Stocks are at record highs — so why does it still feel like everyone’s on edge? Amber Kanwar sits down with Craig White, Senior Wealth Advisor and Portfolio Manager at Plena Wealth which is part of Raymond James, to unpack what he calls “the most unloved bull market ever.” They dig into how to stay invested when anxiety is high, why sentiment and fundamentals are clashing, and how his Core vs. Explore framework helps take the emotion out of investing.
I am off to host the Capitalize for Kids investor conference today. It raises money for children’s mental health initiatives. It is full of heavy hitters including Bridgewater’s Bob Prince, Third Point’s Dan Loeb, General David Petraeus, and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper to name a few. Definitely a room to bring your A game. Something my son sensed when he decided to wake me up for two hours in the middle of the night.
Here are five things to know:
Losing shine: Equity markets continue to be flat as earnings roll in but gold remains under pressure following a sharp sell off yesterday. Gold prices fell nearly 6% yesterday, it’s worst sell off in 12 years. Bullion is down another 2% this morning. Gold mining stocks got slammed, falling nearly 10%. “In many respects, it looked like a classic pullback after a relentless bull run over recent weeks, and it’s worth noting that the rolling two-month gain of more than +30% on Monday was already the strongest since the (Great Financial Crisis),” wrote Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank, “… Even with yesterday’s moves, its gains of +57% since the start of the year would still make it the strongest annual performance since 1979, back when gold prices more than doubled after that year’s oil shock triggered a huge wave of inflation.” Craig White said on the podcast he would be taking profits on some of the gold stocks here. Today 27 companies report on the S&P 500 including Tesla and IBM after the bell. Five companies report on the TSX including Teck Resources (beat) and Mullen Group (mixed). Aside from this, the nuttiness in meme stocks are back. Shares of Beyond Meat are up 300% over the last three trading sessions and up another 100% in the pre-market. Why? Beyond me.
Netflix and no chill: Shares of Netflix are plunging 7% after profit missed expectations on a Brazillian tax issue. Needless to say, that wasn’t on most investors’ bingo card. Netflix had to pay $619 million to settle a tax dispute going back to 2022. While they have mentioned this in the past, they didn’t include it in their previous profit forecasts. Netflix said if it weren’t for that, they would have beat profit expectations. However, sales were also a blemish. Sure they were up about 17% but that was basically in line with expectations. Strike two. On the positive side, free cash flow came in well ahead of expectations. “…In what was a major content quarter (KPop, Wednesday, Happy Gilmore 2, etc…), we and the market expected some upside, and we didn’t get it,” wrote Evercore’s Mark Mahaney. He recommends buying the dips because they say fundamental trends are in tact and with price increases from HBO and Disney+, Netflix is likely to follow suit.
Weird Barbie: Shares of Mattel are falling 6% in the premarket after sales missed expectations. However, the company said this was not a demand problem and rather a consequence of tariffs because they delayed orders. To prove it, they kept their full year forecast in tact suggesting a strong holiday shopping season.
Surgical precision: Intuitive Surgical is soaring 18% in the pre-market after beating profit expectations and boosting its outlook. The robotic surgery company said demand for its da Vinci procedure (minimally invasive surgical tool) will be higher than expected. Shout out to Nick Griffin of Munro Partners who was on last week touting Intuitive Surgical as a good buy-the-dip opportunity. “It’s not confusing to work out how Intuitive Surgical is going to monetize it. They’re going to be able to use AI to make their robots better, which means they can do more surgical procedures,” he said. Prior to results, the stock was trading at around a 52-week low.
Nation building: Watch shares of Mullen Group at the open after sales were lower than expected while adjusted profit was slightly higher. TD Cowen says the latter could bias the stock upward at the open. The logistics company is hampered by a challenging backdrop for the energy and trucking industry. Investors may take comfort in their ability to deliver on cost cuts in this environment. The trucking business saw growth due to recent acquisitions, organic growth was flat. The company offered no outlook for 2025 in the release but that usually comes on the call.
