DHunplugged #707: Tug-Of-War

- Churn and Burn - RAMP UP - Rotation (Renting Space) - Long Stretch with limited volatility - Short Interest at MULTI year lows - NVDA becomes worlds MVC for a minute PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter Warm Up - Summer Spin Cycle - New flow shifting to election - Banks - Fed's Stress Test Results  (Wednesday) - Last week of month and quarter! Market Update - Churn and Burn - RAMP UP - Rotation (Renting Space) - Long Stretch with limited volatility - Short Interest at MULTI year lows - NVDA becomes worlds MVC for a minute Next week is JULY 4th - Markets closing early (1PM) on Wednesday - Markets Closed on Thursday - Most people will take Friday off! Short Interest - Multi-Year low on S&P 500 and stocks - Hedge fund disclosures stopping some from shorting (after Meme stock craze) - Seems that no shorts helping to calm volatility Stock Market - Weird Facts - The S&P 500 has gone 377 days without a 2.05% sell-off. That's the longest stretch for the benchmark since the great financial crisis - The index hasn't experienced a gain of at least 2.15% in that time either - The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) is considered by many investors as the de facto fear gauge on the Street. Last month, it hit its lowest level going back to November 2020. On Friday, it traded around 13, near historically low levels. - Complacency or Green-Light? Home Prices - Sales of previously owned homes are sitting at a 30-year low, and didn't move much in May as prices hit a new record and mortgage rates remain high. - Many reasons - but no place to go, high rates and high prices - IF more inventory comes on the market - possibly prices will come down (Last month inventories jumped 6.7%) - Median price of a home sold in May was $419,300 More Homes - Sales of homes priced below $250,000 were lower than a year ago, while sales priced between $250,000 and $500,000 were up just 1%. Sales priced between $750,000 and $1 million were 13% higher, and sales priced over $1 million were up nearly 23%. - Cash is still king, accounting for 28% of sales. - First-time buyers are hanging in at 31% of sales, up from 28% the year before. MORE HOUSING - April S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index 7.2% vs. 6.9% Briefing.com consensus; prior revised to 7.5% from 7.4% ERC Credit DENIED - The IRS will deny billions of dollars' worth of claims for a pandemic-era tax break while working to process lower-risk filings, the agency said on Thursday afternoon. - These are what you heard on commercials for a while... - After investigating more than 1 million claims worth roughly $86 billion, the IRS said in the release that it identified 10% to 20% of the highest-risk filings, and "tens of thousands" will be rejected in the coming weeks, according to the agency. Another 60% to 70% of claims with an "unacceptable level of risk" will be further examined, the IRS said. - During the ERC review period, the agency processed 28,000 claims received before September 2023 worth $2.2 billion and disallowed more than 14,000 claims worth $1 billion, according to the release. TESLA - Headcount reduction continues - 14% of workforce has been slashed this year -- The latest figure is not from precise payroll data, but from the number of people who are on Tesla's "everybody" email distribution list as of June 17 - Bloomberg reporting that Telsa looming for 20% total headcount cut in 2023 to benefit profitability after company reached inefficiency levels of 25% -30% Musk - Need to know - How many children did Elon father? Banks - Fed Stress Tests on Wednesday (all should pass) - U.S. bank regulators said four major banks had shortcomings in their "...