Down goes the Dow

Earnings Scorecard: For Q2 2024 (with 10 S&P 500 companies reporting actual results), 6 S&P 500 companies have reported a positive EPS surprise and 4 S&P 500 companies have reported a positive revenue surprise.

and one for us middle aged rockers.

the dream for me is finding a great song from the 60s-80s that I didn't know of before. It's rare, given how much listening I do, but it just happened.

Despite 40 years of listening to classic rock...I don't think Rock Show by Wings ever cut through the noise. Until now. What a great song.

Part of a medley here starting at around 0:50.

This is one of the many reasons you should just BUY, BUY BUY the market. Reality and perception are often two very different things. In my lifetime, there as NEVER been a time when the average Joe would say that the economy was good despite the fact that it has been the vast majority of the time. The last about 18 months have been the best US economy in my lifetime, both as a stand alone and as a comparison to other nations, and yet there are still a lot of people who think it is bad. INSANITY.

The market will PROBABLY stay stagnant or go down between now and the election as investors (even those in other countries) don't like uncertainty in the US. It will likely tick up after the election until the end of the year no matter who is elected. My view under normal circumstances is that the markets will behave basically the same no matter if there's a Democrat or Republican in the White House. I still hold that view with regard to this election UNLESS Trump is elected AND he starts to do very Dictator-like stuff. IF both of those things happen (I don't think Trump wins), then the global markets could be adversely affected.

I'll let you find them if you want, but 5 classic rock songs immediately come to mind for me as not getting the due they deserve. In no particular order:

You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate

Synchronicity II by The Police

Blue Collar Man by Styx

Border Song by Elton John

Don't Call Us, We'll Call You by Sugarloaf (AND their song Green-Eyed Lady is one of the most underappreciated songs ever)

Here's one from Bobby Womack. The Rolling Stones' first #1 song in the UK was their cover of his song "It's All Over Now".

Figures, Green Eyed Lady is such a dork song.

Good one.

There are a few that come to mind for me, recent discoveries via the wonders of You Tube and streaming.

There is quite a few, but one in particular is this live version of a song I first heard covered by The Replacements. This live version by the band that wrote is inspiring, and stands out among a hell of a lot of covers of this influential song.

The much celebrated and acclaimed Snoop Dogg, a fixture on this summer's Olympic Trials, invests, and it just so happens that he invests in what he knows about.

"Snoop Dogg has a big investment fund called Casa Verde Capital that puts money into the cannabis industry. This fund has invested in companies like Dutchie, Eaze, and Merry Jane—a news site about cannabis that Snoop started. He also has his own weed brand, Leafs by Snoop."

Anything to that? Good idea? The guy is worth a fortune.

Go Dogg!

there's a cannabis ETF "WEED"....it's been on a roll lately, so to speak, but its NAV has gone nowhere over the last couple years. Not sure of its total return.

Well this from BMO didn't work out well. From August 2023 this analyst predicted a crash in rates that did not happen.

Carl Quintanilla
@carlquintanilla
"'The 10-year Treasury in my mind is a screaming buy.' .. Lyngen sees a 3% yield on 10-year Treasuries sometime in 2024’s first half. “But we can easily close in a range of 3.5 to 3.75 this year,' he said."

10:12 AM · Aug 30, 2023
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23.3K
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From Oct 2023, GS predicted the SP500 would be at 4700 by now.

We're 16% higher than that, at 5469.

https://x.com/SethCL/status/1713544510548935091

This is from a pessimistic warning note a year ago. SPX up a mighty 28% since then. Acting on scary research notes is usually a bad idea.

J.P. Morgan Kolanovic & Dubravko
The recent rise in market cap concentration has been the steepest on record based on >60 years of history, with even narrower leadership than seen during
the TMT Bubble.

A year ago this poster reminded us that buying at all time highs, when the market is moving higher, is a high percentage bet.

Seth Golden
@SethCL
Daaaaannnnngggggg!!
You might think that YTD gains in $NDX and distance above its 200-DMA are warning signs of overbought conditions, but historically, it's a major buy signal.
Forward 6-12 month gains are 11%/24% on average.

Now that June trading is over, here's a chart showing the high close for the year by month since 1920. The fact that the year high has only occurred once in June, and it was the election year 1948, I find intriguing.

Open image

https://x.com/jaykaeppel/status/1798707612176748678

interesting, but let's say that based on the trend being noted, instead we set a high next month (July), for example, but then the market proceeds to drop 5% or 10% or more....

That would not be bullish.

Lots of hand wringing going on in the markets, and I am referring to the worry that the rally is not broad based enough, (not just being driven by the handful of market leaders and you know the ones).

I wonder if it's too short-term an idea to buy news media stocks, on the idea that if trump wins again there will be a lot more viewership and adverts sold. I know that after he left office news orgs suffered mightily because of the lack of drama.

DJT was down 10.84% today!

What piqued my interest wasn't what months the yearly highs occurred but that June 1948 marked a yearly high. What was so special about 1948 other than it was an election year?

Open image

Mid-year stock portfolio report: +12.39%.