CPI Slows – Cyclicals Power Dow 30 & S&P To New Highs On Hump Day – $AAPL $CAT $INM $INMB $INVO $SHIP Edge Higher

Happy Hump Day!

I hope all of you had a great day in the markets and otherwise. As for the market indices, it was overall positive day once again, except for the Nasdaq which again moved lower for the second day in row closing at 14,765.13 (-.16%) as growth stocks were underperforming and large cap cyclicals were leading.  The balance of the indices moved higher as follows: The S&P 500 closed at 4,447.70 (+.25%) a new record, the Dow 30 closed at a record high to at 35,484.97 (+.62%) both being powered with out-weighted performances from the cyclicals as the materials jumped 1.4%, the industrials added 1.3%, & the financials moved up 1.2%. Ten of the eleven sectors closed in the green with only the healthcare sector closing in the red & down 1%. Two Dow components had great days as Caterpillar (CAT) closed at $221.66, +3.55%, making another great move after yesterday’s Senate passing of the infrastructure bill & Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) closed at $49.72  +2.66% as the Delta virus looms & still offers a forward dividend yield of +4.06%. The smalls on the Russell 200o also closed higher at 2,250.34 (+.49%), while the MicroCaps also ticked higher again as the iShares Micro-Cap ETF (IWC) closed at $146.20, (+.02%).

The macroeconomic schedule delivered the Total CPI report, which was confirmed to have risen in line with expectations or by .5% m/m in July & core CPI moved up .3%, while on a y/y basis the total CPI checked in flat at 5.4% & core CPI dropped to 4.3%, -.2%. These results helped chill inflation fears a bit and further fed into the Fed’s ‘transitory’ or ‘peaking’ inflation narrative. Interestingly and another point of reference, and according to a Bloomberg story, the lumber futures have slid to the lowest in more than 9 months after sawmills reportedly ramped up production & demand from builders stabilized. The Treasury Budget for July also confirmed a $302.1B deficit. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report showed a rise by 2.8%. Tomorrow’s schedule will bring forward the Producer Price Index report for July & the weekly Initial and Continuing Claims report. 

The yield curve moderated as the the 10-yr treasury yield closed flat at 1.34% & the 2-yr yield moved down 2 basis points to close at .21%. The U.S. Dollar Index closed down .2% at 92.90. Gold prices moved up $23 to close at $1,752 and silver closed at $23.55, +$.18.

BIOTECH STOCKS DROP

The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) closed at $125.66, -.65%, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) closed at $167.85, -2.99% & the NYSE ARCA Biotech Index (^BTK) closed at 5,768.48, -2.38%.

A report surfaced today stating that the Moderna’s & Pfizer’s vaccines were respectively 76% effective and 42% effective against the Delta Variant. MRNA dropped 15.645 & PFE dropped 3.9%. 

TECH

The massively weighted shares of Apple (AAPL) closed at $145.86, +.18% today & Tesla (TSLA) ticked lower again to close at $707.82, -.31%.

Shares of chip maker NVIDIA (NVDA) closed at $196.99, -1.19%. 

Microsoft (MSFT) closed at $286.95, +.18%.

Amazon.com (AMZN) closed at 3,292.11, -.86%. 

MEMES MOVE LOWER

AMC Entertainment (AMC) closed at $31.55, -.63% after reaching an intraday high of $31.99 and a low of $29.40. 

GameStop (GME) also closed at $158.78, -.17%.

Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE) closed at $27.36 down another 12.67% or more than 20% in the last couple of days. Could we be getting somewhere close to support levels?

Infamous ‘meme brokerage’ firm Robinhood Markets, Inc., (HOOD) closed at $51.19, -5.10% or over 10% in two days, but still higher then IPO shares which were sold recently at $38! This week, according Barron’s HOOD has agreed to acquire all of Say Technologies, a communication platform that aims to help shareholders take part in proxy voting, for about $140M in cash.

Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHIP, $1.04, +7.68%), the only pure-play Capesize ship-owner publicly listed in the US, announced today that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan (the “Plan”). Under the Plan, the Company may repurchase up to $17 million of its outstanding common shares, representing approximately 10% of the Company’s market capitalization as of August 10, 2021.

