Author: BlackMask Financial

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Dell reports Q1 net income at $938M, up 415% YoY

https://youtu.be/5YJwo26rZY8

Dell Technologies Inc. said on Thursday that its revenue in the first fiscal quarter rose 12% per annum to land at $25.40 billion. Operating income jumped 96% during the same period to $1.38 billion. Net income was up a whooping 415% year-over-year at $938 million, or $1.13 per share. Per segment, Client Solutions Group recorded the highest ever revenue at $13.3 billion, up 20% on a yearly basis, while Infrastructure Solutions Group posted a 5% increase at $7.9 billion. VMware revenue was $3.0 billion for the first quarter, up 9%. “We had record first quarter revenue and operating income, and record trailing 12 month cash flow from operations of $14.4 billion – all driven by strength and execution across all three of our business units. Our focus continues to be on strengthening our capital structure, modernizing our core infrastructure and PC businesses, and continuing to grow in hybrid and private cloud, edge, telecom and as-a-Service,” CEO Tom Sweet stated.

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Wall Street closes mostly higher on Yellen’s remarks: Yellen: Debt-to-GDP ratio to rise above 100%

Major stock markets on Wall Street closed mostly higher on Thursday following the remarks made by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in which she revealed inflation will likely stay high over the upcoming months while the debt-to-DGP ratio will surpass 100% in the new budget plan. While Senate Republicans announced their $928 billion infrastructure counteroffer to President Joe Biden’s bill, the data noted pending home sales in the US monthly declined by 4.4% in April. Multiple companies were also set to report their earnings results following the closing bell, including Salesforce, Costco, Dell and HP. The Dow Jones soared 0.41% or 138 points at the close, with Boeing jumping 3.87%. The S&P 500 rose 0.12%, as Ford Motor and General Electric surged over 7%. On the other hand, the Nasdaq 100 lost 0.33%. Okta was the worst performer, plunging 9.79%.

Yellen: Debt-to-GDP ratio to rise above 100%

United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen shared on Thursday that the federal budget plan will be presented on Friday. She also mentioned that the debt-to-DGP ratio will be a little higher than 100%. Yellen stated that the real interest rate cost on the federal debt is currently negative due to current rates. Additionally, President Joe Biden’s budget assumes that overtime rates will revert to lower, but more normal levels. The Treasury official also underscored the importance of maintaining a responsible fiscal policy, in order not to impose tax increases on future generations. Yellen also predicted that due to an ageing population, there may be deficit problems arising after 2030.

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You really need a second passport

Make sure at a minimum your passport is among the top 30. Most passport programs being hawked on the internet are a really bad deal. You want full citizen rights, retirement and world class  medical. And you must have visa free travel to as a minimum the US and Europe………

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HSBC to exit retail banking in US, sell 90 branches

HSBC Holdings plc announced that it decided to exit its mass market retail banking business in the United States and shift its focus to international banking and wealth management. The bank noted it will sell 90 of its 148 branches and has already reached sales agreements with Citizens Bank and Cathay Bank for certain parts of its retail business. Meanwhile, 20-25 branches will be repurposed into international wealth centers and the remaining 35-40 will be wound down. “We are pleased to announce the sale of the domestic mass market of our US retail banking business. They are good businesses, but we lacked the scale to compete. Our continued presence in the US is key to our international network and an important contributor to our growth plans,” CEO Noel Quinn stated. “This next chapter of HSBC’s presence in the US will see the team focus on our competitive strengths, connecting our global wholesale and wealth management clients to other markets around the world,” he added.

 

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US GDP expands 6.4% in Q1 Hottest economy ever!

US economy grew by 6.4% on a yearly basis in the first quarter.

The United States’ Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded at an annual rate of 6.4% in the first quarter of 2021, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis second estimate showed on Thursday. This reading matched the initial estimate and came in below the market expectation of 6.5%. “Upward revisions to consumer spending and nonresidential fixed investment were offset by downward revisions to exports and private inventory investment,” the publication read. “Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, were revised up.” Nick Note: HOT HOT HOT!

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Wrong to say tens of thousands died unnecessarily from COVID, UK minister says

The number of coronavirus deaths in the UK would have been halved if lockdown had been introduced a week earlier, a former government adviser has said.

Prof Neil Ferguson, whose advice was crucial to the decision to go into lockdown, said the outbreak had been doubling in size every three or four days before measures had been taken. The prime minister said it was still too early to make such a judgement. “We will have to look back on all of it and learn the lessons that we can.”

