by Alex Kagin
It's no secret this is one of the most important earnings seasons in decades, and one thing it's showing us is that tech stocks continue to power forward.
That won't change in August.
In fact, we're watching three of the hottest tech stocks this week as they report earnings.
Lots of folks know Kevin O'Leary as the host of the long-running ABC reality show, "Shark Tank."
Go-getting entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to O'Leary and a panel of industry "sharks" – successful heavy hitters who'll invest in ideas they like.
If you think that's cool, wait till I tell you about O'Leary's "day job."
He's a world-class tech investor with a special emphasis on web-related firms.
I'm not telling you this to impress you, impressive as it is. What you need to know is O'Leary runs an investment vehicle that anyone can use to invest in the companies he likes.
His track record speaks for itself: He's doubled the market for years on end.
Now you can, too.
This Is a Shark You'll Want to Swim With
O'Leary's interest in computing goes all the way back to 1986. That's when he started a company called SoftKey in a Toronto basement. The firm specialized in collecting educational software and distributing it on CD-ROMs.
By the early 1990s, SoftKey had become one of the biggest players in educational software. It acquired competitors such as WordStar, and in 1995, it bought The Learning Company for $606 million. That became its name until toy giant Mattel Inc. acquired it for $4.2 billion.
Shortly after, O'Leary cashed out. Nowadays, of course, CD-ROMs are practically museum pieces. Software is now downloaded from the Web, and often runs on the Cloud instead of only on the user's computer.
Which brings us to O'Leary's most recent venture… Full Story
Which brings us to O'Leary's most recent venture...
Stocks traded lower to start the week as investors assessed an uptick in coronavirus cases and the pace of the economic recovery.
Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) were 6% lower after the company said it was seeing an additional $3.5 billion in new financing to improve the airlines liquidity as it grapples with travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) dropped over the weekend after the company announced plans to shut down stores in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Arizona upon rising levels of COVID-19 in these states. But after announcing it would ditch Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) to produce its own chips, the stock rallied 2.25% today and lead markets higher.
The S&P 500 finished the day 0.5% higher, the Dow 0.4% higher, and the Nasdaq 0.9% higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down nearly 800 points in early market trading this morning.
But stocks staged a mid-day comeback, climbing back to positive territory by the early afternoon.
The biggest news of the day came from the United States Federal Reserve.
The central bank announced it will begin purchasing individual corporate bonds, in addition to the ETFs it's already purchasing.
That fueled the Dow's rally even further as the index closed 157 points higher by the end of the trading session.
Here's what our experts – Chris Johnson and Tom Gentile – saw throughout the volatile trading session.
by Alex Kagin
In just 60 days, the pandemic and lockdown changed our way of life permanently.
Sure, the economy will recover and we'll be able to go to restaurants again.
But some changes are here to stay.
And those changes are unprecedented profit opportunities for those who find them, especially in e-commerce stocks.
And this one could be one of the biggest winners of the new economy...
by Alex Kagin
Cash is dead.
And the latest evolution in how we pay could be one of the biggest investment opportunities of the year.
Humans have used all sorts of things as a store of value since the dawn of time, so this trend is nothing new.
But the coronavirus pandemic is making the change to contactless payment happen right now.
And it could be one of the most profitable tech breakthroughs this year...
This morning, United States weekly jobless claims came in at 4.4 million.
Just over 26 million Americans have now applied for unemployment… In the last 5 weeks.
That means the U.S. economy has wiped out all the job gains since the Great Recession.
Unemployment sits at 23% and it doesn't look like we're close to re-opening the economy any time soon.
Despite that, investors shrugged off the news, bidding up the S&P 500 about 1.7% to start the day.
But stocks turned over mid-day and closed about flat.
When it comes to investing in e-commerce, most people think about Amazon and pretty much leave it at that.
Don't get me wrong; I'm in no way backing off my bullish belief in Amazon.
After all, we recently had a conversation about the potential double ahead for the King of E-Commerce.
The point of today's chat is to show you how much money you can make by finding a great backend play on a booming sector like e-commerce.
It's even better if the firm in mind is a high-growth outfit that flies under Wall Street's radar. That way, you can get in before the so-called "smart money" shows up, and pile up even more profits.
And that's the exact setup we find with a company I refer to as "Amazon's Hidden Supercharger." Most folks haven't heard about it, giving us the perfect chance to get in before Wall Street does.
Since Feb. 2, 2016, when it hit a post-IPO low, up until Feb. 4 of this year, this stock has gone up 2,409%.
That's the equivalent of turning $10,000 into $251,000 in four years.
Now, this stock could hand you 200% profits in as little as 18 months… Full Story
Now, this stock could hand you 200% profits in as little as 18 months... Full Story
It's time for me to update the mantra I have used here for many years.
No, I haven't backed off my belief that the road to wealth is paved with tech.
Just the opposite in fact. What's really going on these days is that the road to wealth is becoming a super highway.
Let me explain. As I have noted many times in our twice-weekly chats, U.S. tech firms generate enormous amounts of cash.
That's one of the reasons why the top four American tech firms have combined market caps of $3.6 trillion, or roughly the size of Canada and Brazil's economies combined.
Indeed, their profit margins are so huge they simply can't invest it all in the next round of innovation.
And it explains why tech firms are the leaders in one of the market's more important new dynamics – share buybacks.
Don't underestimate the importance of this red-hot new trend. Just in the first quarter, we're talking at least $126 billion of tech share purchases.
Today, I'm going to reveal a great way to play this trend. And it's with an investment that has beaten the broad market by 161%…
It's no secret Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) has been eating other retailers' lunch over the past few years.
Even blue-chip companies, like home improvement retailer Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), have felt tremors following rumors of Amazon encroaching on its turf.
