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Markets’ Weather Weekly: Сloud-Computing and Office Software Business Missed Quarterly Estimates.

By:
Vladimir Rojankovski
Updated: Jul 24, 2020, 08:24 UTC

Ideas: Agnico Eagle Mines and Kinross Gold are for long, AT&T is a medium-term buy.

intel headquarters in mission college blvd of santa clara

In this article:

U.S. weekly jobless claims hit 1.4 million, the first increase since March, as spiking virus cases halt reopening plans.

Microsoft shares tumbled as much as 2.8% on Thursday after its cloud-computing and office software business missed quarterly estimates. The share price slump caused nearly $46 billion dollars erased from the company’s market capitalization. Intel Corporation (INTC) shares were trading lower yesterday despite the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter EPS and earnings results.

As a result, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished down 2.3%. The S&P 500 closed down 1.2%. It was their worst performance since June 26. The Dow (INDU) fell 1.3%, or 354 points, its worst day in two weeks.

Stocks weren’t the only assets in the red. The US dollar, as measured by the ICE US Dollar Index, fell 0.2%. The index hit its lowest level since September 2018.

So far quarterly earnings come very mixed. On positive side there are good reports and good responses to the earnings reports from IBM (IBM), Texas Instruments (TXN), Biogen (BIIB), KeyCorp (KEY), as well as yesterday’s miracle from Tesla (TSLA) and upbeat sales commentary from Best Buy (BBY).

Then again, a close candidate for why things are “bad” would be the negative responses to earnings reports from Bank of America (BAC), Netflix (NFLX), Snap (SNAP), Capital One (COF), United Airlines (UAL), and Interactive Brokers (IBKR). Microsoft (MSFT) stock sank over 2% after reporting earnings that beat Wall Street expectations in most ways except in a key business. All these stories prompt us to be extremely vigilant, resourceful and contemplative – correct instrument selection and trade direction is key to trading success through this period!

The week was full of important news. US stocks climbed on Wednesday on positive earnings numbers from Microsoft and Tesla and as traders weighed raging tensions between the U.S. and China, a potential legislative extension to unemployment benefits, and coronavirus vaccine news. Donald Trump’s administration ordered the abrupt closure of China’s consulate in Houston, and official Beijing promptly responded with its intention to close the U.S. consulate in Wuhan in a tit-for-tat game condemned by Beijing as outrageous and unprecedented.

The U.S. government has struck an agreement with Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) for up to 600 million doses of their COVID vaccine candidate should it be approved. This optimistic expectation and early preparation effort have created positive sentiment in terms of thinking about light at the end of the tunnel down the road.

Trading ideas

The Gold/Silver complex has caught renewed bids this week, which was tipped off by the major gold ETF – SPDR Gold Trust – showing up on the “Doji Week” scan back on Monday. The Doji Week scan is designed to find stocks that are in narrow ranges compared to prior week’s activity that is geared up for a stronger directional move.

There are a number of Gold/Silver – related ETFs and stocks appearing on the Wide Range Breakouts, Power Up, and Overbought results today as the market gets behind their momentum against a sliding US Dollar. As investors’ classics – Barrick Gold (GLD) and Newmont Corp. (NEM) – look increasingly overvalued by both investment multiples and technically, new kids on the block, such as Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM) and Kinross Gold (KGC) look increasingly promising. The two latter stocks unveil single digit price-to-sales ratios as opposed to double-digit ones for Barrick and Newmont.

AT&T (T)

The largest American telecom AT&T (T) beat estimates by 4 cents a share, with quarterly earnings of 83 cents per share. Revenue was in line with forecasts. The company said the COVID-19 pandemic impacted results across all its businesses. Thus, WarnerMedia revenue fell 23% to $6.8 billion as the pandemic shut down film production and movie theaters. Group revenue was down 9% YoY to $41 billion, roughly in line with the $41.1 billion consensus. In contrast, AT&T’s HBO Max boasted by around 36 million active customers (including legacy HBO subscribers), picking up 3 million in the quarter. Cash from operations was $12.1 billion with free cash flow of healthy $7.6 billion.

Total dividend payout ratio remains slightly below 50%. Nevertheless, we must not forget about this telecom’s two extremely important properties: number one, it is the value high dividend stocks. And number two, it is classic defensive countercyclical stock. Given increasing odds of exacerbating recession and noting almost ridiculously cheap valuations at P/E of less than 15, dividend yield of 7% and price-to-cash-flow of just 8 (yes, this is a single-digit number, eight), at the current price level AT&T is perhaps one of very few smart medium term buys.

Vladimir Rojankovski, Grand Capital Chief Analyst

About the Author

Graduated from Moscow State Technical University, he carries designation of NASD NY Registered Representative (SEC Series 7, 63) and Licensed International Financial Analyst.

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