VIDEO: Key Reports and Events for Investors to Watch This Week

In today’s Daily Rundown video, Chris Versace discusses the events the portfolio will be watching this week, including the March inflation reports, Google’s (GOOGL) Cloud Next event, and Marvell Technology's MRVL Accelerated Infrastructure for the AI Era event. 

He also shares the latest on Waste Management WM, Applied Materials AMAT, and a few other positions. 

Transcript

CHRISTOPHER VERSACE: Good, morning, folks. It is Monday, April 8th, 2024. Chris Versace here. And you know, we have a pretty light docket of events today, kind of like treading water, if you will, as we wait for the meat to come at us later this week.

Today, what do we have? Well, we have no major economic data points. We have no corporate earnings. We've only got one Fed speaker, Austan Goolsbee, and a radio interview around 1:00 PM.

So it's going to be pretty much a relatively light day. What do we have on tap today? Well, we've got the solar eclipse. And yes, I will be checking it out around 3:30 or so.

My thinking is that this is kind of a big one-time event. I think the next one is in 20 years, if I read that correctly. So I wouldn't be surprised if trading volumes are a little lighter this afternoon. Now tomorrow, largely the same.

I say this again because we don't have a lot of demonstrative earnings reports coming tomorrow, none certainly that are market moving. And we don't have the eclipse. And we don't have a tremendous amount of economic data, just the NFIB small business index, which we will be digging into sharing our thoughts with you.

But what we do have on Tuesday, is the kickoff of Alphabet's Google Cloud next event. Now, of course, this is going to center on what they're doing with cloud. And we hope to get a great update on that business, as well as updated targets for that business.

Remember last year, Google Cloud crossed into profitability. So we'll want to try and understand what are some of the longer term targets for that business from a margin perspective. But we also want to, again, pay attention to what they have to say about AI.

Our thinking had been and continues to be that we should not rule out Google when it comes to AI, simply because of the amount of data that they have at their disposal. And we'll also hope to hear more about data center spending. We'll keep our eyes and ears open on that as it relates to Nvidia, as well as Marvell.

That's Tuesday. Wednesday, we get the all important CPI report. And we will be watching the core CPI figures. Will they show inflation is sticky?

We think that is the case based on all the March data that we've seen thus far. Wednesday afternoon, we're going to get the Fed meeting minutes. You know, we don't expect a lot of true insight because of the data that we've gotten thus far, as well as more recent comments from Fed heads, including Fed Chair Powell last week, but a bunch of others that have kind of signaled, you know, three rate cuts, maybe not, could be less.

And as you know, we continue to think that we're going to see two, maybe less rate cuts in the second half of the year. We'll see what the minutes have to say, looking for potential tipping points for the voting members of the Fed as to what may get them to move from three, to two, to one potential rate cuts in 2024.

Wednesday, after the close on top of all that, we'll get the latest revenue report from Costco. This will be for March. It also kind of sets up what we could hear next week with the March retail sales report.

Turning to Thursday, we get the next inflation data report that will be keying into this week. That is the March PPI in here, too. We'll be looking to see what that has to say about the stickiness of inflation, both on a headline and a core level.

Thursday, also brings Marvell's accelerated infrastructure in AI-era event. That's going to be held in New York City. So I expect a wide attendance from the Wall Street analyst community. We'll probably have a number of subsequent reports out Thursday afternoon and Friday.

Remember, our thinking here is that Marvell will participate in AI. They will see a benefit on their data center business. But it's the follow through on the network and carrier infrastructure business that we think is really going to set them apart from some others out there.

Remember, Marvell is really the digital infrastructure chip company, very different than, say, Skyworks, Qualcomm, and a host of others out there. So we continue to like Marvell.

We think it's going to be an upbeat event. I would caution that, while we want to hear things about maybe their quarter or maybe their medium to longer term outlook, we do have to remember that when Nvidia had its recent event, it was more of a trade show event. This one, because it's being held in New York City and there should be a large Wall Street community presence, listening to what they have to say, I think this will likely be something of a different event compared to the Nvidia trade show event that was held a couple of weeks ago.

That's Thursday. Friday, couple of things here. JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, they're going to report. You know that we'll be digging into these given our positions in Morgan Stanley, as well as Bank of America. We're going to want to hear what they have to say about loan activity, trading activity, AUM gathering, as well as investment banking.

As we get those comments, they will really lay the groundwork for what we're going to hear from both, again, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley early next week when they report their March quarter results. And you know throughout the week, one thing that we will be looking to see will be the March revenue report from Taiwan Semiconductor.

Remember, it's two key end markets, two largest end markets, I should really say, are high performance computing, or data center, and AI, as well as smartphones. So we're going to want to see what the March revenue report looks like, certainly, compared to February, and to January, but also on a year-over-year basis, not just for March, but for the entire March quarter because we'll have all of that data now.

And we can really see how strong that business is. And as we do that, we'll revisit our thinking about several of our holdings. Obviously, Apple is a key customer there, but as well as Nvidia, Qualcomm, and, of course, Marvell.

So that's kind of the roadmap for the week. But let's talk about some portfolio news before we get out of here. First and foremost, RBC re initiated coverage on waste management with a price target of $211. It believes that the company is well-positioned to execute on its core business and sustainability over the medium to longer term.

You know that we see a lot of the infrastructure spending going on and really benefiting waste management's non-residential business, while the non-residential-- sorry, while the residential business has a combination of pricing power, but also productivity improvements, as well. And that is a price target that we will look to revise before too long.

Moving on, Citi had some very nice comments on Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Applied Materials, and Microsoft today. We discussed those in our opening comments to you this morning. So please, check your inboxes. Check the website, as well.

Same thing for gold, with UBS upping its price target for the shiny metal throughout 2024 and into the first quarter of 2025. That's, obviously-- excuse me-- a positive for our GLG shares. UBS also said that we, perhaps, could see some FOMO or fear of missing out from retail investors that could drive some interest in gold ETF, just like our GLD shares.

We will continue to own them. And then we also had some news from Taiwan Semiconductor. Another award spinning out of the Chips Act, TSM has agreed to expand its planned investment by $25 billion to $65 billion in Arizona between now and 2030.

It got another round of awards and low cost loans totaling more than $11 billion that was announced this morning. That was, obviously, a big positive for our shares of Applied Materials and the semiconductor capital equipment that they sell. TSM is a sizable customer.

But also as it relates to Applied Materials, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded the shares of Applied Materials today to overweight from neutral establishing a new 260 target. And as I mentioned, with waste management, Applied shares, that's another one that we're taking our pencils and kind of revisiting our price targets as we move into the quarterly earnings season.

We do have earnings coming up near term from Lam Research and ASML. That'll help give us some extra insight to the bookings momentum going on in the semiconductor capital equipment industry. And as we get all of this, that's when we'll start to revisit our price target for Applied Materials.

Remember, too, that what we hear about the Chips Act and awards is also positive for our shares of United Rentals and Vulcan Materials. And, again, while it's a little bit of a treading water day today and the solar eclipse on hand, one other thing that we will be kind of parsing through will be JP Morgans' shareholder letter for 2023 that was, of course, written by Jamie Dimon, usually very insightful.

And if there's any key takeaways that jump out at us, we will be sharing them with you. So another reminder, please, be sure to checking your email, checking your inboxes so we can share our latest comments with you. And folks, that's a wrap on today's video. Thanks for watching.

At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long GOOGL, MRVL, WM and AMAT.