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China's best, a premier Hongshi H9 the limo always used by Xi Jinping, destroyed in a charging fire - https://www.hongqi-auto.com/
Yes, China is making a record number of chargers.
Selling Puts in: VRT, VLO, NVDA, RCL, OC.
Bought back 30 Calls in MTW and 25 in BMBL.
A field of 10,000 BYD battery-powered autos, all made in 2021, all registered, each with less than 35 miles on them. Yes, China is making a lot of EVs.
The end-result of ponzi-scheme EV-vehicle sharing businesses.
One innovative feature of the new BYD Han is its commemoration of China as the inventor of fireworks.
BYD Han fires are quite frequent. It's become the best known feature of the Han. Yes, China is making quite a lot of batteries.
Watch out for the Bears. If the Bulls cannot breach and stay above 5120, then the Bears will show and may push the SPX down to 4890.
Of course there is good news too, but the Bulls have to go above that barrier and then 5420 maybe in the offing, but not before,
Looks like we need some kind of Mary Tyler Moore
"Who can take a nothing day β And suddenly make it all seem worthwhile ?"
The Real Estate sector has imploded so badly in China that Automobile production is now the largest part of China's economy,
generating a total value of CNY11 trillion (approx. US$1.52 trillion), accounting for nearly 10% of the country's GDP and surpassing real estate, but also
creating a price war which has created economic deflation. https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20240426PD205/china-automobile-ev-market-price-war.html
What is the difference between the stock market and roller coaster this morning? Nothing at all.
But the big drop could come tomorrow if Chairman Powell alludes to no cuts this summer or perhaps none at all..
Opened ERO, copper hit $10,000 a ton.
Opened SKYW great earnings.
The market stopped falling at DJI 166 as I observed and I was selling Puts and buying back calls.
Then The Consumer Confidence Index knocked the market down again so I am looking at my Puts to sell and other calls to buy back.
Waiting for my technical indicators to signal a reversal to this mornings drop nd then I will start selling Puts. In the meantime I should be able to buy back some calls for a net gain.
The market was flat until the ECI report came in higher than expected and now the SPX is at -17 points.
The Employment Cost Index (ECI), the broadest measure of labor costs, increased 1.2% last quarter after rising by an unrevised 0.9% in the fourth quarter, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the ECI would advance 1.0%.
This is long overdue. Many medical tests are hilariously inaccurate, Elizabeth Holmes . Theranos bad, with some test makers like Labcorp actually advising Doctors testing for pathogens or diseases to submit the same sample six different times in order to eliminate the bias built into their tests to avoid false positives. Sadly most existing lab tests will be grandfathered in.
"Only a small percentage of the population have any given disease or pathogen, so our tests are deliberately designed to be insensitive and report false negatives, in order to avoid reporting false positives in the large number of patients tested. If you have a clinical basis for assuming your patient has a condition for which they test negative, our lab recommends you presumptive treat your patient and disregard the test results." - Labcorp
Today trading NVDA was a good lesson to cheerfully take what Ms.Market choses to offer you. She was stingy, but willing to offer the same gain repeatedly.
I would like to be selling VRT puts, but I will not chase it. The same for JPM.
Moving in and out of SPOT and NVDA while taking a 5-10% gain each time. they seem to have an intraday trading range according to my technical indicators,
US STOCKS-Wall Street stocks gain as investors focus on Fed moves
REUTERS 3:10 PM ET 4/29/2024
Symbol Last Price Change
AAPL 173.78up +4.48 (+2.6462%)
META 430.5899up -12.7001 (-2.865%)
NVDA 871.051down -6.299 (-0.718%)
MSFT 400.91up -5.41 (-1.3315%)
PARAA 21.5534up -0.8166 (-3.6504%)
QUOTES AS OF 03:22:53 PM ET 04/29/2024
*
Tesla gains after clearing self-driving hurdles in China
*
Apple (AAPL) rises after report of talks with OpenAI
*
Domino's Pizza beats sales expectations, shares up
*
Indexes up: Dow up 0.30%, S&P up 0.19%, Nasdaq up 0.25%
(Updates to 2:48 PM ET)
By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK, April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with sharp gains for Tesla and Apple(AAPL) leading the way, as investors looked toward what the Federal Reserve would say about the interest rate outlook after its policy meeting this week.
