Last week, the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and NASDAQ 100 stretched to new all-time highs. Japan hit new highs. Europe hit new highs.
The highlight in the stock market last week was the NVIDIA (NVDA) 4Q23 earnings call that was released last Thursday. In short, it positively beat expectations, and those expectations were high coming into the report. Record quarterly revenue grew a whopping 22% quarter over quarter and a stunning 265% from year ago (for comparison, the S&P 500 grew revenues only 4% last year, and that included NVDA’s earnings. Source: Factset). In turn, NVIDIA added approximately $277B to their market cap on Thursday representing the greatest single-day gain in stock market history. The total market cap for NVDA is now about $2 trillion, as NVDA’s stock price is now higher by over 200% over the last 12 months. Should the Magnificent Seven now just be considered the Magnificent One? Expectations remain high, though. The price to sales ratio for NVDA is now over 32x. For comparison, the S&P 500’s P/S ratio is under 3x (which is near its own all-time P/S high at just over 3x).
Speaking of new reported all time-highs, this past week-end was the release of the annual Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) Shareholder Letter written by Warren Buffett. Berkshire now has — by far — the largest GAAP net worth recorded by any American business (BRK is also now closing in a $1 trillion market cap.) As always, there were a lot of takeaways from the shareholder letter, including the massive cash that BRK has accumulated. Buffett’s comments on this cash: “(We hold) a cash and U.S. Treasury bill position far in excess of what conventional wisdom deems necessary…We (do) not predict the time of an economic paralysis, but (are) always prepared for one... In most years — indeed in most decades — our caution will likely prove to be unneeded behavior — akin to an insurance policy on a fortress-like building thought to be fireproof. (We do) not want to inflict permanent financial damage — quotational shrinkage for extended periods can’t be avoided… (our portfolio) is built to last.” I would consider those words of wisdom to consider for most diversified and resilient long-term investment portfolios.
This coming week we will get a fresh print of the Fed’s preferred inflation indicator, Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE), along with quite a bit of Fed speak. After last week’s reiteration in higher-for-longer interest rate sentiment, this new data could be telling on regarding the future direction near-term direction of inflation and interest rate expectations.
Add it all up...
Stay invested. Stay diversified. Stay disciplined.