Fascinating markets lately. Volatility spiked in February and March but has now leveled off. Meanwhile, mega-companies are figuring out how to achieve growth in a market that's already stretched.
In Apple's (AAPL) earnings report yesterday it showed that the world's largest company isn't able to sell very many more iPhones since everyone who can afford one has already bought one. So they've increased the price per unit, but more importantly, they're making more money from their cloud computing and other ancillary services.
At Facebook's (FB) F8 conference yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg announced to an enthusiastic crowd that the world's largest social network will now create a new dating service for finding yourself a significant other and as he stressed: "not just for hookups."
Certainly, both of the above stocks are a bit overcrowded as many investors already have some exposure. However, I do believe that there is place to be adding some of the less popular more personal stocks to your portfolio, despite the current market headwinds discussed below.
Just be mindful to chose well and always diversify your portfolio.
Today's Highlights
- Not Alone
- Dollar on the Rise
- Fed Day
Politics in Focus
While special investigator Robert Mueller is mulling a subpoena for the President, trade negotiations are intensifying.
The good news is that more attention is being paid to the US-China deal and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is no longer alone in his quest.In fact, he'll now be joined by the cream of the Trump administration.
The freshly confirmed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will likely be sitting this one out though. He's been under intense scrutiny following allegations that he failed to disclose extensive business ties to China.
Stocks in Asia were mixed this morning following a mixed day on Wall Street but Europe is putting up some pretty outstanding gains today.
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Dollar Making a Comeback
Perhaps due to Trump's increasing success in implementing his personal brand of protectionism, or due to a booming economy and rising interest/bond rates, or for whatever other reasons, the US Dollar is king again.
Over the last month, the Greenback has been second only to the Loony...
Key levels of support are now being tested, especially Vs the Euro and the Pound Sterling.
Here's the EuroDollar sitting on the crucial level of 1.20
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...and the PoundDollar bouncing off of 1.36 this morning.
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Fed Day!
Today we might get some confirmation of this trend from the Federal Reserve Bank.
Overwhelming consensus among analysts and traders is that today's event will be extremely boring, but we'll be watching anyway. There is no press conference scheduled so all we'll get is the FOMC statement, which is due at 14:00 in New York.
It seems that at long last, inflation is picking up just as the Fed has been predicting all along and is now at their sweet spot and they are on track to raise the interest rates again at their next meeting on June 13th.
Remember that by nature, surprises only come when they're unexpected but it does actually seem like this event will be overshadowed by the ADP NFP or even the Crude Oil Inventories.
Cryptos
Thankfully not much to report here. Just pleasant stagnation. Most of the top cryptos have seen slight rises over the last 24 hours.
We're still waiting for a break of $10k for BTC and/or a break of $700 for ETH to confirm the upward momentum.
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