Buybacks are inflating earnings per share
By shrinking share counts, companies make profits look stronger on paper even when most firms show flat or declining growth. The top 10 companies are the only ones delivering real growth. Indexes keep climbing because of them, while the S&P 490 and the broader economy remain weak. This is one of the disconnect driving the market. Source: StockMarket.news
The top 10 US stocks now have a combined market cap of 23 trn USD, bigger than China (16), the EU (13) or Japan (7)
If these 10 were a country, they’d be the world’s largest stock market (ex US). Source: Bergos AG, Econovis, Till Christian Budelmann
‼️Hedge funds are shorting the S&P 500 futures at nearly a RECORD pace
Hedgefunds short exposure to the S&P 500 futures hit $180 BILLION, an all-time high. As a share of open interest, shorts hit ~27%, the highest in 2.5 years, only below March 2023 and September 2022. Source: Global Markets Investor
Breaking news
Tesla’s board has proposed a new pay package for chief executive Elon Musk worth $1tn over the next decade if he is able to hit a series of formidable targets. Musk will receive no salary or bonus under the plan unveiled on Friday, but would collect shares in instalments unlocked by increases in Tesla’s market value, combined with milestones including a huge increase in earnings and selling millions of cars, robotaxis and AI-powered robots. “Retaining and incentivising Elon is fundamental to Tesla . . . becoming the most valuable company in history,” chair Robyn Denholm said in a letter to investors. The package is “designed to align extraordinary long-term shareholder value with incentives that will drive peak performance from our visionary leader”. The board stressed that Musk’s incentives were aligned with investors’ interests and he will receive nothing if Tesla’s growth stalls. However, the sheer scale of the deal is likely to revive a fierce debate over the earnings of the world’s richest man. Source: FT
American Eagle $AEO shares just had their best day in history (+37.9%)
What a chart! And thank you Sydney Sweeney...📈📈 Source: Barchart
I keep being told about all these tops people are seeing all over the market
I just see a lot of bottoms. Here are a few... Source: J.C. Parets
Total Returns over Last 20 Years:
US Stock Market $VTI: +658.4% / Gold $IAU: +658.4%, Source: Charlie Bilello
In the AI race between Alphabet $GOOGL and Microsoft $MSFT, Alphabet is once again clearly ahead
Since the launch of ChatGPT, Alphabet stock has risen nearly 128%, while Microsoft's share price has only increased 98%. Source: HolgerZ, Bloomberg
