Jim Lebenthal

This week he felt that small-caps, value and cyclicals are now a good place to be, though you don't need to get out of tech. Data this week showed that the economy is strong, including consumer demand, like airline flights. Also, interest rates will come down.

The banks are down today after reporting, but he doesn't see anything wrong with the sector. The economy has slowed, but the banks should do fine when the Fed cuts rates. Part of today's selling has been profit-taking, because the sector has performed this year. Projected expenses for Citi are only a touch higher than expected. More importantly, share buybacks this quarter will be $1 billion, alight number due to ongoing problems with the regulators. They beat earnings and revenues though. The stock is cheap.

It's turning things around after three terrible quarters. People don't believe in this stock. They're making a push into AI and the Splunk purchase was good. But one more bad quarter, and he will sell.

The sector has been up. It makes sense because biotechs do well as rates fall; these companies finance long-duration trials then marketing.

There's a lot of demand for their cloud infrastructure services. Good to see that the stock did not budge at the end of the Musk AI talks; Musk is probably posturing as he negotiates. Trades at 23x forward which his historically high, but in line with its AI peers.

They report next week. The big question is Medicare reimbursements; political winds are pushing down on this. Is UNH off-setting this with prices and costs? At 17x forward PE, he'll take the chance.

It's doing well, hitting new highs today. It's further along in its life cycle. Has a fine cystic fibrosis franchise. Shares are strong momentum, so he's staying in.

He owns a lot of shares. It trades 11x PE forward, pays a 3.5 dividend and buys back a lot of shares. Their next earnings should be good. The oil prices remains high and natural gas is coming back. If the global economy performs better than expected, XOM will roar.

He bought it in recent months. Strong fundamentals. He can live with 34x forward PE. It's now one of his biggest holdings.

Vegas tourism is white hot. Revenue per room was up 11% in May YOY, convention attendance up 2%, and visitors up 5%. MGM has over half its business from Vegas. But he doesn't like MGM's regional business and those patrons are struggling from higher inflation and interest rates. He Likes MGM, but prefers Wynne because it has more Vegas exposure. But Vegas' boom isn't pushing up Vegas stocks, which is frustrating. Frankly, the market is getting it wrong. When Wynne reports, their strong Macau business will shine.

Vegas tourism is white hot. Revenue per room was up 11% in May YOY, convention attendance up 2%, and visitors up 5%. MGM has over half its business from Vegas. But he doesn't like MGM's regional business and those patrons are struggling from higher inflation and interest rates. He Likes MGM, but prefers Wynne because it has more Vegas exposure. But Vegas' boom isn't pushing up Vegas stocks, which is frustrating. Frankly, the market is getting it wrong. When Wynne reports, their strong Macau business will shine.

They're near a merger deal with Skydance. Shares are popping. Doesn't like the valuation of the merger which will be 5x more than the valuation of Paramount alone. He won't add shares, but hold on, because he sees value in Paramount Studios.

They just released best quarterly sales since 2020. He expects an earnings surprise when they next report and more share buybacks. It trades at just below 5x PE, so at 6x PE, the share price would be $60 or 25% higher. Wouldn't be surprised if it went to 7x PE.

The data centres they're building are used for AI, making this a good way to play AI. Wait for a pullback given its recent rise.

Adobe knows how to monetize AI, so it's a good way to play AI. It was held down, but it's now marching higher as it should on recent earnings.