Traders expected the Fed to keep rates unchanged while striking a hawkish tone.
Tesla shares surged 15%, after the electric vehicle maker made progress in securing regulatory approval to launch its advanced driver-assistance program in China, its second-largest market after the U.S.
Apple (AAPL) gained 3.1% following a report that the iPhone maker had renewed discussions with OpenAI about using the startup's generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Bernstein upgraded Apple's(AAPL) stock to "outperform".
Other megacap stocks were trading lower. Alphabet, Meta Platforms(META), Nvidia(NVDA) and Microsoft(MSFT), were down between 0.3% and 3.2%.
Nine out of 11 S&P 500 sectors were higher led by stocks in consumer discretionary, utilities, real estates, materials and industrials.
"The bigger question than rates, because they're not going to cut this week, is how hawkish they're going to speak because they've already been pretty hawkish," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at hedge fund Great Hill Capital in New York.
Money markets are pricing in about 35 basis points (bps) of interest rate cuts this year, down from about 150 bps seen at the beginning of the year, according to LSEG.
At 2:48 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 113.70 points, or 0.30%, to 38,353.36, the S&P 500 gained 10.10 points, or 0.19%, to 5,109.84 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 39.69 points, or 0.25%, to 15,967.59.
Domino's Pizza jumped nearly 5% after topping expectations for first-quarter same-store sales. Of the 233 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported quarterly earnings, 78.1% surpassed analyst expectations, compared with a long-term average of 67%, according to LSEG data.
Paramount Global (PARAA) gained 3.5% after a report that the Redstone family and Skydance Media CEO David Ellison have made concessions to make a potential change in control of the streaming firm more appealing for other investors.
"The overall momentum is still to the upside and it's an important week, with a ton of earnings, the Fed on Wednesday and nonfarm payrolls on Friday, and the path of least resistance is higher," said Bill Strazzullo, chief market strategist at Bell Curve Trading in Boston.
Meanwhile, the Japanese yen
jumped
against the dollar on Monday, with traders citing yen-buying intervention by authorities trying to support a currency languishing at levels last seen over three decades ago
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.8-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 2,640 stocks rose and 1,514 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.74-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq recorded 70 new highs and 55 new lows. (Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; additional reporting by Shristi Achar A and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)
Spotify Co-founder Daniel Ek Cashes Out More Spotify Stock, Shifts Focus to Tech and Climate Startups
BENZINGA 11:00 AM ET 4/29/2024
Symbol Last Price Change
SPOT 286.51down -3.08 (-1.0636%)
SOCL 41.24up +0.09 (+0.2187%)
OND 27.38up +0.0835 (+0.3059%)
QUOTES AS OF 11:22:47 AM ET 04/29/2024
Daniel Ek, the co-founder of Spotify Technology SA(SPOT) , has recently sold 650,000 company shares through two transactions, marking a significant increase in stock sales compared to previous years.
The series of sales, valued at about $179 million, represents Ekβs strategic financial planning despite still holding a 7% stake in Spotify(SPOT), a significant component of his $4.4 billion net worth.
Spotifyβs stock has risen significantly, increasing by 267% since late 2022, according to Bloomberg report.
Ekβs move aligns with broader trends of tech billionaires like Michael Dell and Jeff Bezos reducing their stakes after substantial share price increases.
Outside his role at Spotify(SPOT), Ek also diversifies his investments into fields like artificial intelligence, life sciences, and climate technology. He aims to invest around $1 billion in European startups.
In April, Spotify(SPOT) reported fiscal first-quarter 2024 revenue of $3.95 billion, up 20% year-on-year, above the consensus of $3.85 billion. EPS of $1.05 beat the consensus of $0.70.
