SVC-19A resources - Apple Service Fundamentals test Updated: 2023

My coverage on Nvidia as an AI leader began in 2018 (yes, really – five years ago). Since then, I’ve covered the AI microtrend for this specific stock 27 times on my research site, which is the equivalent of a novel.

I’ve also gone on record to say that Nvidia will surpass the valuation of Apple. That particular analysis compared the impact that AI will have to mobile, with AI adding $15 trillion to GDP compared to mobile’s $4.4 trillion. Mobile brought us three FAANGs: Apple, Google and Facebook. It has been my stance for years that AI will bring us a new set of FAANGs, one of which will be Nvidia.

However, now is not the best time to buy the stock. Rather than flatly tell you that while offering no way forward, I want to continue providing value to my readers by discussing when my firm plans to buy the stock again.

But also, we should discuss why the market is rallying on this company specifically. Good investors must do both – understand what makes a company stand out while being patient on price.

AI is Not a Buzzword for Nvidia

Short sellers mistakenly believe that AI is a buzzword for Nvidia. This is true for many stocks, but not for the leader in parallel processing.

Here is what I wrote five years ago on the topic:

“Nvidia is already the universal platform for development, but this won’t become obvious until innovation in artificial intelligence matures. Developers are programming the future of artificial intelligence applications on Nvidia because GPUs are easier and more flexible than customized TPU chips from Google or FPGA chips used by Microsoft [from Xilinx]. Meanwhile, Intel’s CPU chips will struggle to compete as artificial intelligence applications and machine learning inferencing move to the cloud. Intel is trying to catch-up but Nvidia continues to release more powerful GPUs – and cloud providers such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google cannot risk losing the competitive advantage that comes with Nvidia’s technology.

The Turing T4 GPU from Nvidia should start to show up in earnings soon, and the real-time ray-tracing RTX chips will keep gaming revenue strong when there is more adoption in 6-12 months. Nvidia is a company that has reported big earnings beats, with average upside potential of 33.35 percent to estimates in the last four quarters. Data center revenue stands at 24% and is rapidly growing. When artificial intelligence matures, you can expect data center revenue to be Nvidia’s top revenue segment. Despite the corrections we’ve seen in the technology sector, and with Nvidia stock specifically, investors who remain patient will have a sizeable return in the future.”

-Free Newsletter and Seeking Alpha, November 2018 with AI Thesis repeated again in April of 2019

When I wrote that, Nvidia was considered a gaming stock with high-risk exposure to crypto. What is astonishing is that the company was still considered a gaming stock with high-risk exposure to crypto a mere seven months ago.

You may recall, the stock was down 60% last year after a $2.5 billion miss on gaming, and the market was pricing in a long recovery due to Ethereum’s merge to Proof of Stake (PoS). The bears believed the Merge would flood the market with mining GPUs and Nvidia would be unable to overcome this setback.

At the time, there was no mention of Nvidia’s AI lead despite the H100 GPU being released the very next month! Instead, the market had investors believing that Ethereum, with only 200 million users, which is a smaller user base than Snap or Pinterest, could tank the GPU-juggernaut on the eve of the company’s largest release to-date: the H100 GPU.

The reason I’m emphasizing this is because my firm has worked hard to be a quality resource on tech stocks. Often times there is a major disconnect between the market’s pricing and a tech company’s positioning. There is no greater evidence of this than when Nvidia was down 60% seven months ago yet is the top performing stock in the S&P 500 today.

Why the Market is Bulled Up on Nvidia

I want to take the opportunity to explain why Nvidia has the ability to arrive at a valuation that is 3X higher than its peers and in some cases 12X higher.

I’m not defending this valuation, rather I want to explain how it’s possible that smart money continues to buy up here.

The H100 is a Turning Point from Hardware to Software

“The Hopper architecture is ramping and it’s yet again going to disrupt the GPU and AI accelerator market. I’ve written quite a bit about Nvidia […] however, I will keep it simple by saying the A100 GPU is what led the company’s gains since Q2 2020 and the Hopper H100 GPU is what will lead the company’s gains for the next two years.” -Premium Site August 2022, following Nvidia’s $2.5 billion revenue miss.

Note: the information below is a bit technical, so I’ve bolded the key points for a quick read.

For context, the A100 GPU was a monumental release for Nvidia as the Ampere architecture unified training and inference onto a single chip, whereas in the past Nvidia’s GPUs were mainly used for training.

The result is a 20x performance boost from a multi-instance GPU that allows many GPUs to look like one GPU. The A100 offered the largest leap in performance to date over the past 8 generations. One year later, the Ampere architecture had become the best-selling GPU architecture in the company’s history.

