Home Depot Inc. released on Tuesday its earnings report for the first quarter of 2021, announcing its revenue was $37.5 billion, up 32.7% compared to the same period in 2020. Operating income came in at $5.7 billion, an increase of 76.5% on an annual basis. Net income stood at $4.1 billion, rising 84.6% year-on-year. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) grew 85.6% to $3.86.
“Fiscal 2021 is off to a strong start as we continue to build on the momentum from our strategic investments and effectively manage the unprecedented demand for home improvement projects,” said CEO Craig Menear.
The company’s shares were up 2.25% in premarket trade after the release of the earnings report. Nick Note: This is some hot shit. Millennial are at the nest building stage. And flush with cash to burn… this will continue
Shares on the major stock market indices in the United States traded with gains in the premarket on Tuesday, as the investors awaited earnings reports that Home Depot, Macy’s, and Walmart are set to reveal before the opening bell. Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan reiterated his stance that the Fed could increase the interest rates in 2022, while US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reportedly intends to ask the business community to back President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.24% or 82 points at 4:30 am ET, while the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.73% a minute later. The S&P 500 was up by 0.35% at 4:31 am ET, with the euro jumping 0.51% versus the dollar a minute after that, selling for 1.22147. Nick Note: Sit back and wait them out. I love all the mumbojumbo JIVE. Its very simple their is 1 trillion dollars looking for a home. And how do you get a rally going. Simple get a rally going. The economy is opening up. Bushiness are hording the inventories they got. The factories are gearing up production and the supply chains will soon fill up. And the Captives set free will go on the greatest spending spree the world has ever seen…. And the stock market will soar…..
A massive $735 million sale in weapons to Israel has been approved by the United States amid recent Palestinian terror attacks on the country.
The sale will focus on Israel acquiring precision missiles and special munitions from the United States. Israel has increased pressure on Palestine and inflicted severe damage against the terrorists who fire over 3,100 rockets.
“Spoke today with Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry to discuss the ongoing violence in Israel, West Bank, and Gaza,” Blinken tweeted.
“All parties need to deescalate tensions – the violence must end immediately.”
This is bad, counterproductive foreign policy. Having started a war it is now beneficial to Israel and the region for Hamas to be dealt a humiliating blow. US pressure to stop the war prematurely is a reward for Hamas. https://t.co/0XjNdpaE1C
“The Biden Administration has distanced itself from Israel by attempting to revive the failed Iran deal, siding with the Ayatollahs over our ally,” former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo tweeted.
Israel took action against terrorists by blowing up miles of underground terror tunnels before taking the fight to the front door
“America must be strong and defend its allies without hesitation.”
The Biden Administration has distanced itself from Israel by attempting to revive the failed Iran deal, siding with the Ayatollahs over our ally. America must be strong and defend its allies without hesitation.
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) May 17, 2021
Israel took action against terrorists by blowing up miles of underground terror tunnels before taking the fight to the front door.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
“Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander Hassam Abu-Arbid was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip Monday afternoon as rockets fired from the blockaded enclave continued to be fired towards southern Israel communities.”
Palestinian terrorists fired more than 3,100 rockets at Israel over the past week
“The IDF said that Abu-Arbid, was killed in a joint operation with the Shin Bet intelligence services, commanded over the northern Gaza Strip brigade of the terror organization and was behind the launching of rockets and anti-tank guided missiles towards Israel.”
Palestinian terrorists fired more than 3,100 rockets at Israel over the past week, with approximately 450 of the rockets falling inside Gaza.
The IDF targeted over miles of tunnels used by the terrorists in an attack that saw 54 fighter jets dropping more than 100 precision bombs.
The IDF said in a statement:
“A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck a Hamas tunnel shaft in the area of Khan Yunis of the southern Gaza Strip.”
“The tunnel contained military equipment and was located adjacent to a kindergarten, a mosque, and a hospital. This proves once again how the Hamas terror organization deliberately places its military assets in the heart of densely populated civilian areas.”
“The IDF provided advance warning to civilians in the building in order to allow them sufficient time to evacuate the site. In addition, IDF fighter jets struck offices belonging to Hamas Internal Security, which served as terror infrastructure.”
Our fighter jets neutralized 9.3 miles of the Hamas ‘Metro’ terror tunnel system overnight. That’s 9.3 miles that can no longer be used for terror.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 17, 2021
The head of the Yamina party and Israel’s Knesset member, Naftali Bennett, warned Hamas to stop attacking Israel or risk the annihilation of its leadership. “It’s up to Hamas as long as Hamas keeps [attacking Israel] in order to murder Israelis across the state — by the way, Arabs and Jews alike,” Bennett said. “Hamas already murdered two Arab Israelis in the city of Lod, a dad, 52 years old, and his daughter Nadin, 16 years old, Israeli Arabs who were murdered.”
