Good Morning!
Well, I have to admit that I am feeling better this morning, health wise, not financially! But I think that’s good news. I’m still on the road to recovery, but at least I’m on that road. It’s early yet, but I did check through the index futures and they are all up so maybe this will be a reasonable day in the market for a Friday.
It’s been a depressing week, with my illness and watching my portfolio drop 10% I have just not been feeling excited. I know I should be trying to buy the dip here as things go south on my investments, but I just haven’t seen anything that makes me want to dig into my reserves yet. I set that money aside, for just this purpose, but I’m just not ready to commit.
UPS has dropped considerably, and I believe in them as a company, so they might be one of my choices. They are having some internal issues though and it might take them some time to make a turnaround. Pepsi seems like one I might go for also, since they look like they might be making some moves here soon. There is a lot of talk about the bond market starting to flail around, and seems that with the FED making it’s move to increase interest rates, some folks are bailing out. There may be some opportunity there in the next few weeks.
The tech stocks just keep going on like the ocean. One goes way up while another goes way down and then they switch places. Even averaging them out though, ends up with a downward direction. Except AMD. They have pretty much consistently risen this week.
One of my favorite REITs has really lost ground this week too. Realty Inc. is dropping, maybe because of the interest rates situation. I know that they were pretty extended recently, so it will just be a little bit before they are back on their feet.
On the world stage
My invitation to the State Dinner in Washington with China’s president Xi Jinping seems to have gotten lost in the mail. A lot of my friends were there, so I’m sure to hear some stories. Elon said I could go as his plus one, but I said no. My tuxedo is in the cleaners, and I had to wash my hair (I’m not sure how old you have to be to get that joke, but there you have it).
I heard that they extended the trade agreement for another couple of months, to hopefully expand it another year later. I’m very much in favor of continuing good trade relations with China. All this talk about AI and how to regulate or not regulate is a big conversation. Most importantly is whether China will continue to call it Artificial Intelligence or if they’ll go with the Super Intelligence title that our president has given it. We should really get that settled first, because it sets the landscape for all the conversations!
Seriously though, I hope negotiations go well with China. Cooperation between us could advance the tech world much faster than competition (I think).
Middle East
I haven’t heard anything about Iran or the Strait of Hormuz since the UN conference. It all got forgotten with the News companies being kicked out of the White House and all that nonsense, and China coming in. So it’s probably going to be a talking point over the weekend, which is when a lot of stuff happens over there.
I did hear something funny though. One of the disruptions of the Strait is over fertilizer. That of course disrupts agriculture all over the world, and I think the planting season for the southern hemisphere is supposed to be kicking off. So they are concerned about getting it, while our farmers have been paying more for it all year too. One of the requirements is Potash which we typically get from Canada. Since our president has stuck up an argument with Canada, they are cutting off the supply to us. The president announced that he made a deal with Belarus to get it from them. What made me laugh was that the leader of Belarus said he knew nothing about it, and they hadn’t even talked about it. Besides that, Belarus is landlocked and to ship it out would be difficult and probably have to come out through the Strait of Hormuz if they could even get it there. I don’t know. That made me laugh. It’s really serious though. We are talking about our food supply here. Not just us though. The whole world.
Then there is the whole Israel vs. Palestine issue. That all heated up in the UN yesterday too. Both countries talked yesterday, though the Palestinians had to do it by Video because they weren’t allowed in the country (which I think is nuts). I don’t know what the results were of that, but I heard that a lot of people walked out when Israel got up to speak. So I’m not sure there will be any real results. I guess we’ll find out when we see who gets to go play golf this weekend.