Economic Reports

• On Monday, the macroeconomic schedule delivered the JOLTS (job openings) report for June that confirmed a record-high of 10.073M openings. 
• On Tuesday, the productivity report  confirmed that it moved up by 2.3% in Q2 & that unit labor costs rose 1%, but both were below expectations.  The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index report for July also fell to 99.7. 
• On Wednesday, the Total CPI report surfaced confirming that it had risen in line with expectations & by .5% m/m in July & core CPI moved up .3%, while on a y/y basis the total CPI checked in flat at 5.4% & core CPI dropped to 4.3%, -.2%, thus chilling inflation fears a bit and further feeding into the Fed’s ‘transitory’ or ‘peaking’ inflation narrative. The Treasury Budget for July confirmed a $302.1B deficit. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report showed a rise by 2.8%. 

Investing & Inspiration

1. “Friend, there’s no greater investment in life than in being a people builder. Relationships are more important than our accomplishments.” – Joel Osteen
2. “It’s only natural that the heavy users help contribute to the investment to keep the Web healthy. That is the most important concept of net neutrality.” – Lowell McAdam
3. “The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” – Jean Paul 

4. “Eliminate emotion from your investment program.” -John C. Bogle

5. “Modern medical advances have helped millions of people live longer, healthier lives. We owe these improvements to decades of investment in medical research.” – Ike Skelton
6. “In every investment, before I get involved or invest, I always see what the mindset of the founder, the CEO, is.” – Zaza Pachulia
7. “An investment said to have an 80% chance of success sounds far more attractive than one with a 20% chance of failure. The mind can’t easily recognize that they are the same.” – Daniel Kahneman
8. “The return on investment in global health is tremendous, and the biggest bang for the buck comes from vaccines. Vaccines are among the most successful and cost-effective health investments in history.” – Seth Berkley
9. “Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A ‘you can do it’ when things are tough.” – Richard M. DeVos
10. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
11. “We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.”  – Jesse Owens
12. “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” – William Arthur Ward- American Writer, Born 1921
13. “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” – Willie Nelson
14. “The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” – Mike Murdock
15.  “If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turn it into something positive.” – Leah LaBelle
16. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”. -Thomas A. Edison
17. “Education is not only a ladder of opportunity, but it is also an investment in our future.” – Ed Markey

18. “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” – Plato

19. “We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.” – Swami Vivekananda
20. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

21. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

22. “Don’t worry about being a star, worry about doing good work, and all that will come to you.” – Ice Cube

23. “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” – William Shakespeare

24. “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” – Niels Bohr (Danish Physicist)

25. “It is indeed true that the stock market can forecast the business cycle.” -Paul Samuelson

26. “The wisest rule in investment is: when others are selling, buy. When others are buying, sell. Usually, of course, we do the opposite. When everyone else is buying, we assume they know something we don’t, so we buy. Then people start selling, panic sets in, and we sell too.” – Jonathan Sacks

27. “What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
28. “Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.” – Thomas Sowell
29. “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll
30. “The truth is you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.” – Eminem

31. “View health as an investment, not an expense.” – John Quelch

32. “Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.” – Kyle Chandler

33. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll
34. “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” – Willie Nelson
35. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
36. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie
37. “A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”–  Duke Ellington
38. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” -Peter Drucker
39. “I’m involved in the stock market, which is fun and, sometimes, very painful.” – Regis Philbin
40. “Who owns the future? This is the question at the heart of every stock market.” – John Landgraf
41. “One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute.” – William Feather
42. “While I’m sure some millennials are concerned with the ethical issues involved in mining for diamonds, the main reason they steer clear of the gems is because, well, they’re a dumb investment.” – Ana Kasparian
43. “The wisest rule in investment is: when others are selling, buy. When others are buying, sell. Usually, of course, we do the opposite. When everyone else is buying, we assume they know something we don’t, so we buy. Then people start selling, panic sets in, and we sell too.” – Jonathan Sack
44. “We must shift our thinking away from short-term gain toward long-term investment and sustainability, and always have the next generations in mind with every decision we make.” –  Deb Haaland
45. “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” –  Ralph Waldo Emerson
46. “If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride – and never quit, you’ll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards.” – Bear Bryant

47. “Investing in women’s lives is an investment in sustainable development, in human rights, in future generations – and consequently in our own long-term national interests.” -Liya Kebede

48. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”– Winston Churchill

49. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius

50. “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” – Archimedes
51. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” – George Orwell
52. “If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.” – Elon Musk
53. “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” – William Arthur Ward
54. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe
55. “Netflix, Amazon, iTunes – whatever platforms emerge – we are looking at as having the same potential that home video had for the movie business. Which means there are entirely new opportunities to monetize our capital investment in content and do so in ways that work for distributors, for consumers and for creators.” – Bob Iger

56. “When you have no one to answer to, vendetta as investment strategy is as legitimate as anything.” – Carl Icahn

57. “No other investment yields as great a return as the investment in education. An educated workforce is the foundation of every community and the future of every economy.” – Brad Henry
58. “In my view, the biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital. Not only is the mere drop in stock prices not risk, but it is an opportunity. Where else do you look for cheap stocks?” – Li Lu

59. “Modern medical advances have helped millions of people live longer, healthier lives.