Analysts projected accelerated revenue growth in 2024, supported by balanced growth across Premium Subscribers as it benefits from the shift from transaction-based to access-based streaming models.
Analysts expressed confidence in Spotifyβs ability to ramp up revenue growth and significantly improve profitability, maintaining long-term solid pricing power.
Investors can gain exposure to Spotify(SPOT) via Global X Social Media ETF(SOCL) and ProShares On-Demand ETF(OND) .
SPOT price action: Spotify (SPOT) shares traded lower by 1.70% at $284.68 at the last check Monday.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Sold Puts on SPOT and NVDA. Opened MHO, YOU and ALL.
Mostly I look for those stocks that reported recently with a very large positive surprise and a boosted earnings forecast for the year.
Maybe he is our secret weapon? Lol.
Of the below stocks I own COOP.
This Analyst With 86% Accuracy Rate Sees Around 13% Upside In Chipotle Mexican Grill - Here Are 5 Stock Picks For Last Week From Wall Street's Most Accurate Analysts
BENZINGA 7:59 AM ET 4/29/2024
Symbol Last Price Change
COOP 78.73down 0 (0%)
SNAP 14.55up 0 (0%)
INTC 31.88up 0 (0%)
CMG 3186.97down 0 (0%)
QUOTES AS OF 04:00:00 PM ET 04/26/2024
U.S. stocks settled higher on Friday, with the S&P 500 recording its best week since Nov, 2023. The index surged 2.7%, snapping a three-week losing streak, while the Dow added 0.7% last week.
Wall Street analysts make new stock picks on a daily basis. Unfortunately for investors, not all analysts have particularly impressive track records at predicting market movements. Even when it comes to one single stock, analyst ratings and price targets can vary widely, leaving investors confused about which analystβs opinion to trust.
Benzingaβs Analyst Ratings API is a collection of the highest-quality stock ratings curated by the Benzinga news desk via direct partnerships with major sell-side banks. Benzinga displays overnight ratings changes on a daily basis three hours prior to the U.S. equity market opening. Data specialists at investment dashboard provider Toggle.ai recently uncovered that the analyst insights Benzinga Pro subscribers and Benzinga readers regularly receive can successfully be used as trading indicators to outperform the stock market.
Top Analyst Picks: Fortunately, any Benzinga reader can access the latest analyst ratings on the Analyst Stock Ratings page. One of the ways traders can sort through Benzingaβs extensive database of analyst ratings is by analyst accuracy. Hereβs a look at the most recent stock picks from each of the five most accurate Wall Street analysts, according to Benzinga Analyst Stock Ratings.
Analyst: Jay McCanless
Analyst Firm: Wedbush
Ratings Accuracy: 87%
Latest Rating: Maintained an Outperform rating on Mr. Cooper Group Inc.(COOP) and increased the price target from $85 to $100 on April 25. This analyst sees around 27% upside in the stock.
Recent News: On April 24, Mr. Cooper(COOP) reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.
Analyst: Mark Kelley
Analyst Firm: Stifel
Ratings Accuracy: 87%
Latest Rating: Maintained a Hold rating on Snap Inc.(SNAP) with a Buy rating and increased the price target from $12 to $13 on April 26. This analyst sees around 10% downside in the stock.
Recent News: On April 25, Snap reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results and issued second-quarter revenue guidance above estimates.
Analyst: William Stein
Analyst Firm: Truist Securities
Ratings Accuracy: 86%
Latest Rating: Maintained a Hold rating on Intel Corporation(INTC) and cut the price target from $45 to $33 on April 26. This analyst sees over 4% upside in the stock.
Recent News: On April 25, Intel(INTC) reported worse-than-expected first-quarter sales results and issued EPS guidance below estimates.
Analyst: Zachary Fadem
Analyst Firm: Wells Fargo
Ratings Accuracy: 86%
Latest Rating: Maintained an Overweight rating on OβReilly Automotive, Inc. and cut the price target from $1,300 to $1,200 on April 25. This analyst sees about 15% gain in the stock.
