Yikes!
As I suspected, Friday was a very RED day for Tech Stocks. The whole of last week, the tech sector was the consistent loser among all 11 sectors. On Friday, it continued to drop, and that hurts me a lot, since I am heavily invested in tech.
But I noticed something interesting on the close of Friday’s Market.
Tech (at least MY tech) has certain “sub” groups. Mine are Software, Chips, and Hardware. Software like Big Bear (my speculative software play) and Palantir all ended up (and spent most of the day) in the red. Chips like Nvidia, AMD, Texas Instruments, UMC, and Intel also spent the day and ended up in the red. But I noticed that Hardware stocks like HPE, Cisco, and Western Digital, all companies that actually make hardware all ended up Green! SMCI didn’t but they have other problems. I found this interesting. Not that they did great all week, in fact, looking at the week, they are all down too. But on Friday, they ended up over what they started with for the day.
I don’t think this will be an indicator of the AI bubble bursting. I know some folks are screaming that the sky is falling! but I think that there is just some reshuffling the money supply. Sure, there is anxiety, and some folks are selling out of fear. Friday was a bad ending in all the sectors except consumer staples. You might think that means the general public is just spending money on gas and groceries. I don’t know. But there is no doubt that gas and groceries and going up.
The war in Iran
Things have been very busy over there this last week. We strike them, they strike us and it goes on. Every day the news is filled with what they hit, and what we hit. I was quite young at the time it started, but it kind of feels like Vietnam. The difference is that most of the fighting is done by bombs and missiles rather than soldiers on the ground. I can remember being very afraid that I was going to be sent there. It ended just before I was old enough.
The result is that there is a lot of money being spent on equipment and weapons. I’m guessing that the companies that make them are going to grow from it, but I don’t own any of them.
Still, I do own Oil Companies and with the price of gas going up, I’m glad I do, so it takes some of the pressure off me when I’m at the pump.
They say Inflation went down
The reports say that Inflation went down in June, but I got to tell you, I don’t feel it. I have a funny feeling that the July numbers are going to be high again. Maybe even higher than May. We will see. The new guy at the FED seems to be researching in different areas than before, and maybe he will come up with something. But with the war escalating every day, I don’t know that it will be possible.
I do think that it’s unfair that they take the gas and groceries out of the calculation. I think that’s where most people feel the pain. I think it will continue until the war gets resolved one way or the other. Not that I have a good resolution. I think that more and more people are wishing that we had never gotten involved. I’m just glad that I’m not the president.
But back to stocks
It feels like some people, maybe even the big boys are shuffling their money around. The Mag7 has been doing badly too, which brings the S&P500 down since it is heavily weighted on the Mag7. The whole SpaceX thing has me wondering too. There was so much hype around it, and I hear that the stock has dropped below the IPO price. It might even get low enough for me to buy in a little bit. I do have faith in Elon (not that I like him, but I have seen what he can do), and I think he will pull it out. He seems filled with options, though I fear some of them might be a little bit over the top!
I’ve been looking for an entry point for the rare earth and minerals market. I might just have to go with an ETF there because I just don’t seem to have enough knowledge of that industry. I think that they are important in our efforts to grow technology, but I just can’t seem to find the right area to be looking at.
I’m also trying to shift my portfolio to more dividend producing, to become an income stream rather than a growth machine. Now that I’m retired, I don’t have that regular income that I got used to when I was working. I am looking in places I’ve never been before. The one good thing is that it keeps my mind active trying to learn new things. We’ll have to see how that goes!