60. We owe these improvements to decades of investment in medical research.”– Ike Skelton

61. “Stock market goes up or down, and you can’t adjust your portfolio based on the whims of the market, so you have to have a strategy in a position and stay true to that strategy and not pay attention to noise that could surround any particular investment.” – John Paulson

62. “Your mindset matters. It affects everything – from the business and investment decisions you make, to the way you raise your children, to your stress levels and overall well-being.” – Peter Diamandis
63. “Inflation destroys savings, impedes planning, and discourages investment. That means less productivity and a lower standard of living.” – Kevin Brady
64. “Bitcoin, in the short or even long term, may turn out be a good investment in the same way that anything that is rare can be considered valuable. Like baseball cards. Or a Picasso.” – Andrew Ross Sorkin
65. “I think you have to learn that there’s a company behind every stock and there’s only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies.” – Peter Lynch
66. “Historically, there has been a bull market in the commodities every 20 or 30 years.” – Jim Rogers
67. “The markets generally are unpredictable, so that one has to have different scenarios. The idea that you can actually predict what’s going to happen contradicts my way of looking at the market.” – George Soros
68. “Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy or the elections.” – Warren Buffett
69. “An important key to investing is to remember that stocks are not lottery tickets.” – Peter Lynch
70. “Learn everyday, but especially from the experiences of others. It’s cheaper!” – John Bogle
71. “When purchasing depressed stock in troubled companies, seek out the ones with the superior financial positions and avoid the ones with loads of bank debt.” – Peter Lynch
72. “No stock price is too low for bears or too high for bulls.” – John F. Heerdink, Jr.

73. “Investment is most successful when it is most businesslike.” – Ben Graham

74. “Value stocks are about as exciting as watching grass grow, but have you ever noticed just how much your grass grows in a week?” – Christopher Browne

75. “Even the intelligent investor is likely to need considerable willpower to keep from following the crowd.” – Benjamin Graham
76. “Individual who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process.” – Benjamin Graham
77. “I made my first investment at age eleven. I was wasting my life until then.” – Warren Buffet
78. “I don’t look to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over.” — Warren Buffett
79. “There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow. It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.” – Jack Welch, former CEO of GE
80. “Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble” ― Warren Buffett
81. “If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.” – Warren Buffet
82. “How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts? I rest my case.” — Robert G. Allen
83. “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price.” – Warren Buffett
84. “A market downturn doesn’t bother us. It is an opportunity to increase our ownership of great companies with great management at good prices.” — Warren Buffett
85. “Every once in a while, the market does something so stupid it takes your breath away.” — Jim Cramer
86. “The person who starts simply with the idea of getting rich won’t succeed; you must have a larger ambition.” — John D. Rockefeller
87. “Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch
88. “Although it’s easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket… it’s part ownership of a business.” – Peter Lynch
89. “Wise spending is part of wise investing. And it’s never too late to start.” – Rhonda Katz

90. “Invest for the long haul. Don’t get too greedy and don’t get too scared.” – Shelby M.C. Davis

91. “Fear incites human action far more urgently than does the impressive weight of historical evidence.”
    -Jeremy Siegel
92. “With a good perspective on history, we can have a better understanding of the past and present, and thus a clear vision of the future.” — Carlos Slim Helu
93. “If we like a business, we’re going to buy as much of it as we can and keep it as long as we can. And when we change our mind, we don’t take half measures.” – Warren Buffett

94. “The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.” — Peter Thiel

95. “Never depend on a single income, make an investment to create a second source.” Warren Buffet