Recent News: On April 24, OβReilly Automotive posted upbeat quarterly earnings.
Analyst: Lauren Silberman
Analyst Firm: Deutsche Bank
Ratings Accuracy: 86%
Latest Rating: Maintained a Buy rating on Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.(CMG) and increased the price target from $3,400 to $3,600 on April 25. This analyst sees around 13% upside in the stock.
Recent News: On April 24, Chipotle Mexican Grill(CMG) reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.
: Top 4 Materials Stocks That May Explode In Q2
What a douchebag
Musk looks to weak Chinese officials in order to approve half-blind self-driving Tesla taxis.
βMusk made a surprise weekend trip to Beijing to meet with a host of high-ranking Chinese government officials, including Chinese Premier Li Qiang, with a laser focus on cutting the ribbon on the long-awaited rollout of FSD software and permission/approval to transfer data overseas,β wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a Sunday report.
FSD is short for Full Self-Driving, Teslaβs highest-level driver assistance product that Musk believes will turn Teslas into truly self-driving cars today.
In the US, FSD requires driver supervision 100% of the time. Before self-driving cars can be unlocked. Tesla needs to be allowed to unlock all its FSD features for Chinese Tesla owners. Tesla sells driver assistance technology, but the Chinese version of FSD doesnβt even have all the features available in North America, such as stopping at traffic lights and stop signs.
Musk has long believed that achieving autonomous driving represents a huge financial windfall for the company. Itβs been harder to achieve than anyone expectedβthe original DARPA self-driving challenge was 20 years agoβbut Tesla has scheduled a robotaxi reveal event on Aug. 8. The company appears to believe itβs making significant progress.
I am glad my charts indicated that it would be a good idea to sell ALSN prior to the earnings report. It beat on top and bottom line, yet it dropped 5%. Taking a stroll in earnings park became a dangerous walk.
Also many lawyers.
History showed us that when the market, as measured by the SPX, fails to go back above the 50day/ma, it is not a good sign for the Bulls. The failed higher close often will signal that the market will next drop o the 200day/ma. It is good if you have cash, but if you are totally in the market than it is not so good. Opportunities will come as the market keeps closing lower. Now you can buy the stocks you liked at a lower price. I will still be taking small positions in my top 5-10% of realm of stocks.
And if you're killed by a Japanese / NASA battery, it's very personal. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but someone is going to get whacked by space junk and then it will keep CNN in business for another decade.
Just before the close opened a long position in COOP.
Some of the bigger trades today were:
Sold Calls: MTW 30, PFE 15.
Sold Puts: MO 20, URI 2 rt., ALGN 4, VLO 6, PEP 5.
Have a good weekend everyone!
Replaced AZZ with VKTX as I gather there could be something brewing in the latter, judging by the options market.
Closed AZZ for a 10% loss, it is heading in the wrong direction.
βThe total mass of the batteries is estimated at 2.6 metric tonnes, most of which may burn up during the reentry,β ESA stated. βWhile some parts may reach the ground, the casualty riskβthe likelihood of a person being hitβis very low.β
Unemployment statistics are only numbers, however if you are unemployed it is personal.
Closing INTC with a loss fast was a good example of the first loss is the least loss. It is heading down below 30 again. Comfort zone? Lol.
When space based equipment is no longer functioning, they just toss it out and let it orbit the earth until the atmosphere brings it down. Earlier this month two pounds of space junk came screaming through the roof and then the floor of a home in Naples Florida. It's going to get worse. It's all fun and games until they kill someone or worse, hit a plane in flight or a ship on the ocean. Story below:
Space-Junk Strike in Florida Signals New Era of Orbital Debris
Three years ago astronauts threw out the largest piece of trash ever tossed from the International Space Station. Now some of it has punched a hole through a house in Naples, Fla.
In what may be judged as a bizarre and twisted case of βbreaking and entering,β last month a plummeting cylindrical object weighing nearly two pounds hit the roof of Alejandro Oteroβs home in Naples, Fla., smashed through a ceiling and punched through a floor.
