Time to reevaluate El Zucko?

Good morning!

I grabbed a quick catnap and have been up most of the night watching the follow-through to yesterday’s monster rally. Traders have held futures up most of the session.

What they do next depends on how much FOMO stacked up overnight in the order book when the opening bell rings.

Here’s my playbook.

Everybody 1, Michael Burry 0

A short, short story.

• Michael Burry, who made billions betting against subprime mortgages, made headlines tweeting simply “sell” ahead of the Fed. Then apparently got cold feet and deleted his tweet.
• The markets shot higher.
• Now he’s apparently deleted his entire Twitter account. 🤦‍♂️

MyPOV: An obsession with market crashes never ends well—for the simple reason that the markets have an upside bias. Psychology is key, especially when it shifts like it has in the past 24 hours.

You know the drill.

Be in to win or you won’t 💯

OBAers: Please keep an eye on your email for a special alert this morning. I’ve got some instructions you won’t want to miss. Upgrade to paid

Time to re-evaluate El Zucko

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg just gave what may be the most adult-like earnings call of his career. I don’t know what he had for breakfast, but WOW. The young punk many loved to hate suddenly sounded like a seasoned executive. (Read)

And I’m not the only one who thinks so; META’s stock exploded higher despite missing earnings by a country mile.

I still don’t trust him, especially when you consider that Zucko’s Metaverse debacle cost the company $13.7B last year. Sales are still falling/weak while Reality Labs losses are skyrocketing.

But I may have to take a punt anyway, now that he’s adulting.

$200 a share?

FDX on the skids

FedEx announced that it’ll be laying off 10% of officers and directors as demand cools. (Read)

No surprise. I’ve warned repeatedly that the markets will split between companies that are going to survive and those that will be under severe pressure as the world around ‘em shifts.

Anybody who owns shares might want to tread lightly. The world is going digital, and that’s a far bigger shift than gains that could come from cutting bloated management.

Just sayin’...

Stocks at risk from a possible US ban on investment in Chinese tech

BoA’s Hong Kong office is out with a report suggesting that a potential US ban on investment in Chinese tech could roil markets. (Read)

They’re right, it could.

Stocks like Alibaba are particularly at risk. As are Yum China and Zai Lab. All three have massive US institutional ownership that’ll hit the road instantly.

More from CA’s Dept. of Unintended Consequences

California is trialing NFTs as a way to streamline car titles using a private DMV blockchain. (Read)

This has all the makings of something that will end badly.

Consumers have lost billions investing in various blockchain-created schemes, including NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Then there’s the whole SBF thingy. So naturally, CA’s government officials are interested. 🤦‍♂️

You can’t make this up.

California is working with Tezos, a company that in 2017 got into regulatory trouble for selling unregistered securities. Then, nearly self-destructed fighting over all the money they collected doing so.

Hackers are undoubtedly drooling. Car payments and titles could be a thing of the past when ownership records get erased. Sigh.

No word from notoriously anti-crypto JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon… yet.

Bottom Line

People who think the markets are unpredictable would be wise to study human emotion.

There is absolutely a predictable element.

What’s more, it’s an edge for savvy traders/investors who know what to look for.

As always, let’s get out there and MAKE it a great day!

Keith 😊