Mixed inflation data means the market remains volatile. The economy can go either way with contrasting signals about the state of inflation. But the seesawing could lead to a soft landing, not a brutal hard landing that everyone fears. If all economic data were strong that would lead to a series of aggressive rate hikes that would wreck the economy. However, if all data were weak, it's already too late. Pending home sales were up 0.7% in May compared with April. Durable goods orders rose in May. But today saw many commodity prices down, except oil which bounced back after recent weakness. What's ideal is to see enough of a slowdown so that the Fed can raise interest rates gradually without including a lot of unemployment. A caveat: there may layoffs after a hiring boom that happened at the height of the pandemic.
GlobalWafers' Texas foundry Congress needs to pass the CHIPS for America Act before the August recess. This is the plan by GlobalWafers to build a silicon wafer factory in Texas. The factory could create up to 1,500 jobs and produce 1.2 million. Supply chain constraints have stopped many industries, especially cards, from accessing semis. Meanwhile, demand is soaring. It takes time to build such a factory, so it's urgent to start now. Meanwhile, demand for semis will continue to climb in the coming decade. No way that a factory can be built in Taiwan, because that is too close to China and would pose a security threat.
It's a rare and surprising bring spot in this market. Shares have surged 21% from its lows just a few weeks ago. After peaking nearly a year ago, FedEx became a total dog. Topped out at $305 in June 2021, then declined below $200 this past spring. It was rangebound around $190-200 caused by supply chain woes, higher labour costs and the great reopening means consumers moving away from e-commerce and package-delivery. Also, FDX faced very tough YOY comparisons at the height of e-commerce. But this month, FedEx delivered a great quarter last Thursday. Shares jumped from $201 to $240. Weak execution pre-Covid plagued FedEx and buying TNT Express of Europe was ill-fated; Trump's trade war didn't help; and reported failures during holiday seasons. Covid pushed FedEx to new all-time highs. Now, there's room to run.
Terrific. Pays a yield of 13%. Will make a ton of money as the hedge funds get run out of commodity stocks. This will make money even if oil is at $80.
Steel prices are coming down, so don't buy Nucor at this point at the economic cycle. If energy comes back, so will Nucor, but he would buy energy before Nucor.