When this story was first published, this high-speed home invasion from the heavens had yet to be officially verified as a space junk strike. Now, however, after retrieving and studying the object, NASA has confirmed it is debris from trash tossed three years ago from the International Space Station (ISS) that subsequently reentered Earthβs atmosphere. As the latest close encounter with clutter from the cosmos, the event has already sparked technical and legal banter about the worrisome escalation of Earth-circling, human-made refuse.
TAKING OUT THE TRASH
Back in March 2021 astronauts onboard the ISS used a Canada-supplied robotic arm to tip an abnormally hefty hunk of refuse into spaceβthe heaviest object ever jettisoned from the space station, in fact. NASA explained at the time that the trash, called Exposed Pallet 9 (EP9), had the approximate mass of a large SUV βand is safely moving away from the station and will orbit Earth between two to four years before burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere.β
After being ferried to the ISS via a Japanese cargo ship the previous year, EP9 had been filled with 5,800 pounds of spent nickel-hydrogen batteries. But a series of logistical complicationsβchief among them the fact that the battery pallet could only fit in Japanβs cargo ships, of which there were no more to flyβleft EP9 stranded, taking up precious space on the ISS. So NASA decided to throw it overboard. After a few years of drifting aimlessly through space, EP9 finally met its fiery fate on March 8 when its decaying orbit sent it nose-diving into Earthβs atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico.
The European Space Agencyβs Space Debris and Independent Safety Offices closely monitored the reentry of the pallet of used ISS batteries. These batteries were to undergo βa natural reentry,β said ESA in a pre-reentry communiquΓ©, using a twist on the term for an uncontrolled plunge from space.
βThe total mass of the batteries is estimated at 2.6 metric tonnes, most of which may burn up during the reentry,β ESA stated. βWhile some parts may reach the ground, the casualty riskβthe likelihood of a person being hitβis very low.β
A SERIOUS CANDIDATE
Before NASAβs analysis was complete, Marco Langbroek, a devoted satellite tracker and a faculty member in aerospace engineering at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, told Scientific American that it certainly looked possible that the object in Florida stemmed from the reentry of the EP9 battery pack.
Langbroek had reviewed EP9βs ground track as well as the reported timing and trajectory of its reentry. Handily, there was also a time-stamped security video and sound clip of the object that pierced the homeownerβs roof.
After entering the atmosphere and losing much of its speed, the debris piece probably spent a couple of minutes in subsonic free fall, Langbroek said.
βReentries take multiple minutes, with the object fragmenting and the reentering fragments spreading along the trajectory over a stretch that can be hundreds of miles long,β he added. βGiven the force of impact, I think this is a serious candidate for potential debris from this [EP9] reentry. It might well be a part of one of the nickel-hydrogen battery cells.β
At that time, Tobias Lips, managing director of satellite aerodynamics company Hyperschall Technologie GΓΆttingen in Germany, told Scientific American that there was not much guesswork here. As a specialist in reentry analysis, he robustly simulated the fall of the ISS pallet of batteries days before the actual event occurred using βmoderately conservativeβ rather than βworst-caseβ assumptions. Even so, his results suggested more than 130 fragments would survive to reach the surface. Thatβs βabout 10 times more than for a typical reentry object of this size and mass,β he said.
Most of those predicted fragments, Lips said, would be cylinders made of Inconelβa high-strength nickel-chromium superalloy often used in aerospace applications. Nearly 350 such cylinders were in the EP9 palletβs payload of spent batteries, where they served as power cells. βThe fragment found in Naples, Florida, is most likely one of these cylinders,β Lips said.