Billionaire George Soros’ investment firm, Soros Fund Management bought shares of ViacomCBS Inc (VIAC.O), Discovery Inc (DISCA.O) and Baidu Inc (9888.HK) as they were being sold off during the meltdown of Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. The fund bought $194 million of ViacomCBS, Baidu stock valued at $77 million, as well $46 million of Vipshop Holdings Ltd (VIPS.N) and $34 million of Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME.N) during the first quarter, the report said citing a regulatory filing released on Friday. The company didn’t hold the shares prior to Archegos’s implosion, a person familiar with the fund’s trading told Bloomberg. Archegos, a family office run by ex-Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang was highly exposed to ViacomCBS, whose shares plunged in March, leaving the hedge fund facing a massive margin call from its prime broker banks. Archegos was unable to meet the call to secure the equity swap trades that the banks had partly financed. Global banks lost nearly $10 billion from the Archegos fallout. Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), Nomura Holdings (8604.T) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) were some of the banks that were hit. Nick Note: Weather you realize it our not i had you buy the Archegos crash. It is what blew up our NASDAQ trade. BUT their are times in a great trade you stick to your guns even if it involves losing positions to gain price….. THIS WILL BE A ALL TIME GREAT TRADE……..
Tech stocks all the rage on Wall Street, Nasdaq gains more than 2%
U.S. stocks rose sharply on Friday despite weak economic data.
The moves on Wall Street mirrored those around the world, as stock indices in general recorded solid gains.
The U.S. Department of Commerce said U.S. retail sales were largely unchanged in April, following a revised 10.7-percent gain in March.
NEW YORK, New York – U.S. stocks rose sharply on Friday despite weak economic data. The moves on Wall Street mirrored those around the world, as stock indices in general recorded solid gains. The U.S. dollar was sold off. The U.S. Department of Commerce said U.S. retail sales were largely unchanged in April, following a revised 10.7-percent gain in March. Analysts were expecting a 1 percent improvement. The U.S. Federal Reserve reported that total industrial production rose 0.7 percent last month, significantly below the 2.4 percent achieved in March, and significantly below expectations. U.S. Consumer Sentiment disappointed with a reading of 82.8, while inflation expectations surged to 4.6%. Meantime both U.S. import and export prices increased in April, the U.S. Department of Labor said on Friday. The price index for U.S. imports rose 0.7 percent in April following a 1.4-percent advance in March. U.S. import prices advanced 10.6 percent from April 2020 to April 2021, the biggest yearly rise since an 11.1-percent gain in the year ending October 2011. U.S. export prices rose 0.8 percent in April, after increasing 2.4 percent in March. The price index for U.S. exports has not recorded a monthly decline since a 3.5-percent drop in April 2020. The price index for U.S. exports rose 14.4 percent for the year ending in April, the largest 12-month increase since the index was first published in September 1983. At the close on Friday, the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 304.99 points or 2.32 percent at 13,429.98. The Dow Jones industrials added 360.68 points or 1.06 percent to 34,382.13. The Standard and Poor’s 500 gained 61.35 points or 1.49 percent to 4,173.85. Nick Note: You will not come this way again. Try NEVER again Its a force closed economy that is about to boom. . And the volatility is a GREAT part of the game. Until you embrace that the market will swing against you and to love your loses you will not succeed. One you understand you can not trade the swings But you have to grit your teeth and stand the pain them the market will make you truly wealthy. In our CFD account at one point this trade cycle we were making close to a million dollars and most recently was losing close to two million. As of Fridays close those loses were around 560,000. But we rode down the 8% correction we predicted and rode up from the bottom we called at the 13,000 level. in fact we added even more positions. For those of you that got involved in forced liquidation let me explain. I much have 25 positions at 13,000 then 50 positions at 14,000. A lot of people after a whipping tend to want to make their cushion bigger and trade less aggressive.. A BIG mistake. After a big drop the cushon should be greatly reduced and one should buy aggressively. All the scaredey cats and weak traders have been eliminated… thats how market works.
WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) – U.S. business inventories increased moderately in March, likely restrained by shortages of raw materials, which have weighed on the production of motor vehicles and other goods. Business inventories rose 0.3% after increasing 0.6% in February, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Inventories are a key component of gross domestic product. March’s gain was in line with economists’ expectations. Inventories were unchanged on a year-on-year basis in March. Retail inventories decreased 1.4% in March as estimated in an advance report published last month. That followed a 0.1% gain in February. Motor vehicle inventories plunged 6.1% as previously reported. Motor vehicle stocks are dwindling as a global semiconductor shortage weighs on auto production. Retail inventories excluding autos, which go into the calculation of GDP, increased 0.6% as estimated last month. Business inventories were depleted in the first quarter amid a burst in domestic demand, fueled by a reopening economy and massive fiscal stimulus. Inputs shortages at factories as well as a scarcity of workers at ports to offload imported consumer goods could make it difficult for businesses to rebuild stock. The inventory drawdown subtracted 2.64 percentage points from GDP growth last quarter. Still, the economy grew at a robust 6.4% annualized rate in the March-January period after expanding at a 4.3% pace in the fourth quarter. Wholesale inventories rose 1.3% in March. Stocks at manufacturers gained 0.7%. Business sales rebounded 5.7% in March after dropping 1.6% in February. At March’s sales pace, it would take 1.23 months for businesses to clear shelves, down from 1.30 months in February.
US retail sales stay flat in April, below estimates
Advance estimates of United States retail and food services sales for April stayed unchanged compared to March at $619.9 billion, failing to meet analyst expectations, the Census Bureau said in a report released on Friday. The figure went up by 51.2% annually. Total sales for the three-month period from February through April increased by 27.1% compared to the same time period of last year. Retail trade sales declined by 0.3% on a monthly level but jumped 46.1% on a yearly basis. Meanwhile, clothing and clothing accessories sales surged 726.8% year-on-year while food services and drinking places grew 116.8%.
US consumer confidence down in May
The Index of Consumer Sentiment for the United States fell 6.2% in May compared to the previous month to land at 82.8 points and fail estimates, according to the preliminary report published by the University of Michigan on Friday. Current Economic Conditions also registered a drop of 6.6% in the same period, landing at 90.8 points, while Index of Consumer Expectations fell 6.2% to 77.6 points. However, all three indexes achieved a yearly jump of over 10%.”Consumer confidence in early May tumbled due to higher inflation – the highest expected year-ahead inflation rate in the past decade,” as well as the highest long term inflation rate. the report explained.
Nick Note: This is the example of using a historic bias to analyze data. They are right if these numbers were generated in NORMAL times their would be a problem. In the flick of a switch you have gone for a depression shut down to a full blown economic boom….unprecedented. There is no economic model for such a event ever. Unfortunately economists are trained to identify past patterns to predict future events, And as you have seen surprises out of left field devastates the Wall Street market gods and they demand bail outs, The rapid rate of business opening is devastating supply chains manufacturing was also shut down. Causing shortages which are TEMPORARY as well as the price increases. People are confused should she or shouldn’t she go back to work. All this will sort itself out in the next 6 months. The big mistake the markets are making is not realizing this is the START of boom time profits. And the start of people returning to work and the biggest spending spree in world history. Which means profits and economic recovery are understated and price increases are temporary in nature and exaggerated.
Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Barkin stated on Thursday that he is hopeful that the United States is on the brink of completing its recovery from the coronavirus crisis, especially given that America’s recovery has outpaced most of the world countries. Barkin also noted that the inflation expectations and the business outlook are not pointing to persistent multi-year jump inflation, the current price pressures are part of a transitory inflation increase. The Fed official also pointed out that the overall economic growth can be compromised by the disruptions in supply chains, despite the speedy spending and consumer confidence recovery.
U.S. stocks rebound following rout, bond yields edge down
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. shares rebounded on Thursday after falling for three consecutive days and benchmark Treasury yields edged lower as investors snapped up technology stocks and shrugged off worries over rising prices, for now. By early morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.5%, the S&P 500 was up 1.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.3%. Yields on 10-year Treasuries, which had climbed 7 basis points overnight in the biggest daily rise in two months, edged lower in early trade to stand at 1.6744%. “We’re certainly oversold here, so remember our 5-percent maxim: buy every S&P 500 down 5 percent close after the first one,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research.
ASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 473,000, a new pandemic low and the latest evidence that fewer employers are cutting jobs as consumers ramp up spending and more businesses reopen. The decline — the fourth in the past five weeks — coincides with a rash of states led by Republican governors that have blamed expanded jobless benefits for a slowdown in hiring and are acting to cut off the additional aid. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that applications declined 34,000 from a revised 507,000 a week earlier. The number of weekly jobless claims — a rough measure of the pace of layoffs — has fallen significantly from a peak of 900,000 in January. Last week’s unemployment claims marked the lowest level since March of last year, when the viral pandemic erupted across the economy. The decline in applications is coinciding with a steadily improving economy. More Americans are venturing out to shop, travel, dine out and congregate at entertainment venues. The reopening has proceeded so fast that many businesses aren’t yet able to staff up as quickly as they would like. In April, employers added 266,000 jobs, far fewer than expected. The surprisingly tepid gain raised concerns that businesses may find it hard to quickly add jobs as the economy keeps improving and that regaining pre-pandemic employment levels could take longer than hoped. In Thursday’s report on jobless claims, the government said nearly 16.9 million people were receiving unemployment aid during the week of April 24, the latest period for which data is available. That is up from 16.2 million in the previous week and suggests that hiring wasn’t strong enough last month to pull people off unemployment. The rise in unemployment recipients occurred mostly in California and Michigan, where more than 600,000 people were added to the federal jobless benefit program that was set up for gig workers and contractors. The hiring slowdown has led to a political backlash against several federal expansions to unemployment benefits, including an extra $300 in weekly benefits paid for by the federal government, on top of state payments that average about $320. The supplement was included in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus measure, approved in March, and is set to expire the week of Sept. 6. But so far, 12 states — all with GOP governors — have announced that they will stop paying the extra benefit as soon as June or July. In Tennessee, for example, Gov. Bill Lee said the state will stop issuing the payment July 3. In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson said on Twitter that it will end June 12. The 12 states will also end their participation in two federal benefit programs: One that has made gig workers and the self-employed eligible for assistance for the first time, and a second that provides extra weeks of aid. Together, those programs cover 12.5 million people nationwide. Businesses have cited the extra $300 as a reason they are struggling to hire. An analysis by Bank of America economists found that people who had earned up to $32,000 in their previous jobs can receive as much or more income from jobless aid. Some unemployed people say the extra benefit allows them to take more time to look for work, which can make hiring harder. There are other factors that help explain why many people who are out of work might be reluctant to take jobs. Some worry that working in restaurants, hotels or other services industries will expose them to the virus, according to government surveys. In addition, many women, especially working mothers, have had to leave the workforce to care for children who are still in online school for at least part of the week. The Century Foundation, a think thank, estimates that the move by the 12 states will cut off benefits for 895,000 people. In addition to Tennessee and Missouri, the other states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming. In some states, the impact will fall the hardest on African-Americans, the Century Foundation calculates. Half the unemployment benefit recipients in Alabama and South Carolina are Black; in Mississippi, two-thirds are. Biden earlier this week disputed the notion that the $300 payment is to blame for the drop-off in hiring last month. But he also urged the Labor Department to work with states on renewing requirements that recipients of unemployment aid must search for jobs and take a position if offered. The job search rule was suspended during the pandemic, when many businesses were closed and employment opportunities were few. A majority of states have now reinstated it. “Anyone collecting unemployment, who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits,” Biden said.
The producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand in the United States increased 0.6% in April compared to the previous month, according to a report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday. The index moved up 6.2% for the 12 months ended in April, the largest advance since 12-month data were first calculated in November 2010, the release stated. The prices for final demand services and goods both rose by 0.6%. The index for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services was up by 0.7% in April month-on-month, while it recorded the highest 12-month increase since 12-month data was first calculated in August 2014. Nick Note: Remember these comparisons are chain weighted. The data base has never recorded a snap reversal from what in essence was a depression…… This is reflation as buyers are snapping up limited inventories. Remember the producers were also shut down. Everyone is gearing up and supplies will swell bringing prics right down again…. This phenomenon is a reflation..
Alibaba Group unveiled on Thursday that its revenue in the final quarter of fiscal 2021 surged 64% compared to the same period a year prior to reach $28.6 billion. Loss from operations came in at $1.2 billion in the same period, mostly due to an antitrust fine issued by China’s State Administration. Due to the same reason, the firm’s net loss amounted to $1.17 billion or $0.04 per diluted share. If the fine was to be taken out of the account, Alibaba’s net income would have gained 18% on an annual basis, climbing to $4 billion, or $1.58 per share. For the full fiscal year ended March 31, revenue was up 41% to $109.5 billion, while income from operations slid 2% to $13.7 billion. Post-fine, net income stood at $21.9 billion or $1.04 per share. Annual active consumers on China retail marketplaces reached 811 million, a 32 million increase compared to last quarter. Mobile monthly active users on the China retail marketplaces reached 925 million. “Our overall business delivered strong growth on a healthy foundation, with the Alibaba Ecosystem generating a record US$1.2 trillion in GMV during this fiscal year. Such achievements were built on top of clear value propositions that we offer to consumers and merchants. We remain very excited about the growth of China’s consumption economy, which is benefiting from the acceleration of digitalization in all aspects of life and work,” Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang commented.
