16 stories we are following today.
1. Top strategist at Jefferies
says the best days for US stocks are behind them. Bloomberg. The article is one bit depressing.
2. The markets jumped the last two days. Thank goodness.
3. Futures point down this morning as the markets digest mixed signals re tariffs and negotiations.
4. IBM is down 7% pre market on news of the loss of Federal Government contracts. A lot of consulting firms are facing some of this.
5. Chipotle Mexican Grill which lost Brian Niccol as CEO is down pre market and down 20% year to date. Starbucks where Brian has taken the leadership role is down 10% year to date.
6. Intel Corporation jumped 5.5% yesterday on news that it is cutting 20% of its employees. It’s up a few percent year to date. NVIDIA is down 23% year to date.
7. PepsiCo lowered its full-year earnings expectations Thursday, citing increased costs from tariffs and a pullback in consumer spending. AP
8 PepsiCo is down 6.44% year to date. The Coca-Cola Company is up 17% year to date. We own some shares directly in Coca Cola from a period where I was trying to copy some of Warren Buffett’s direct investments. There are a lot worse strategies than following Warren Buffett.
9. I’m thrilled to interview Coach Nick Saban at the Becker’s Healthcare Conference on Monday and excited to see Holly Buckley McGuireWoods LLP interview Lance Armstrong at the McGuireWoods LLP HealthCare PE Conference May 14 and 15.
10. Tesla jumped the last two days but remains down nearly 38% year to date.
11. 38% of adults in the US and 43% of households in the US have zero ownership in stocks or equities. Listen to the great divide at Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast.
12. We expect to release 3 to 4 short podcasts today at Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. In addition to the core podcast on today’s business news, we should have episodes on 1. The lost art of counting, 2. Chipotle Starbucks and Brian Niccol and
3. How do you bounce back when feeling down.
13. Stifel Financial Corp. missed earnings by a large amount and dropped 3.8% yesterday. It’s down 21% year to date.
14. AllianceBernstein is essentially flat year to date. FTI Consulting is down 11% but heading in the right direction. It’s been hiring some very talented leaders this year.
15. We have a webinar May 7th on 25 business and life mantras and thoughts. It’s partially based on the book “The Entrepreneur’s Edge”. Our new concept is to give away free copies of the book at all of my talks. Even if several hundred people there. I may need to further improve the book for people to view this as a gift vs a burden. I’m considering it.
16. Congratulations to Matt Wolf on joining Elliott Davis. Matt is an exceptional leader and analyst. A separate shout out to Greg Koonsman who does an incredible job leading VMG Health and now serves as Executive Chairman. A great professional and leader.