βThe recovered fragment was reported to be about two pounds in weight. Thirty-eight percent of my [simulationβs] surviving fragments are within this mass class,β he explained. βI would be very surprised if investigations of this fragment donβt confirm it being a battery cell from the ISS.β
NASAβS ANALYSIS
After NASA officials, in cooperation with Otero, took custody of the object for closer study at the agencyβs nearby Kennedy Space Center, space agency spokesperson Joshua Finch told Scientific American that βmore information will be available once the analysis is complete.β
At that time, Mike Weaver, a space debris expert at the Aerospace Corporation, told Scientific American that NASAβs analysis would likely begin with a rigorous examination of the objectβs trajectoryβas well as that of EP9βtracked against the locations of any other recovered debris.
βIn this case, the location of the object in Naples, Florida, appears to be consistent with the timing and the location of the ISS battery pallet reentry,β Weaver said. βHowever, this is not sufficient to positively identify an object.β
Alongside the trajectory work, scrutinizing the candidate chunk of space junk for signs of scorching, melting and other effects of reentry heating would be desirable, Weaver said. Metallurgical analysis to determine its composition could be useful as well.
Sometimes serial numbers or part numbers can be found on an object, Weaver noted, which would rapidly simplify things.
Subsequently, in the April 15 blog post in which NASA announced the completion of its analysis, the agency confirmed that the item was in fact an Inconel cylinder. But rather than being part of a battery, the cylinder was a stanchion from the space agencyβs βflight support equipment used to mount the batteries on the cargo pallet.β
WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN
Threats from incoming orbital rubbish are real and set to grow, says Darren McKnight, a senior technical fellow at LeoLabs, a commercial provider of space domain awareness services, based in Menlo Park, Calif. As more space systems are deployed in low-Earth orbit, the old adage applies: what goes up must come down.
The vexing nub of the problem is that removing ever proliferating small pieces of orbital debris is vital for maintaining a safe space environmentβand uncontrolled atmospheric reentry is by far the easiest way to do it. In fact, this happens automatically for objects in low-Earth orbit, which begin to fall as they bleed off momentum against the outer edges of our planetβs atmosphere. Yet the hands-off nature of this process means any sizable piece of unguided debris has a large swath of the planet upon which it or its fragments might fall, potentially constituting a low but real risk to multiple aviation corridors and population centers.
βThe issue of aviation and ground hazard from space operations is a problem that will not go away any time soon,β McKnight says.
LEGAL LIABILITY
Before the downed debris in question was confirmed as coming from the ISS, Joanne Gabrynowicz, a professor emerita of space law at the University of Mississippi, told Scientific American that such a finding would likely prompt a dialogue about liability..
Some of the provisions of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty and its Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, as well as the ISS International Governmental Agreement (IGA), could be relevant, said Gabrynowicz, who is also editor in chief emerita of the Journal of Space Law.
An analysis of various provisions in these sources and how they interrelate would probably be necessary, Gabrynowicz said, including Article II of the U.N.βs Liability Convention. Article II states that any country launching anything into space shall be responsible for damage any associated space objects may cause back on Earthβs surface.
In the case of an object striking a house, the launching nation would, at minimum, be liable for funding requisite structural repairs. Gabrynowicz added, however, that while this protocol is simple in principle, its translation to reality can become extremely complex. Things would get murky, for instance, if the errant object that struck Oteroβs house had proved to be part of the spent batteries from EP9βs reentry: the batteries are NASAβs property, but they were attached to EP9βa payload launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
βThat could be complicated, requiring analysis of various contracts, treaties, insurance policies and the IGA. Of course, the entities involved can also agree as to how to resolve the situation,β Gabrynowicz concluded.
AN ACT OF ABANDONMENT
βNASA will want to minimize this by saying chucking stuff off the ISS is rare and this isnβt a satellite or rocket body ... and therefore is disconnected to increasing launch rates,β said Ewan Wright, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia and a junior fellow of the Outer Space Institute, in an interview with Scientific American prior to the agencyβs April 16 announcement.
βBut clearly there is an issue here that uncontrolled reentries are fairly accepted, and nobody thought to look into it much further,β Wright said. One reason for laxity, he noted, is that the risks from uncontrolled space debris reentry are literally and figuratively dumped in the ocean, which covers most of Earthβs surface. But treating Earthβs seas as a space junkyard is unlikely to be sustainable forever.
