DHUnplugged #719: DogCat Bounce?

Best week in a long time - markets popping! Cats and Dogs - all anyone can talk about these days - DogCat Bounce anyone? More back to work directives .... Apple disappointing again. 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 DONATIONS ? Warm Up - Best week in a long time - markets popping! - Cats and Dogs - all anyone can talk about these days - DogCat Bounce anyone? - More back to work directives .... - Apple disappointing again - All of a sudden - Now the Biden-Harris administration Market Update - BIG week of central bank rate decisions - Rotation - still a big item keeping markets in check - Rates LOW - bond traders overconfident? - Oil comes back after miserable 2 weeks - TrumpCoin? Central Banks - The Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated two-day meeting, which gets underway Tuesday, is poised to take center stage. - Elsewhere, Brazil’s central bank is scheduled to hold its next policy meeting on Wednesday. - The Bank of England, Norway’s Norges Bank and South Africa’s Reserve Bank will all follow on Thursday. - Bank of Japan will provide its rate decision Friday --- Markets getting a bit more volatile ahead of this Fed rate decision BACK TO WORK! - Amazon is instructing corporate staffers to spend five days a week in the office, CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo on Monday. - The decision marks a significant shift from Amazon’s earlier return-to-work stance, which required corporate workers to be in the office at least three days a week. Now, the company is giving employees until Jan. 2 to start adhering to the new policy. One Day Later - Oracle provide some really nice earnings and guidance that the market loved... (Discussed last week) - A day later: --- Oracle now sees at least $66 billion in fiscal 2026 revenue, around $1.5 billion more than analysts had expected. ---- Capital spending also will increase. ------The company plans for over $104 billion in revenue in the 2029 fiscal year. - Odd that  this was the next day - Stock up 55% - 2nd best of tech companies just behind Nvdia - Larry is now 2d richest person in the world behind Elon Musk Economics - August Retail Sales 0.1% vs -0.2% Briefing.com Consensus; prior revised to 1.1% from 1.0% - August Retail Sales ex-auto 0.1% vs 0.2% Briefing.com Consensus; prior unrevised at 0.4% - August Industrial Production 0.8% vs 0.1% Briefing.com Consensus; prior revised to -0.9% from -0.6% - August Capacity Utilization 78.0% vs 77.9% Briefing.com Consensus; prior revised to 77.4% from 77.8% --- Generally economy is speeding up again and looks like signs that manufacturing may be picking up More Issues - This is a bad apple - The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a top banking regulator in the United States, said on Thursday it has issued an enforcement action against Wells Fargo due to deficiencies in its risk management practices. - There will be no penalties - but company is still in the penalty box due to past issues China Apple - Online retailers in China have slashed the prices of Apple’s new iPhone 16 series ahead of its official release, as consumers in the world’s largest smartphone market hold out for the release of the US company’s first on-device artificial intelligence (AI) software. - They are blaming this on the delay of any significant AI features Intel Gets $$$ - The Biden-Harris Administration announced today that Intel Corporation has been awarded up to $3 bln in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act for the Secure Enclave program. The program is designed to expand the trusted manufacturing of leading-edge semiconductors for the U.S. government.