Fortune (July 1)
“Consumer spending is weakening. The job market is getting worse for workers. And U.S. stock investors are loving it. The S&P 500 rose 0.52% yesterday, hitting an all-time high for the second day in a row.” The surging market suggests “investors don’t anticipate anything dramatic like a mass selloff.” Their optimism seems to be pinned on hopes that “the deteriorating macro picture” will convince the Federal Reserve to “cut interest rates sooner rather than later. And cheap money is usually good for stocks.”
Tags: All-time high, Consumer spending, Fed, Investors, Job market, Mass selloff, Optimism, S&P 500, Stocks, Surging, U.S., Weakening, Workers
Barron’s (June 23 Issue)
“Non-GAAP numbers were to be used judiciously to explain extenuating or extraordinary circumstances, like a factory fire or the sale of a division.” Instead, they’ve become endemic. “For fiscal 2024, some 351 companies in the S&P 500 index, or 71%, reported either non-GAAP net income or non-GAAP earnings per share.” Of those, 89% of the adjustments made “their results look better” and the difference can be vast. “Intel had the biggest adjustment last year.” With “a GAAP loss of $19.2 billion” the chipmaker “categorized $18.6 billion as nonrecurring, so it reported a non-GAAP loss of $600 million.” And the sleight of hand can be performed year after year. For example, Oracle “has booked a restructuring charge every year for the past five years.” Especially in tech and healthcare, “non-GAAP numbers are now more accepted than the ‘generally accepted’ ones.”
Tags: Adjustments, Endemic, EPS, Extenuating, Extraordinary circumstances, Factory fire, Healthcare, Intel, Loss, Net income, Non-GAAP, Nonrecurring, Oracle, Restructuring, Results, S&P 500, Tech
Institutional Investor (June 10)
“As the U.S. economy has become a knowledge economy, motivating and engaging talent has only grown in importance given its positive effect on productivity.” But attributes like these “aren’t captured in traditional financial statements.” Since 2020, “the Human Capital Factor” has been quantifying “the link between human capital and future equity value” for investors and has “outperformed the S&P 500 every year since its launch.”
Tags: Attributes, Economy, Engaging, Equity value, Financial statements. 2020, Human Capital Factor, Investors, Knowledge economy, Motivating, Outperformed, Positive effect, Productivity, Quantifying, S&P 500, Talent, U.S.
Reuters (May 15)
“Equity investors took comfort from the lower duty rates, pushing the S&P 500 Index up 5% this week, to higher than where it started the year. Business leaders are clearly less impressed. Sustained gloom from industry titans like Walmart will keep pressure on the president to reconsider his own pricing power.” Though Walmart “is trying to hold the line on food even as the cost of bananas, coffee, avocados and flowers increases,” the retailer disclosed this week that “tariffs would force it to raise prices.”
Tags: Business leaders, Cost, Duty rates, Equity, Food, Gloom, Industry titans, Investors, Pressure, Pricing power, Raise prices, Reconsider, S&P 500, Tariffs, Walmart
Barron’s (May 12)
“The Nasdaq Composite entered a new bull market on Monday as the stock market surged after the U.S. and China agreed to ease back tariffs for 90 days. The tech-heavy index rallied 4.4%, closing more than 20% above its April 8 low to exit the bear market that began on April 4.” That wasn’t the only good news. “The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,161 points, or 2.8%, closing more than 10% above its April 8 low to exit a technical correction. The S&P 500 rallied 3.3%.”
Tags: Bear market, Bull market, China, Dow Jones, Ease, Nasdaq, Rallied, S&P 500, Stocks, Surged, Tariffs, Tech-heavy, Technical correction, U.S.
Barron’s (March 17)
“They’ve gone from the Mag Seven to the Lag Seven.” Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon.com, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Tesla collectively represented over “half of the S& P 500’s gain of 23% in 2024 as they rose an average of 60%.” This year they are “down an average of 15%” and “now account for about 95% of the index’s decline of 6% in 2025.” However, the Mag Seven “aren’t destined to fail or fade into insignificance. They remain too dominant…and too reasonably priced, with six of the seven trading for 18 to 30 times projected 2025 earnings. (Tesla, at 85 times, is the notable exception.)”
Tags: 2024, 2025, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Decline, Dominant, Earnings, Fade, Fail, Lag Seven, Mag Seven, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Reasonably priced, S&P 500, Tesla
Financial Times (March 14)
“It now appears that neither a slowing economy nor plunging stock prices are enough to deter US President Donald Trump from his radical economic agenda.” His “hotchpotch of economic measures” have already “raised the spectre of stagflation, wiped $5tn off the S&P 500, and undermined the nation’s standing with global investors.” If there was an “intelligible” strategy, “the short-term pain might be easier to digest,” but so far his actions lack “any coherent theory of change.”
Tags: $5tn, Deter, Global investors, Hotchpotch, Intelligible, Plunging stock prices, Radical economic agenda, S&P 500, Slowing Economy, Stagflation, Trump, Undermined, US
Barron’s (March 6)
“The Nasdaq Composite closed in correction territory as Wall Street sold pretty much everything in response to the Trump administration’s latest tariff rhetoric.” Both the S&P 500 and the Dow also dropped amid a tariff saga that has left investors shaking. “The uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariff plans have caused headaches for market participants. There are also fears among some economists that policy uncertainty will send sentiment falling further until it triggers a recession.”
Tags: Correction territory, Dow, Economists, Fears, Headaches, Investors, Market participants, Nasdaq, Recession, S&P 500, Sentiment, Sold, Tariff, Trump, Uncertainty, Wall Street
Bloomberg (March 4)
A roller coaster day left the S&P 500 Index ”at its lowest level since Nov. 4, the day before Trump was elected…. The dizzying ride provided a preview of the difficulties facing investors, who now must figure out how to price American assets in what essentially amounts to a new world order created by Trump’s tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.” The volatility and steep decline are “a comeuppance for those on Wall Street who bet big on Donald Trump’s election win, trades that powered the equity market higher along with the dollar and Treasury yields. The bet that Trump wouldn’t do anything to disturb the stock market rally has, for now, been lost.”
Tags: Assets, Canada, China, Comeuppance, Dizzying, Dollar, Investors, Mexico, New world order, S&P 500, Stock market, Tariffs, Treasury yields, Trump, Volatility, Wall Street
Motley Fool (January 21)
“While Wall Street has been given plenty of reason to be excited about President Donald Trump’s second term, he’s also making ominous stock market history—and it should have investors concerned.” Prior to his inauguration, the S&P 500’s Shiller P/E was at 38.11, marking “the highest reading for an incoming president dating back to January 1871,” the earliest comparable data point. During that same 154-year timeframe, the average Shiller P/E was 17.19. “Inheriting one of the priciest stock markets in history might pave the way for a bear market or short-lived crash during his second term.”
Tags: 1871, Bear market, Crash, Inauguration, Investors, Ominous, Priciest, S&P 500, Second term, Shiller P/E, Stock market, Trump