βThere are over 50,000 ships in the ocean at any given time and hundreds of thousands of smaller boats. The chance of a ship being hit by space debris is likely to be small, but itβs growing, and we donβt know the number for sure,β Wright said. βA cruise ship being hit by uncontrolled space debris may not kill someone, but it would raise serious questions about our continued abandonment of space debris in orbit. And the launching state would be liable to pay damages.β
Many aerospace companies employ an ethos of βdesign for demiseβ for their space-bound components to try to ensure that if the parts do reenter, they reliably burn up at high altitude. Yet even leaving aside growing concerns about the resulting contamination of Earthβs upper atmosphere with heavy metals and other pollutants, some experts consider the practice ill-advised at best.
Moriba Jah, an expert in space debris tracking and management at the University of Texas at Austin and a co-founder and chief scientist at Privateer Space, a group focused on space sustainability issues headquartered on the island of Maui in Hawaii, is one such critic.
Jah emphasizes that discarding our detritus in low-Earth orbit in hopes that this material will βnaturally reenterβ the atmosphere βis not a responsible disposal method but rather an act of abandonment.β Even if not legally classified as such, uncontrolled reentry βis inherently irresponsible due to the potential risks it poses to life and property on Earth,β Jah says.
NASA officials have said that theyβre on the case. βThe International Space Station will perform a detailed investigation of the jettison and re-entry analysis to determine the cause of the debris survival and to update modeling and analysis, as needed,β the space agency noted in its April 15 announcement.
In some sense, the unlikely intersection of a probable piece of orbital debris with a home could ultimately prove to be a good thing: it could provide another wake-up call to policymakers, major aerospace players and the public at large that when it comes to space junk in low-Earth orbit, the sky really is falling.
Glad to see you read Kindig. Very worthwhile.
Batteries supplied 3.4% of ALL California electricity consumed past 48 days
A place to store surplus solar power in being build fast in California.
But solar installations have run ahead of forecasts so the California Independent System Operator, aka Cal ISO, is periodically dumping power at a negative price during peak solar periods.
https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/default.aspx#section-ra-capacity-trend
The supply constraints on Nvidia have been HBM (high bandwidth memory) and "special packaging" which is connecting typically 6 or more GPUs onto one substrate inside a CPU enclosure.
Special packaging also includes stacking HBM 2 or 6 layers high with connectors running through them - and this special packaging includes transmitting heat away from the electronics in the "CPU container". Packaging is a many step process that takes months.
The same goes for other GPU makers like AMD, Qualomm, and in-house development like Open AI and Google and others through Broadcom.
The validation of SK Hynix solved the HBM supply problem for Nvidia. Longer term Samsung is ramping up supply and AMD probably has most of what they want.
Hung says Nvidia has the packaging capacity they need under contract, but I strongly suspect they could sell GPUs faster if they there were more packaging plants. Intel wanted to buy Tower Semi TSEM for their packaging technology putting many processors on a glass substrate, but China objected so they're working with Tower giving over 2/3 of one of their new plants in Arizona.
So "packaging" will be supply constrained for perhaps another 3 to 4 years - then there will be a glut.
This was my busiest day of trading for the year, several had a double rt and a couple with a triple round trip.
Too many to report today.
MSFT beats and is up.
I hope they will not have a shortage again like two years ago, when Amazon and others were bilking the customers, hiking some prices 300% above the release price.
Alphabet options imply 5.0% move in share price post-earnings
THE FLY 1:49 PM ET 4/25/2024
Pre-earnings options volume in Alphabet is 1.6x normal with calls leading puts 10:9. Implied volatility suggests the market is anticipating a move near 5.0%, or $7.81, after results are released. Median move over the past eight quarters is 6.5%.
I could use one or two.
Nice recovery in the markets, gained back over 300 points from early morning.
