🦢 Black Swan Street Weekly Stock Market Summary (July 17th - July 21st 2023)

Happy Friday!

Apple confirms it’s entering AI space, Blackstone becomes the first ever alternative asset manager to reach $1 trillion AUM, Chipotle introducing a guacamole-making robot, Tesla recalls 16,000 EVs.

Let’s get into this action-packed week ↓

Here’s what we got for you this week:

• Stock Market Summary 🦢

• Blackstone Makes History 💸

• Apple vs ChatGPT 🤖

• Other News In The Stock Market 🌎

• Next Week In The Stock Market 🔮

Read time: 6 minutes

Stock Market Summary 🦢

Market Performance This Week:

Earnings From This Past Week:

Blackstone Makes History 💸

This week Blackstone made history. Blackstone became the first alternative asset manager to hit $1 trillion in assets under management.

What is an alternative asset manager?

Alternative assets refer to investments that fall outside the traditional asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, or cash investments. Examples of this can be real estate, commodities, farmland, art, venture capital, crypto, etc.

Blackstone achieved its $1 trillion AUM goal three years ahead of schedule, originally setting out in 2018 to hit that level by 2026.

Blackstone’s biggest competitor, Brookfield Asset Management, has $825 billion in assets.

Also to note: On Thursday, July 20th, Blackstone reported earnings:

• EPS of $0.93, inline with analysts estimates

• Revenue of $2.35B, missing $2.41B estimate

Net flows for the second quarter totaled $17 billion, a 77% decrease from a year earlier.

Net flows = Total Cash Inflows - Total Cash Outflows

Credit was the biggest contributor to inflows, accounting for nearly half of gross inflows.

Apple vs ChatGPT 🤖

Over the past few months, Apple has been relatively quiet in the generative AI space, but not anymore. This week, Apple announced it would be creating its own version of generative AI to rival ChatGPT.

It’s still early stages. Apple has yet to determine a strategy for releasing the technology, but they're now targeting a significant AI-related announcement next year.

Apple has built its own framework, codenamed “Ajax,” to create large language models, which are AI-based systems that power platforms like ChatGPT.

Apple will be leveraging Ajax to create large language models and serve as the foundation for a ChatGPT-style tool in the future.

Other News In The Stock Market 🌎

Monday

• Activision Blizzard signs 10-year deal to keep Call of Duty on Sony’s Playstation consoles following worries after Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal - CNBC

• Tesla produces first Cybertruck after two years of delays - TWTR

• Paramount Global shares slip as new ‘Mission: Impossible’ box office performance disappoints - MW

• China Evergrande posts losses of $81 billion over past two years - BBG

• Ford cuts prices on its electric F-150 lighting pickup by as much as $10,000 - CNBC

• Black Knight announces it will sell its Optimal Blue business to a subsidiary of Constellation Software for $700 million - BK

Tuesday

• Retail sales grow 0.2% in June, missing Wall Street estimates - YF

• Teladoc expands Microsoft tie-up to document patient visits with AI - RT

• U.S. business inventories increase 0.2% in May - MW

• Tiktok, Warner Music Group to partner in music licensing deal - HWR

• Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia has sold $1 billion stake this year - YF

• Schwab CEO says bullishness among retail traders is riding, buy orders 20% higher than sells - CNBC

• Microsoft announces $30/month A.I. subscription for Microsoft 365 - CNBC 

• NYC offices lost up to 50% of value representing billions in bank write-downs: Michael Rudder - FB 

Wednesday

• Wheat makes the biggest jump since 2012 and rises 9% as Russia issues warning on ships headed to Ukraine - BBG

• Carvana reaches a deal to reduce debt by $1.2 billion, in a seperate public filing the company said it will sell up to $1 billion in shares to raise capital and restructure operations - CNBC

• Israel’s Oddity Tech valued at $2.8 billion in Nasdaq debut - RT

• Coca-Cola declares a quarterly dividend - MW

• Fed fines Deutche Bank’s New York branch $186 million - MW

• Dow logs longest winning streak in 4 years, sees highest close in 15 months - FBS

Thursday

• Tesla recalls about 16,000 EVs due to seat belt issue - MW

• JPMorgan Chase stock headed for longest winning streak since 2014

• Investor group nears $125 million deal for CoinDesk - WSJ

• U.S. Existing Home Sales falls to 4.16M for June, below 4.20M forecast, and below previous 4.30M

• Musk considering more prices cuts for Tesla Models - FB

Friday

• KKR will buy chemical maker Chase in an all-cash deal valued at about $1.3 billion - RT

• Dow on longest winning streak since 2017

• ESPN holds talks about possible partnerships with NFL, NBA, MLB - CNBC

• Corteva’s board approves 7% dividend increase

Next Week In The Stock Market 🔮

Earnings Calendar Next Week:

What the Swan is watching:

Monday: Domino’s Pizza, Cleveland-Cliffs, NXP Semiconductors

Tuesday: Verizon, Google, Visa, General Motors, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Waste Management, General Electric, Spotify

Wednesday: AT&T, Meta, Chipotle, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Ebay, Flex, O’Reilly Auto Parts, General Dynamics

Thursday: McDonalds, Ford, Southwest Airlines, Intel, Comcast, T-Mobile, Mastercard, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Valero, Shell, United States Steel Corp

Friday: Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble, Chevron, Centene Corp, AstraZeneca, Sanofi

Economic Calendar Next Week:

The Swan’s Picks 🦢

🥑 Chipotle… Welcome to the future: Chipotle announced it’s testing guacamole-making robot to speed up production- talk about cooking with no love.

👚 Kim Kardashian is once again showing social media tops all: Skims, the apparel company co-founded by Kim Kardashian, has just raised $270M in a new funding round that values the company at $4 billion. Wow.

📱 33% of U.S. TikTok users say they regularly get their news on the app: We’re doomed. This number is up from 22% in 2020. So, if you get your news from a newsletter, maybe a finance one, maybe one named Black Swan Street, you’re ahead of those TikTok dweebs.

🎬 Opening weekend for Barbie and Oppenheimer: It’s a big weekend for movies. We got Barbie and Oppenheimer coming out today. So, the question is… ↓

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The Wrap-Up 🔄

Wahoo! You’re now up-to-date and on top of the latest news! Now it’s time to enjoy your weekend. Have fun!!

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