96. “Games are won by players who focus on the playing field –- not by those whose eyes are glued to the scoreboard.”
    ― Warren Buffett
97. “The key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them.” – Peter Lynch
98. “Courage taught me no matter how bad a crisis gets … any sound investment will eventually pay off.” — Carlos Slim Helu
99. “Investing puts money to work. The only reason to save money is to invest it.” – Grant Cardone
100. “As time goes on, I get more and more convinced that the right method of investment is to put fairly large sums into enterprises which one thinks one knows something about and in the management of which one thoroughly believes.” — John Maynard Keynes
101. “Given a 10% chance of a 100 times payoff, you should take that bet every time.” — Jeff Bezos
102. “Money is always eager and ready to work for anyone who is ready to employ it.” ― Idowu Koyenikan
103. “The secret to investing is to figure out the value of something – and then pay a lot less.” – Joel Greenblatt
104. “We don’t have an analytical advantage, we just look in the right place.” – Seth Klarman
105. “Men, it has been well said, think in herds. It will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” – Charles Mackay
106. “It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.” – George Soros
107. “No Price is too low for a bear or too high for a bull.” — Anonymous
108. “Investment is an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future.” Anonymous
109. “Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it’s doing.” — Peter Lynch
110. “Wise spending is part of wise investing. And it’s never too late to start.” –Rhonda Katz
111. “It amazes me how people are often more willing to act based on little or no data than to use data that is a challenge to assemble.” ― Robert Shiller
112. “A bull market is like sex. It feels best just before it ends.” — Barton Biggs
113. “The investor’s chief problem — even his worst enemy — is likely to be himself.” — Benjamin Graham
114. “No profession requires more hard work, intelligence, patience, and mental discipline than successful speculation.” – Robert Rhea
115. “Money is like a sixth sense – and you can’t make use of the other five without it.” – William Somerset Maugham
116. “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” — Albert Einstein
117. “Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results” — Warren Buffett
118. “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” – Warren Buffett
119. “Thousands of experts study overbought indicators, head-and-shoulder patterns, put-call ratios, the Fed’s policy on money supply…and they can’t predict markets with any useful consistency, any more than the gizzard squeezers could tell the Roman emperors when the Huns would attack.” – Peter Lynch
120. “Investing puts money to work. The only reason to save money is to invest it.” – Grant Cardone
121. “You cannot save time for your future use however you can invest time for your future.” – John F. Heerdink, Jr. 
122. “Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch
123. “Liquidity is only there when you don’t need it.” -Old Proverb
124. “If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.” – Richard Branson
125. “Fear incites human action far more urgently than does the impressive weight of historical evidence.” – Jeremy Siegel
126. “In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” – Robert Arnott
127. “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up.” – Charlie Munger
128. “The entrance strategy is actually more important than the exit strategy.” – Edward Lampert
129. “The rivers don’t drink their own water; Trees don’t eat their own fruits. The sun does not shine for itself, And flowers do not spread their fragrance For themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature” – Pope Francis
130. “It is impossible to produce superior performance unless you do something different from the majority.” – John Templeton
131. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin.
132. “I believe the returns on investment in the poor are just as exciting as successes achieved in the business arena, and they are even more meaningful!” -Bill Gates
133. “Every portfolio benefits from bonds; they provide a cushion when the stock market hits a rough patch. But avoiding stocks completely could mean your investment won’t grow any faster than the rate of inflation.” – Suze Orman
134. “The tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility, and flow of risk capital… the ease or difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth in the economy.” – John F. Kennedy
135. “If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion. -George Bernard Shaw
136. “There are old traders and there are bold traders, but there are very few old, bold traders.”-Ed Seykota
137. “Let this scenario play out on its own, in its own fashion. As you watch it unfold, you will soon be grateful that you choose the peaceful path. Remember — those who live by the sword, die by the sword.”
138. “As long as you enjoy investing, you’ll be willing to do the homework and stay in the game.” -Jim Cramer
139. “I rarely think the market is right. I believe non-dividend stocks aren’t much more than baseball cards. They are worth what you can convince someone to pay for it.” -Mark Cuban
140. “Michael Marcus taught me one other thing that is absolutely critical: You have to be willing to make mistakes regularly; there is nothing wrong with it. Michael taught me about making your best judgment, being wrong, making your next best judgment, being wrong, making your third best judgment, and then doubling your money.” -Bruce Kovner
141. “The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.” -Jawaharlal Nehru
142. “The only true test of whether a stock is “cheap” or “high” is not its current price in relation to some former price, no matter how accustomed we may have become to that former price, but whether the company’s fundamentals are significantly more or less favorable than the current financial-community appraisal of that stock.” -Philip Fisher
143. “I learned to avoid trying to catch up or double up to recoup losses. I also learned that a certain amount of loss will affect your judgment, so you have to put some time between that loss and the next trade.” -Richard Dennis
144. “The four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different.” -Sir John Templeton
145. “Money doesn’t make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million.” -Arnold Schwarzenegger