Boris Johnson added: “A lot of these things are still premature. This epidemic has a long way to go.”

‘Limited information on virus’

Chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance said important questions about the measures taken “still needed to be addressed”.

The UK’s chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, said looking back at “how we improve on what we do” was routine. “Part of the problem… at that stage is that we had very limited information about this virus,” he added. In the UK, lockdown began on 23 March. The number of people known to have died with coronavirus in the UK stands at 41,128. Prof Ferguson, from Imperial College London, told a committee of MPs: “Had we introduced lockdown measures a week earlier, we would have reduced the final death toll by at least a half.

“So whilst I think the measures, given what we knew about this virus then, in terms of its transmission, were warranted… certainly had we introduced them earlier, we would have seen many fewer deaths.” Prof Ferguson, who resigned as a government adviser last month after allegedly breaching lockdown rules, indicated many lives in care homes could have been saved.

“We made the rather optimistic assumption that somehow the elderly would be shielded,” be said.

But “that simply failed to happen”. Prof Ferguson said the government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) had “anticipated in theory” the risk to people living in care homes. And it had been discussed in meetings as early as February. But the “only way you can really protect care homes is to do extensive testing to make sure it doesn’t get in”. And more was now understood about how the virus was transmitted, Care home workers often worked at more than one facility and might be spreading infection between residences, for example. Coronavirus was growing “exponentially” in February and March.

 Scientists have told BBC News an estimated 100,000 people were being infected every day in England by the time it went into lockdown.

Introducing measures a week earlier would have significantly cut that figure and in turn saved lives. Why this did not happen is one of the major questions about the government’s handling of this pandemic. It is far easier to look back than to make the decision in the moment. There was a lack of information and the scale of the outbreak within the UK was not clear. But other scientists were making the case for the UK to go into lockdown weeks before it happened. Discussing the timing of the lockdown on BBC Radio 4’s More or Less programme, mathematician Kit Yates said there had been an “overreliance” on certain models when determining how fast the epidemic had been doubling. “Some members of [pandemic modelling group] SPI-M have communicated their concerns to me that some of the modelling groups had more influence over the consensus decisions than others,” he said. This meant “some opinions or estimates that may have been valid didn’t get passed on up the chain.

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Inflation questions keep stocks in check

LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) – World stocks were pinned down on Thursday as investors awaited U.S. data expected to offer clues on inflation, with further pressures widely seen as sparking a scaling back of central banks’ giant stimulus packages. The Euro STOXX 600 lost 0.2%, with German shares down 0.5% and London’s main index making slim losses. France gained 0.1%. Losses of around 0.2% in energy stocks were offset by 1.2% gains in the mining sector, while British bank HSBC gained 0.1% after a move to exit U.S. retail banking to focus on Asia. Wall Street futures gauges pointed to losses of around 0.2%. In focus was U.S. gross domestic product and jobless claims numbers expected later in the day. Investors also held back major bets before the monthly U.S. personal consumption report, due on Friday. “We still believe inflation will not be transient, but will persist – this is where I think we differ with central banks,” said Jeremy Gatto, a portfolio manager at Unigestion. Nick Note: Listen to the tape. Wall Streeters are desperately clinging to their historic models… scratching their ass trying to figure it out.The problem is their is no historic model for a pandemic. This is the first one in modern times. And this time their is a vaccine…. One thing and one thing only should drive the narrative. Its the biggest boom time economy ever. Driven by the consumer who has been  set free after being caged for over a year. Financed by the biggest pile of cash in the hands of the consumer (70% of the US economy)  ever. And a mountain of consumer credit at the cheapest rates ever.

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Lenovo’s Q4 revenue surges 48% to $15.6B Nvidia Q1 revenue up 84% to $5.7B YoY, beats estimates

