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Hitting the Road: Buckle Up?
Daily Rap 05-09-2024
The indices were modestly higher through midday after being weaker overnight, and with an hour to go, when I had to leave, that was still the case.
Away from stocks, fixed income was higher while green paper was a bit weaker. The metals sprang to life, with silver gaining 3% and gold about 1%. The proximate cause for that appeared to be the fact that jobless claims have finally moved up.
Bureau of Labored Statistics
I think we will start to see weaker jobs data prospectively, though we may not get the inflation improvement that people think should come with that. On the other hand, when one considers that the BLS is in charge of the data and the fact that the entire government believes "orange man bad," we have no idea what sort of pressure...more
Last year's posts for Ask Fleck
Q: Hi Fleck: FYI, there is an excellent 1 1/2 hour interview of Pan American CEO Michael Steinmann done by Valpal Research on YouTube. The interview was done in March but was just disseminated.
Steinmann was actually a lot more expansive than he is on the earnings calls. he interview is indexed so you can go to the parts that interest you. He talks about the consultation process for Escobal and about the new Guatemalan government, including the Minister of Mines. He also talks about the La Colorada Skarn development plans
Fleck: OK, thanks.
(posted: 5/10/2024)
Q: Hi Bill, why would anyone after the decades that have past, want to have any part of a precious metal's miners, considering their horrific long-term performance?
Many have geo-political risk, a declining asset base etc, look no further NEM on a 25-year chart... Just seems like if someone wants exposure to the precious metals markets the raw metals are the only way to go...
Fleck: I assume you must be a new subscriber. I personally disagree with your conclusion but I'm not going to try to change your mind.
There is a reason that my criteria for choosing them is what it is and why I own so few miners out of all the hundreds of possible choices. Lots (most?) of them are bad investments but not all. NEM is a good example of what wasn't a great strategy.
(posted: 5/10/2024)
Q: Hi there Fleck,
It's occurred to me after APPL earnings, that given the proffered $100B buyback, to some extent Buffet is selling his holdings -- to the extent that he is reducing them -- back to AAPL. I found it interesting that this dynamic existed quite openly between a company doing a relatively large share buyback and a top 5(?) shareholder reducing their position within the same time period.
Can you think of any parallels that have occurred throughout your career with mega/large cap companies & a single shareholder, and whether this led to regulatory or legal issues eg. preferential timing or price to the shareholder?
Or is this a regular occurrence that I've just not seen given my limited experience torturing my brain with such thoughts?
Fleck: This is pretty unique, but is a sideshow to what a basket case Apple is as an investment at this valuation with its current fundamentals.
Buffet also owned and erred (AAPL hasn't been an error yet, as he has made tons of money on it) with INTC, IBM, and HPQ.
(posted: 5/10/2024)
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