Added ALGN via puts and just made a rt. as a bit of fear dissipated. Will have to sell those puts again, just waiting for my signal from PPO and RSI. I like the price negative and these signals just turning up.
RT in IBM and closed ALSN, it reports tonight after the close and I am a little concerned whether it will have a positive surprise and better yet a forecast for the rest of the year.
Another rt in DUOL.
First NVIDIA DGX H200 in the world, hand-delivered to OpenAI and dedicated by Jensen "to advance AI, computing, and humanity".
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/h200/ $31k each
The H100s was first priced at $40k, with Nvidia currently selling them for $25k until the production of H200s ramps up fully.
Closed ORN it missed in earnings. It was down 15% for me and that is a hard line in the sand. The first loss is usually the smallest loss.
The nice part of this system once you set it up, with an occasional fine tuning, it buys back calls and sells puts, making $$$ both ways. It is taking advantage of human nature: Fear and Greed, the more extremes the better.
Added a small position in TXO, RMNI and TAK 500 shares each.
Some new positions: URI, BURL, OC, PPC all via sold Puts, actually URI just made a rt. for a 30% gainer.
There is fear, thus it will be a good morning to sell Cash Covered Puts, looking at first: VLO, IBM, VRT, DUOL, AZZ. The ones who reported and beat estimates recently.
Slower GDP at 1.6 than anticipated at 2.4.
2YR yields 5.002%.
PepsiCo call buyer realizes 285% same-day gains
THE FLY 8:00 AM ET 4/25/2024
Symbol Last Price Change
PEP 177.41down 0 (0%)
QUOTES AS OF 04:00:00 PM ET 04/24/2024
Notable profits for the buyer who lifted the $0.43 offer for 1,999 PepsiCo(PEP) May-24 180 calls yesterday at 10:11ET when underlying shares were trading at $172.36. Shares closed at $177.41, and the calls at $1.65 for a mark-to-market profit of 285%, or $245K, on the $86K outlay.
SPX responded to the economic numbers and is down now nearly 60.
The top question in most holders of MO stock is how long can MO pay that nice, juicy dividend. Or are we looking at a slowly dying buggy whip maker?
Altria's Marlboro Shipment Volume Plunges 8.7% In Q1 - What's Going On?
BENZINGA 8:28 AM ET 4/25/2024
Symbol Last Price Change
MO 42.92up 0 (0%)
QUOTES AS OF 04:10:00 PM ET 04/24/2024
Altria Group Inc (MO) reported a first-quarter FY24 sales decline of 2.5% year-on-year to $5.58 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $4.71 billion.
The revenue decrease was primarily driven by lower net revenues in the smokeable products segment, partially offset by higher net revenues in the oral tobacco products segment and the all other category.
Revenues net of excise tax decreased 1% to $4.7 billion. Revenue for smokeable products decreased by 3.6%, and oral tobacco products grew by 3.7%.
Smokeable products segment reported domestic cigarette shipment volume decrease of 10%, with Marlboro down 8.7%.
Gross profit fell 1.5% Y/Y to $3.280 billion. The operating income for the quarter decreased by 3% to $2.7 billion.
Adjusted EPS of $1.15 was in line with the consensus estimate.
In the first quarter, the company paid dividends of $1.7 billion. After the completion of the accelerated share repurchase program, Altria(MO) expects to have $1 billion remaining under the currently authorized $3.4 billion share repurchase program.
Altria (MO) held $3.6 billion in cash and equivalents as of March-end. Total debt of Altria(MO) amounted to $25.042 billion.
βIn spite of the absence of an effective regulatory environment, we saw continued early momentum from NJOY and believe our businesses are on track to deliver against full-year plans,β said CEO Billy Gifford.
Outlook Reaffirmed: Altria(MO) sees FY24 adjusted EPS of $5.05 β $5.17 versus an estimate of $5.08.
The company expects 2024 adjusted EPS growth to be weighted to the second half of the year.
Price Action: MO shares are trading higher by 0.19% at $43.00 in premarket at the last check Thursday.
Photo via Shutterstock
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