HONG KONG, May 27, 2021 – Lenovo Group (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced record results for the Group for both its fourth quarter and fiscal year, with phenomenal growth across all parts of the business. The results demonstrate the Group’s resilience and ability to achieve balanced, consistent, and sustainable growth as it continues to diversify and transform in line with its 3S (Smart IoT, Smart Infrastructure, Smart Solutions) corporate strategy. Fourth quarter Group revenue grew at 48% year-to-year to US$15.6 billion. Profit recorded its highest growth rate in two years – with pre-tax income of US$380 million and net income of US$260 million – up 392% and 512% respectively. The Q4 results closed out a record year, with annual Group revenue surging past US$60 billion, adding more than US$10 billion on the previous fiscal year. Profit grew even faster, with pre-tax income of almost US$1.8 billion and net income of US$1.2 billion – both up more than 70% year-on-year. Lenovo’s Board of Directors declared a final dividend of 3.09 US cents or 24 HK cents per share for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. “Last quarter, we delivered our fastest growing quarter in almost a decade and closed the fiscal year with the new milestone of passing US$60 billion in revenue and significant growth in profit to a new record. These historic highs were achieved by leveraging our core competencies of a clear strategy, innovative products, operational excellence, and global-local model to meet the new needs in the New Normal.” said Yuanqing Yang, Lenovo Chairman and CEO. “Looking forward, we will capture the huge growth opportunities created by the market trends of information consumption upgrade, infrastructure upgrade and application upgrade to drive long-term sustainable growth and ensure we can build an even smarter future in the years ahead.”

Nvidia Q1 revenue up 84% to $5.7B YoY, beats estimates

https://youtu.be/kH6_lo70drM

Nvidia Corporation published its financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2022 on Wednesday, marking a staggering 84% jump in revenue to $5.7 billion, compared to the same period of last year. The figure is also 13% higher from the last fiscal quarter. The company’s net income reached $1.9 billion, which is up 109% year-on-year and 31% higher than the fourth quarter of last fiscal year. GAAP earnings per diluted share marked a 106% increase from the comparable period of last year to $3.03 per share. “We had a fantastic quarter, with strong demand for our products driving record revenue. […] NVIDIA RTX has reinvented computer graphics and is driving upgrades across the gaming and design markets. Our partners are launching the largest-ever wave of NVIDIA-powered laptops. Across industries, the adoption of NVIDIA computing platforms is accelerating,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia. Nick Note: Earnings like these demonstrate why i am so jazzed about high tech. Its all based on computers and smart phones in the hands of the masses. And its takes faster more powerful computers and smart phones to be able to takes advantage of the wonderful new world we all live in like it or not. People are upgrading like never seen before.

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Fed will act if upward inflation pressure persists – Clarida Wall Street closes mixed as rebound stalls

Fed will act if upward inflation pressure persists – Clarida

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida on Wednesday said it may take longer to reopen the economy than it did to shut it down during the coronavirus pandemic and his concerns range from the possibility of both higher inflation and weaker employment than economists expect. The Fed has been hit by two major data surprises. Last Friday’s weaker-than-expected April job report and Wednesday’s hotter-than-expected April consumer prices. In a discussion with the National Association for Business Economics, Clarida said he was surprised by the strength of the government report that showed the consumer price index jumped 0.8% in April.  As the economy reopens, “we could have more persistent imbalances between aggregate demand and supply that would put more persistent upward pressure on inflation than we and outside forecasts expect,” Clarida said Wednesday after the inflation data was published. If stronger demand relative to supply persisted and pushed up inflation higher than the Fed’s stable 2% target, the central bank would not hesitate to act, he said.

He said he still expects price gains as the economy reopens to be one-time price increases with temporary effects on inflation.

“I expect inflation to return to – or perhaps run somewhat above – our 2% longer-run goal in 2022 and 2023,” he said. This would fit under the Fed’s new policy framework, he noted. After looking at the details of the April job report published last Friday, Clarida said was concerned about the immediate prospects for job growth.

“The near-term outlook for the labor market appears to be more uncertain than the outlook for activity,” Clarida said.

The labor market added 266,000 jobs in April, well below market expectations of one million new jobs. There is a “necessary rebalancing of labor supply and demand, he said. What this means for wage and price dynamics “will depend importantly on the pace of the recovery in labor force participation as well as the extent to which there are post-pandemic mismatches between labor demand and supply in specific sectors of the economy and how long any such imbalances persist,” he said. Clarida said that employment remains 8.2 million below its pre-pandemic peak. “At the recent pace of payroll gains – roughly 500,000 per month over the past three months – it would take until August 2022 to restore employment to its pre-pandemic level,” Clarida said. The Fed has been buying $120 billion of assets, along with keeping its policy rate close to zero, to support the economy. Fed officials have said they want to see “substantial further progress” in their two goals of full employment and stable 2% average inflation before cutting back on the pace of purchases. Clarida said it would likely take “some time” for this benchmark to be reached, giving no hint that he wants to start a formal discussion of when it would be appropriate to start to taper asset purchases. Is it time to taper, Clarida was asked. “Not yet,” he answered. “It is fair to say, sitting here in the middle of May, we have not made substantial progress towards our labor market objectives,” Clarida said. “We need to recognize that there is a fair amount of noise right now and that it will be prudent and appropriate to gather more evidence before we make that judgement,” he added.

