From the Team @ HPLT 6/2
Markets Update
Stocks went higher last week, with big tech leading the way. Tariff headlines, or at least the daily ping-pong of tweets and headlines that drastically moved markets intra-day like we saw a month ago, have largely mattered less, in terms of reactive markets. Secretary Treasury Scott Bessent late last week mentioned that the ongoing dialogue with China had ‘stalled a bit’ and the market barely budged. Aside from tariff talk, Nvidia earnings came in strong on both results and guidance. Management on the call emphasized strong structural AI demand offsetting China-related headwinds, and highlighted a rapid growth in reasoning AI. The Federal Reserve issued a report last Wednesday with very few surprises, and indicated they are taking a cautious approach towards rate cuts amid the ongoing uncertainty. Consumer confidence was also an important piece of economic data last week. The May report jumped for the first time in 5 months, presumably on the 90-day tariff pause from Trump and overall optimism about the trade situation now, relative to April.
Earnings season (for Q1) is all but wrapped up, but we’ll hear from a handful of names left in the retail sector over the next 4 days. We also have the May payrolls number that comes out this Friday.
Corporate Roundup / Macro Highlights
Tesla’s Europe sales halved in April & May, Elon Musk has officially left his role in DOGE, YouTube has now topped Disney and Netflix in TV viewing, Apple is set to debut a dedicated gaming app, the US has paused student visas, high-end retail brand LVMH warned Chinese consumers are pulling back on spending, New Jersey’s American Dream mall value fell by $800m to $2.5b, Trump met with Fed Chair Jerome Powell for the first time last week in a mostly civilized hang-out based on the headlines coming out, and Goldman Sachs is pointing to a solid deal outlook with some uncertainty around timing.
Podcast Worth Your Time
Graham Weaver on Invest Like the Best last week. Graham is the Founder of Alpine Investors (a large private equity firm) and established his business with a People-First philosophy. Beyond his role @ Alpine, he serves as a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business where he delivered THIS EPIC SPEECHback in 2023 about How To Live an Asymmetric Life.
More than just a great private equity investor, Graham is also a proponent of continuous self-improvement and self-discipline and seamlessly integrates that into his professional ethos, which he shares with others in very simple and actionable steps.