👉 The Investing Week Ahead: AI "Woodstock"

Do what you can to pay these off! Credit card debt is amongst the highest interest debt out there — make it a priority to get it out of your life.

If you’re struggling with debt — here’s a few good Rich Habits podcast episodes for you to check out:

Deeper details on this topic (and much more) below! 

What We’re Watching:

Micron Technology is scheduled to report Q2 results on March 20th — with an expected loss per share of -$0.41 on revenue of $5.34 billion.  Just a year earlier they reported a Q2 loss per share of -$1.91 on revenue of $3.7 billion. 

This turnaround is largely fueled by Micron’s exposure to AI — especially a growing partnership with Nvidia. Bears argue that Micron is a cyclical stock that won’t be able to hold its pace of earnings improvement. MU has risen +30% in the past 6 months, compared to a 13% rise in the S&P 500. 

”We are in the very early stages of a multi-year growth phase catalyzed and driven by generative AI, and this disruptive technology will eventually transform every aspect of business and society"

— Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron CEO, Q1’24 Earnings Call Remarks

Amidst a challenging quarter and a -17% decline over the past three months — Nike's stock has underperformed compared to the S&P 500. Whether it’s been a criticized baseball jersey partnership with Fanatics, decelerating business in China, or footwear market share being taken by On Holdings (ONON) or Deckers Outdoor Corp (DECK — AKA Hoka Shoes)… there’s been plenty of bad news.

Analysts like RBC Capital's Piral Dadhania highlight Nike's enduring strengths, particularly its Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) strategy. RBC maintains an outperform rating with a $110 price target.

“Think about a consumer that makes $50,000 a year… When inflation outpaces your wage growth, they’re making choices in terms of what they’re going to spend, what bill they’re going to pay and what they’re going to frankly put on their table.”

— John Green, Discover’s Chief Financial Officer

At the conference, the company is expected to reveal its next-generation Blackwell architecture and B100 GPU — promising huge advancements in AI model performance. Leadership from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI are also slated to speak.

This year's showcase could also include updates to its CUDA software platform, which is critical for developers of all levels. NVDA’s stock price skyrocketed during last year’s conference after Huang said the “iPhone moment of AI has started.”

“Mortgage delinquencies increased across all product types for the second consecutive quarter… While the overall delinquency rate is still very low compared to the historical average, the pace of new loans entering delinquency picked up and some loans moved into later stages of delinquency.

The resumption of student loan payments, robust personal spending, and rising balances on credit cards and other forms of consumer debt, paired with declining savings rates, are likely behind increasing borrowers falling behind at the end of 2023.”

— Marina Walsh, Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Vice President of Industry Analysis.

What We’re Watching:

As the Fed meets this March, everyone is really trying to find out if there will be rate cuts in June. The economy's strength challenged initial expectations of three or more rate cuts in 2024 — lowering expectations down now to only two. Investors are listening closely for any mention of “higher for longer” sentiment.

In January 2024 — the U.S. Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) dropped by -0.4% to 102.7. This continued a negative trend, with a -3.0% decrease over the last six months. 

Despite declines driven by reduced manufacturing work hours and a negative yield spread, 6 out of 10 LEI components improved — indicating no imminent recession. The forecast suggests a slowdown to near zero GDP growth in the middle quarters of 2024.