💰 Best S&P 500 Stocks This Year

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Happy Friday!

Yesterday, stock indices ended in the red, with the Dow Jones dropping over 500 points.

Why? Comments by Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari suggested that the Fed might not cut interest rates this year if inflation remains sticky.

As a reminder, the March Jobs report will be released today at 8:30 AM EST and the market will also be tracking the upcoming release of the March 2024 CPI data on April 10.

Both will likely have a considerable influence on the Fed’s decision around rate cuts in the near term.

Some key data bites from this week that you should know: 

• The wealth of the top 1% reached a record $44T.

• Trump Media $DJT lost $58.2M in 2023.

• Microsoft $MSFT and OpenAI are planning a $100B data-center project.

• Ozempic $NVO, priced at $1,000/month, costs just $5 to make.

• Americans feel they need $1.46M to retire comfortably.

• Alphabet $GOOG is considering the acquisition of $32B marketing company HubSpot $HUBS.

In today’s newsletter:

• 🪫 Tesla’s Q1 Deliveries Drop

• 📉 Intel Foundry Is Losing Billions

• 💰 Best S&P 500 Stocks This Year

Let’s dive right in!

Elon is in the middle of a nightmare.

This Tuesday, his company unveiled its total vehicle deliveries for Q1 2024, revealing a significant downturn.

Deliveries fell 8.5% year-over-year, from 422,875 to 386,810 vehicles.

The company links this decline to the early stages of ramping up production for the updated Model 3 in Fremont and disruptions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at the Gigafactory in Berlin.

This drop was a stark miss against the 457,000 vehicle deliveries expected from analyst estimates gathered by FactSet.

Following the news, the stock took a 5% hit and has plummeted about 31% this year, making it one of the worst performers in the S&P 500.

The spotlight is now on the upcoming earnings report, which is scheduled for April 23rd.

Not all chip companies are made equal.

Shares of Intel dipped nearly 10% this week after the company released numbers for its manufacturing division, Intel Foundry.

In 2023, the division saw its revenue plummet by 31%, dropping from $27.5B to $18.9B.

Operating losses widened, too, jumping from $5.2B in 2022 to $7B, marking a 35% increase.

This financial update comes as part of Intel's revamped reporting structure, aimed at enhancing "transparency, accountability, and incentives" across the company.

However, despite these efforts, Intel has signaled that reaching profitability for this division might still be several years away.

With the first quarter of 2024 behind us, it’s time to take a look at the top 10 S&P 500 performers so far this year.

Leading the pack is Super Micro Computer, a server and data center equipment maker, which is already up an incredible 257%.

The company recently joined the S&P 500, thanks to its near 800% run up over the last year.

Hot on its heels is Nvidia, the powerhouse in AI chip production, followed by Constellation Energy, the nation’s leading provider of carbon-free energy.

An interesting side note, Constellation recently integrated machine learning at two of its nuclear facilities, a move expected to save the company millions annually per reactor.

The rest of the list features a diverse set of companies: Micron, Marathon, Meta, GE, DoorDash, NRG Energy, and Valero, all seeing strong performance this year.

These companies are vastly outperforming the index, which is up 8.55% year-to-date.

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Notable Companies Reporting Earnings Next Week:

• Tuesday (4/9):

  • WD-40 $WDFC, Tilray Brands $TLRY

• Wednesday (4/10):

  • Delta Air Lines $DAL

• Wednesday (4/11):

  • Constellation Brands $STZ, Fastenal $FAST

• Thursday (4/12):

  • JPMorgan $JPM, Wells Fargo $WFC, BlackRock $BLK, Citigroup $C, State Street $STT

All of the companies that are reporting earnings next week can be viewed here.

Buys

• Dollar Tree ($DLTR)

  • Insider: Jeffrey Davis (CFO)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 1,800

    • $ Amount: $244,794

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• Walgreens Boots Alliance ($WBA)

  • Insider: Mahajan Manmohan (EVP and Global CFO)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 6,000

    • $ Amount: $116,280

    • SEC Forms: [1]

Sells

• Apple ($AAPL)

  • Insider: Timothy Cook (CEO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 196,410

    • $ Amount: $33,258,614

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• MicroStrategy ($MSTR)

  • Insider: Michael Saylor (Executive Chairman)

    • # of Shares Sold: 14,553

    • $ Amount: $23,273,901

    • SEC Forms: [1], [2], [3]

• CrowdStrike ($CRWD)

  • Insider: Burt Podbere (CFO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 64,000

    • $ Amount: $20,254,661

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• Netflix ($NFLX)

  • Insider: Reed Hastings (Executive Chairman)

    • # of Shares Sold: 20,566

    • $ Amount: $12,553,955

    • SEC Forms: [1]

🤝 Review of the Week