In today’s briefing:
- Ohayo Japan | Japan Playing Catch-Up
- Examining Market Signals: The Consequences of India’s VIX Drop
- AMD’s MI300 Disappointment, Hyperscalers Capex, and FPGAs
- Furniture/Furnishings Weekly – May 6, 2024
- The Highlights – Cannabis News for the Week Ending May 3, 2024
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Ohayo Japan | Japan Playing Catch-Up
- The market saw another day of gains as the Dow rose by 176 points, marking its fourth consecutive day of positive movement, on potential ceasefire in Gaza
- Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) is embarking on a significant investment of around 450 billion yen in heated cigarettes over the next three years.
- Sony Group and U.S. investment fund Apollo Global Management have jointly proposed the acquisition of Paramount Global for $26 billion.
Examining Market Signals: The Consequences of India’s VIX Drop
- VIX is a measure of market sentiment; lower values generally indicate lower volatility and higher values indicate higher volatility.
- How the market reacted to significant market moves in VIX?
- Does the recent fall in VIX suggest correction ahead in the markets?
AMD’s MI300 Disappointment, Hyperscalers Capex, and FPGAs
I will start with a AMD section. Shares are down ~6-7% on last week’s result. Let’s talk about the result and why it was so disappointing.
- AMD exactly matched EPS, was slightly light on revenue, and guided essentially in line with Q2 guidance.
This also was one of the slightest EPS and revenue beats in recent years. The last time this happened, the PC segment was imploding. This time it’s embedded revenue.
Furniture/Furnishings Weekly – May 6, 2024
- It was a mixed week in stocks, with most Water Tower Research furniture/furnishings indexes outperforming (with Residential the weak spot following LEG’s dividend cut).
- Our Home Goods Retailers Index (+6.0%) significantly outperformed the broader market (+0.2% to +1.0%) as well as our Mass Retailers Index (+1.8%) and our Commercial/Contract Furniture Index (+1.6%).
- Our Residential Manufacturers & Suppliers Index declined 0.9%, driven in part by Leggett & Platt’s steep 23.9% sell-off following its 1Q24 earnings release and investor call.
The Highlights – Cannabis News for the Week Ending May 3, 2024
- This week, the AP reported the DEA has agreed with the HHS recommendation to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III.
- This would remove the 280E tax burden for plant-touching operators, allow for meaningful medical research, and attract new investors.
- The US cannabis MSOS ETF gained 10.14% this week, while the global YOLO ETF climbed 7.67%.