Day: 2 February 2024

Posted on

Happy days on Wall Street for BIG tech companies

Tech

It was a good day of earnings for Big Tech companies. 

Three of the Magnificent 7 results dominated the headlines: Meta, Amazon and Apple. Nasdaq and S&P 500 gained in ‘after the bell’ trading. This after a punishing day for Alphabet and Microsoft, despite good results.

Nasdaq 100 closed at: 17344 but climbed above 17500 in after-hours trading.

Wall Street seemed impressed with Meta’s results.

Meta

Shares of Meta surged 15% after the social-media giant defied analysts’ estimates. It posted earnings of $5.33 per share on revenue of $40.11 billion. The company also declared its first-ever dividend payment. Share buy-back was also announced.

Meta platforms Inc. One year chart

Meta platforms Inc. One year chart
  • The results show Meta’s online ad business continues to recover well from a terrible 2022.
  • Sales in the Q4 jumped 25% year on year.
  • Expenses decreased 8% year over year to $23.73 billion.

Amazon

Investors also enjoyed Amazon’s earnings, which easily topped Wall Street’s predictions. The ecommerce giant also provided a strong positive outlook. The stock jumped 7% in extended trading.

Amazon.com Inc. One year chart

Amazon.com Inc. One year chart

Q4 was a record-breaking Holiday shopping season in the U.S. and closed out a robust 2023 for Amazon. Amazon has much planned for 2024.

Apple

But Apple didn’t benefit from the same treatment despite posting strong results.

Apple Inc. One year chart

Apple Inc. One year chart

Apple also exceeded estimates, reporting revenue growth for the first time in a year. But shares slid more than 2% in extending trading after it posted a 13% decline in sales in China.

Apple’s outlook suggesting weak iPhones sales may have also disappointed investors.

Posted on

AMD enters AI-powered PC race as artificial intelligence demand grows

AI power

U.S. microchip giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is investing in AI PCs to take on the likes of Nvidia and Intel and Arm as the AI race gains momentum.

As the AI market expands so too will AI powered personal computer (PC). These are personal computers embedded with processors specifically designed to perform AI functions such as real-time language translation. Intel has already announced its AI powered chip for the PC.

Tech research firm Canalys in a December report said the boom in generative AI is expected to boost PC sales as consumers are seeking devices with AI features, predicting that 60% of the PCs shipped in 2027 will be AI-capable.

AI tech interest explodes

An explosion of interest in AI was sparked by the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 as the chatbot went viral for its ability to generate human-like responses to users’ prompts.

Microsoft was quick to adopt the Technolgy and incorporate AI into its Bing search engine. Other companies such as Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Arm, Meta, Tesla and Apple are all heavily involved in AI development too.

Posted on

Gold demand hit record highs in 2023

Gold bar

Gold demand hit record highs in 2023 on the back of persistent geopolitical tensions and continued weakness in some world economies, particularly China according to the World Gold Council.

Total gold demand stood at 4,899 tons in 2023 compared to 4,741 tons in 2022.  Gold purchases from central banks led to last year’s surge, with purchases exceeding 1,000 tons for two consecutive years. 

Prices reached an all-time high of around $2,135 an ounce in December 2023 as central banks and retail buyers increased their gold investments.

Carats at Costco

Buyers have many outlets from which to make their gold purchases. Costco recently reported selling over $100 million worth of gold bars in the final quarter of December 2023. Weird to think that we can now buy carats with carrots.

Gold bars for sale at Costco

Gold demand in 2024?

According to some analysts’ gold purchases this year are unlikely to meet 2023 levels, but a fall in inflation could prevent a drastic drop in demand.

When inflation drops significantly, consumers will start to feel ‘better-off’, and this could mitigate some of the drop in demand.

Gold carat

A Gold carat is a unit used to measure the purity of gold, with a carat representing 1/24th part of the whole.

Pure gold is 24 carats, meaning that it is 100% gold with no other metals added. However, gold used for jewellery and other applications is rarely pure, and its purity is measured in carats to determine its value.