Fountainheadinvesting

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Technology

Apple (AAPL): A Steady Investment Amid Market Volatility

Apple (AAPL)

Apple has been seeing dip buying and support around $170, as the safest port in the storm, given the overbought sentiment and volatility in semis/tech. 

There was a buy call from Evercore a couple of days back, which also supported it after seven straight days of it falling.

While I had hoped to see it drop to $160, and had recommended HOLD given the weakness in China; As a market leader, we may not see that price and given that Apple is a long term buy and hold, a few percentage points won’t make a large difference. 

If you don’t have it in the portfolio or are looking for something steadier you can start accumulating.

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Semiconductors Technology

Evaluating SOXX, XLK, and VOO: Current Performance and Future Outlook

SOXX, The premier semiconductor ETF, naturally done very well with the AI, Nvidia boom. Up 62% in the last twelve months.  Solid for the long term, but I would wait for a lower entry point, 10-20% lower to get meaningful returns. Given the froth in the market for all things AI, we may not get that decline, though, I think patience is better.

XLK, Very similar to SOXX 48% up in the last 12- same thing wait for a better price, but again long term very solid. The big issue is so much of the future gains have already been priced in so going forward it’s going to be much lower than the 48% plus you have the risk of the ETF dropping or staying sideways.

VOO – follows the S&P 500, is about 28% up in the past year, and 8% YTD – not surprisingly because the S&P 500 has about a 30% technology influence, its a market capitalization weighted index so the big tech bellwethers like Nvidia, Microsoft dominate its movements. 

Many analysts have already crossed their S&P 500 targets for 2024, and just a few are revising it upwards, therefore not likely to see too many Buy Calls from these levels.

The longer-term average annual move in the S&P 500 is usually around 8%. We’ve already advanced 8% in the first two months, so the same story, currently overbought – would prefer a better entry point on a correction.

Categories
Technology

Rivian (RIVN), Still Has A Steep Climb

Rivian (RIVN) Good bit of a lifeline, and may get them cash following the R2 intro, which should get decent demand from a niche market. However, it’s not coming till 2026, and Tesla is itching to reduce prices of its Cybertruck (when it happens).

Unfortunately, the sales numbers are not likely to change the volume needed to get to any semblance of break even in the near future – the numbers are just too small.

At the last call Rivian’s management saw the current cash balance of $9.4B only lasting the business through the end of 2025. If they raise more cash following the R2 unveil I would use the upside as a chance to exit. 

and even though the new R2 vehicle will likely command a respectable, niche following, it will not come to market until 2026 per today’s announcement and I don’t expect the sales volume to be enough for the company’s downward trajectory to change. I recommend that investors sell the stock after today’s unveiling event.