Recent Posts
- The Magnificent 7 stocks—Apple, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla—left the rest of the market in their dust in 2023.
- While AI was the firepower behind the Mag 7’s 2023 meteoric rise, some say these market leaders are still just in the early innings of their AI journey.
- Dominant global market positions, wide competitive moats, and strong balance sheets suggest these companies will remain in 2024’s starting lineup.
- Strong free cash flow and strategic reinvestment of cash also give the Mag 7 an edge: ~60% of their cash is invested in growth capex and R&D—more than 3x the amount of the other 493 S&P 500 constituents (compounded over time).
- The lesson: Don’t constrain your imagination when it comes to the power of American innovation and the rate of technological advancement.
- If a new home is on your holiday wish list, consider this: It now costs 52% more to buy a home than to rent.
- A home buyer with the median U.S. income would have spent a record 41% of earnings on monthly housing costs in 2023, compared to 39% in 2022 and 31% in 2021.
- High interest rates are the culprit: 11 rate hikes in more than a year have triggered a substantial jump in mortgage rates, which, in October, reached their highest level in more than 23 years. (With inflation cooling somewhat, they’ve recently moved lower.)
- Home ownership might be part of the American Dream, but in the current market, choosing to rent makes more financial sense. Another benefit of renting? Leaky faucets are the landlord’s problem, not yours.
