"Stocks have been in a sideways struggle since the Standard & Poor’s 500 last peaked on Jan. 26."
Is this really true? Almost every single stock I've been tracking has just been going up this year, especially the tech ones. Even ones with decreasing revenues like GoPro.
Yeah, FAANG+M and the banks make up the vast majority of the rise in the stock market. Mostly because of tax cuts, stock buybacks, and interest rates going up.
It's interesting if you look at the winners and losers in the S&P500, most of the winners are new tech, most of the losers are old tech or non-tech.
So the question is, are the new-tech companies the only thing propping up the S&P500, or are they truly the "new economy" and will continue to thrive while all others fail?
This sounds pretty familiar to the broader economy and labor force. New economy companies on the coats are killing it, enough to make overall GDP look spectacular, but if you look behind that impressive headline number and the corresponding don't worry be happy cheerleading, things don't look so pretty.
I sometimes wonder if this inconsistency between perspective of view of the same reality might also have an effect on individual opinions.
GE long term is dead as an industrial conglomerate powerhouse, destined to be parted out. Jack Welch turned them into a bank, and then they divested the bank (now Synchrony). Very disappointing.
So at least to GE's credit, the end of Welch's tenure and during Immelt's GE solidified its position at the pinnacle of aeropropulsion and related research (namely, GE Global R&D). Until recently, GE had maintained this excellent reputation and while Schenectady is not desirable for everyone, for those in the physical engineering realms, a GE Global R&D position was coveted and brought it with it significant cachet. Apparently not any more. They've laid off quite a few staff involved in bringing serious technology to fruition (e.g., Ceramic Matrix Composites in gas turbine hot sections). This recent activist shareholder garbage once again brings us back to the persistent theme of destroying the seed corn in favor of short-term returns. It's a real travesty.
GE Capital’s deposits platform went to Goldman, the lending went to Synchrony. I don’t have the background on why it wasn’t acquired as a whole, but I’m sure the information exists online.
Was never very impressed with Synchrony. They used to address all my mail to Null Null, a bit disconcerting for an organization who ostensibly has to program systems to keep track of how much money they need to give me back.
"We will make a list of our clients, and how much money each of them has given us to invest. We will keep this list in a safe place. If we have time, we will make a copy of the list, in case something happens to the first list."
When stocks rise, people win. When milk gets more expensive, it may be that the milk producers are extracting more profits from the consumer, or it may be because their costs have risen and they need more revenue to even keep up. When the latter is true, no one wins.
Except for major recessions, you can always find a basket of stocks that are going up in price. You have to look at broad market indexes like SP500 or RUT to get a better feeling of the market.
Is this really true? Almost every single stock I've been tracking has just been going up this year, especially the tech ones. Even ones with decreasing revenues like GoPro.