CristiLia
Edited
🗓️ June - Monthly update The first 6 months of this year are already gone and it’s not a secret anymore that Information Technology has been the best performing sector among all 11 S&P500 sectors in the first half of 2024. A handful of Big Tech stocks have fueled the S&P 500's rally so far this year, with shares of Nvidia Corp. surging around 155% in 2024, according to FactSet data. Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft have all seen their shares soar more than the S&P 500 index this year. In the latest batch of economic data, initial jobless claims fell last week, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis revised its first-quarter GDP estimate to 1.4% Treasury yields pulled back, with the 10-year down to 4.287%. AI was the name of the game (and $NVDA (NVIDIA Corporation) was the king) in the first 6 months and I think it will be in the next period as well, although I must admit that there is a hype around AI technology. Everyone is aiming to use AI, everything AI is touching is transforming into gold. And it’s not the case all the time. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, is the top-performing asset over the past ten years and is again outperforming other asset classes after the launch of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), the most successful ETF launch in history. Gold and silver have made a splash in 2024 after several years of stagnant and frustrating price action. The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) is up nearly 25% in 2024 as investors seek refuge from stubborn inflationary trends. 🎯I’m not pleased with my portfolio evolution in June, as it was the worst of this year so far. Having a loss of - 4.94% in June, brings my overall result to 6.91% for the first half of 2024. The last month made a significant difference in a negative way for me compared to the $SPY which has recorded + 3.44% in June and 15.07% YTD. The cash level reached 12.5%, so I’m quite prepared for any opportunity that might appear on the market. Another important change in my portfolio is $VALE (Vale SA-ADR) becoming the 1st stock in terms of capital invested. The best performers of the month were $ACLS (Axcelis Technologies Inc.) and $GOOG (Alphabet) while the lithium stocks as $ALB (Albemarle Corporation) and $SQM (Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA-ADR) were crushed. While I believe that the lithium miners from my portfolio are the best in terms of efficiency, still the depressed lithium price is influencing the revenues, hence the profit and the FCF of these miners. Not a good period for the rest of the miners from my portfolio with VALE having the 52 weeks low. Last month I opened a new position in $PAYC (Paycom Software Inc) a company with a strong balance sheet and with high potential in the HR outsourced industry. I have also increased my exposure in MOS, $SBUX (Starbucks Corporation) $NTES (NetEase Inc.-ADR) $INMD (Inmode Ltd) or $BABA (Alibaba-ADR) In terms of closing, I’ve made a few decisions. I closed entirely BTI, $ZIM (ZIM Shipping Services Ltd) COIN and $TSM (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd - ADR) in profit and JETS with a loss as I admit I was wrong about that 3 years ago when I opened this position. Back then it was at the end of the pandemic period and I thought that the airlines would boom in a short time. It was not the case even after 3 years. I closed the position with a loss as there are other opportunities to invest. The reason for closing TMS is that I consider it as overvalued and much correlated with NVDA and AI hype. For COIN I was looking for an opportunity for a while. It is correlated with crypto and it seems that the main coin - BTC is continuing to oscillate, therefore I see no reason for COIN to increase in value. 💰Looking at the dividend received, my portfolio has generated 0.52% in June, while YTD the dividend received is 2.19%, the main contributors still being $PBR.A (Petroleo Brasileiro ADR) and $EC (Ecopetrol SA-ADR) . Maybe an important aspect related to dividends, the cumulated dividend for PBR.A until now has reached 21% for an investment started last year in January What’s next? 🔜Depending on the market evolution, I plan to increase my exposure primarily on ALB, SQM, BABA, NTES, ENPH, and SBUX. Depending on price evolution, I might consider opening a new position on $NKE (NIKE) whose shares price has plummeted almost 20% yesterday as the company emphasized the challenges of navigating macroeconomic headwinds that will significantly impact fiscal 2025 and persistent weakness in China.