative to nominal.

5.  Less optimism down the income spectrum

6.  Prices of needs > prices of wants. Over the past two years, there has been a plunge in inflation of discretionary items (to near-deflation territory), while the inflation rate in non-discretionary categories (like health care, shelter, insurance, etc.) has accelerated sharply to more than 6% year-over-year.

7.  There has been a newfound era of frugality, as there has been a significant increase in spending on store brands relative to a shrinking share of spending devoted to national brands, especially for general merchandise.

8.  The strong balance sheet group (consisting of companies with high profitability and low leverage, etc.) has outpaced the weak balance sheet group by more than 13%.

9.  Investors have largely enjoyed a calm environment at the index level but have had to do more digging at the member level to find outperformance.
   
   Read the detailed report here.