Pen Pal Pitter-Patter
Howdy all ye Great Ones! How’s your week going?
It … just started? Usually, I don’t “wake up” wake up until Wednesday. And hey, where’s the pitter-patter and meme-filled market matters?
I’m not your pen pal, OK then, hint taken. I won’t bore you with the deets — honestly, I’m not what you’d call “alive” today myself, but we’ll keep that between us, capisce?
Two main headlines dominated today’s market: Hedge funds got clipped (more on that in a sec), and the Suez Canal finally unclogged like — well, let’s leave that unsaid. We’re talking loose ships and sinking hedges today, and here’s an even quicker and dirtier (than usual) mosey down the market’s Monday mess:
Monday Monday was no good for tech investor Bill Hwang, head of the hedge fund Archegos Capital Management. Hwang woke up to the sound of margin calls as his speculative bets went kablooey over the past few days.
That’s worse than eight missed calls from your mother.
Archegos was tied to a number of U.S. and China tech and communications companies, like Discovery (Nasdaq: DISCA) and ViacomCBS (Nasdaq: VIAC), which cratered as the fund was forced to dump its shares for losses at any price.
No surprise, other hedge funds and banks tied to Archegos (such as Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse) are reportedly left sharing the bag, cutting exposure to Archegos lest they too be mired in the meltdown. You know what they say: Big wagers, tough taters … or something.
Anyway, much of the broader market is freaking out about ripple effects and fallout from the Archegos incident … as if everyone just suddenly realized hedge funds have been taking on excessive risk. Better late than never, I guess?
Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) announced that it’s buying 100 new 737 MAXs from Boeing (NYSE: BA), with the option for another 155 planes through 2029 as the airline retires more of its older jets. With its all-737 fleet, Southwest and Boeing go hand-in-hand like freebie peanuts and mini ginger ales. And the order is a breath of fresh rarified air for Boeing’s investor confidence.
Congrats, all y’all Great Stuff Picks readers holding BA! The stock’s up about 4% today on the news, and I expect more announcements like these will be made as traveling ramps up and more airlines freshen up their fleets.
Editor’s Note: “MaaS” Will Ignite a Historic $1.8 Trillion Tech Boom
There’s a HUGE part of the electric vehicle story that no one is talking about — a new technology that major companies like Amazon, Google and Tesla are pumping billions of dollars into.
And it could make driving a car as we know it obsolete. Some experts call it “MaaS” … and this $70 billion technology is expected to surge to $1.8 trillion in the coming years. One company that’s critical to this industry could emerge as the biggest winner as this tech goes mainstream.
Consolidation in the publishing world? Why I never! HarperCollins parent News Corp (Nasdaq: NWSA) has been on a buying spree lately, first snatching up Investor’s Business Daily last week and comin’ back to the book-selling buffet today for seconds.
News Corp announced that it’ll also buy out Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media (the name just flows off the tongue, I tell ya). This is the branch of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Nasdaq: HMHC) that publishes perennial bestsellers from authors like Tolkien and Orwell.
Harcourt plans to use the sale to pay down debt and focus on its “digital-first strategy in education,” while News Corp continues to flesh out its publishing platoon with more fiction and financial media. HMHC rocketed up 21% on the news while NWSA sank beneath the day’s red tide.
🚀 🚀 Did Someone Say Rockets? 🚀 🚀
Cathie Wood continues to expand her stable of tech- and innovation-oriented ETFs, this time looking for profits from the great beyond … space stocks, I mean, not R.E.M.
Wood’s ARK Invest plans to launch a new ETF tomorrow that focuses on space exploration … and rides the tail of a whole stampede of fresh space SPACs. ARK already has all the other tech and buzzwordy bases covered, from fintech to genomics to autonomous tech, so a new space-based ETF was practically written in the stars.
Great Stuff: One More Final Frontier
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Until next time, stay Great!
Joseph Hargett
Editor, Great Stuff