Wall Street closes mixed as rebound stalls

Major stock markets on Wall Street closed mixed on Tuesday following a tumultuous trading session. Earlier, big tech companies erased gains recorded through the day, with Amazon coming under fire following the announcement that Washington DC was suing it over antitrust issues. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida stated that the Fed would react if the upward inflation pressure, caused by the country’s reopening, continued. The Dow Jones closed with a decrease of 0.24%, with Merck & Co losing 1.99%. The Nasdaq 100 ended the session 0.12% in the green, as Moderna rose by 3.10%. The S&P 500 was down 0.21%, with Seagate Technology Holdings plc declining 4.74%. Nick Note: The chop shop….. We need to keep a 400 point cushion. Allow for at least 5% swings. The market is trying to sort out economic reports the likes of which they have never seen before. Unfortunately economists and analysts are trained to look at economic  reports and trading patters with a view of a historic parallel. Its their feeble attempt to predict the future based on the past. Such  feeble attempts in the best of times has made them a 5% return on a 5 year bases. It proves  it does not work. Where i make my big scores are the times that new curve balls hit the market. Like the the teck wreck or the 2008 funny money structured debt crash. So you can imagine how they have missed the boat on the plague plunge and now the vaccine cure. Their is nothing in their beloved historic models to tell them what do do on a vast economic recovery where the masses are not broke. Coming out of a traditional recession or depression the economy limps along as people recover their wealth. The consumer who is broke cannot spend or borrow enough for a instant snap back. This time its different. the economy is conning out of the plague induced depression like a rocket launch. This time the consumer has 4 trillion dollars to spend and invest. Consumer demand is running wild. That is why we are running out of everything in sight. Business economists told business to shut it down. And they did. Nothing in their model shows a vaccine developed and deployed in a year. Normally you are looking at 10 years. Their models failed them like never before. Now we are seeing the greatest, fastest economic and profit recovery ever. So that explains the scramble for inventories. Soon the supply chain will be filled again and the greatest economic recovery ever will not be in doubt. Inflation will be proven to be simply reflation and prices will moderator as production catches up with demand. The really good news is profits will flow to the bottom line and the earnings will surpass the price in the P/E ratio. Of course the markets can not see this because their algoes are not programed for what the PHD mathemiticans have never seen before. Without out a historic model as usual Wall Street gets blind sided. Both on the downside but also on the upside. I LOVE our Black Card trade.

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U.S. consumer confidence holds steady; housing showing strain as prices surge

https://youtu.be/2UOHmq6XBMI

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence hovered at a 14-month high in May as optimism about job prospects tempered concerns about rising inflation and diminishing government financial support. Though the survey from the Conference Board on Tuesday suggested the pace of economic growth remained robust in the second quarter, the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic recession, which started in February 2020, is bumpy. The housing market, one of the star performers, is showing signs of fatigue, with new single-family homes sales dropping in April amid a dearth of properties, which is boosting prices at the fastest pace in more than 15 years. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index slipped to a reading of 117.2 this month from 117.5 in April, the highest level since February 2020. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index at 119.2. Effective May, the Conference Board switched to an online from a mail survey. Data from January through April was revised to reflect the results of the online survey. The dip mirrored other sentiment surveys, which were pulled down by worries that rising inflation would erode consumers’ purchasing power. Consumers’ expectations for the future may be less bright because the tailwind from Americans spending their $1,400 stimulus checks could be fading. Earlier this month, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales in the U.S. flattened out in April after soaring in March, when many Americans received those government checks and boosted their spending. Economists have said that rising confidence should bolster overall economic growth as consumers, who account for 70% of economic activity, spend more as lockdown restrictions are eased or abandoned altogether in many places. Recent government data shows that the nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — is expected to continue to rise. Following a 4.3% gain in the fourth quarter of 2020, the government’s first estimate of the January-March quarter came in at a brisk 6.4% annual rate. Some economists expect even bigger growth in the current April-June quarter — an annual pace of 10% or more — driven by a surge in people traveling, shopping, dining out and resuming their pre-pandemic spending habits.