The A100 was special but it’s the H100 that is Nvidia’s iPhone moment. The reason is quite simple – it’s the release that will help Nvidia breakout from hardware and put the company firmly on the map for AI software.

Hardware has allowed Nvidia to become a $700B market cap company, but it is the recurring revenue from AI software that will propel Nvidia into a market cap worth trillions.

You know this story well: the relationship between a hardware company leveraging their position to capture the lion’s share of software —- because that’s exactly what Apple did. My contention is that the iPhone was successful because of the moat iOS developers created, and the additional flywheel from the App Store. I discussed this more in a webinar “The New Kings of Tech”

The H100 delivers 9X more throughput in AI training, and 16X to 30X more inference performance. The company also states in HPC application-specific workloads, the H100 is 7X faster. The goal of the H100 was not only to add more transistors and make the H100 faster, but to also offer function-specific optimizations. This is achieved through the transformer engine.

The transformer engine is one of the key aspects of the H100. Transformers are becoming one of the most popular neural-network models by applying self-attention to detect how data elements in a series influence and depend on one another.

Prior to transformer models, labeled datasets had to be used to train neural networks. Transformer models eliminate this need by finding patterns between elements mathematically, which substantially opens up what datasets can be used and how quickly. Transformers are partial to the parallel processing that GPUs offer.

The Hopper architecture aims to answer one of the bigger challenges facing superfast compute, which is that moving data into traditional servers overloads the CPU and system memory and becomes bottlenecked by PCI-Express.

By improving the bandwidth issue, Nvidia’s goal is to create more demand for their DGX Pod and SuperPod Systems, which in turn, will create more demand for their software.

The DGX SuperPods scale into a super-GPU capable of 768 terabytes per second. To compare, the entire internet requires 100 terabytes per second. This results in 1 exaflop of FP8 AI performance that runs trillions of parameters. FP8 is most commonly used for inference yet may be used for training in the future due to boosting throughput.

Whereas traditional workloads required many connections exchanging small amounts of data, the workloads of the future will require data to be shared quickly between GPUs and storage. This is accomplished by bypassing the CPU and sending data directly to the GPU while using the network hardware to move the data.

This is ideal for enterprise use cases where people are more likely to use Ethernet while AI and HPC workloads continue to use the Quantum-2 based off Mellanox’s InfiniBand.

Not only will Nvidia begin to monetize through software on the DGX systems but accessibility will Improve through CSPs, or cloud service providers. This is an attempt to democratize AI development while driving software sales. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, cloud service providers drove 40% of data center revenue. This is important as cloud service providers will help move DGX Cloud along and AI-as-a-service.

Nvidia’s TAM of $600 Billion is Easily and Quickly Achievable

“The conclusion to my analysis is the same as the introduction, which is that I believe Nvidia is capable of out-performing all five FAAMG stocks and will surpass even Apple’s valuation in the next five years.” – Forbes and Free Newsletter, August 2021

Last year, CEO Jensen Huang provided a total addressable market of $300 billion in hardware and $300 billion in software. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is deploying 10,000 GPUs in the cloud and there will likely be tens of thousands more to inference a widely deployed model for a social media generative AI project.

Per the analyst on the call: “So it seems like the incremental TAM is easily in the several hundred thousands of GPUs and easily in the tens of billions of dollars. But I'm kind of wondering what this does to the TAM numbers you gave last year. I think you said $300 billion hardware TAM and $300 billion software TAM. So how do you kind of think about what the new TAM would be?”

Huang aptly answered: “I think those numbers are really a good anchor still. The difference is because of the, if you will, incredible capabilities and versatility of generative AI and all of the converging breakthroughs that happened towards the middle and the end of last year, we're probably going to arrive at that TAM sooner than later.”

Today, Nvidia trades at 1.5X this TAM at $773 billion compared to an achievable TAM of $600 billion. This would suggest the stock price does not yet fully reflect the future market opportunity. Also, compare this TAM of $600 billion to Apple’s revenue of $394 billion, which helps illustrate why I said in the past that Nvidia Will Surpass Apple’s Valuation.

What to Expect in the Upcoming Earnings:

If we set aside the AI thesis for a moment, you can see below why Nvidia has rallied as the revenue is expected to rebound from (-21.4%) for the upcoming quarter to as much as +32% growth by fiscal Q3 ending in September. The popularity of the H100 could lead to a beat somewhere across these next few quarters. In addition, the RTX40 Series lower-end model will be released today for $299 and up, and this may further help the gaming revenue for Q2 and beyond.

Nvidia is unique in that the healthy growth is expected to continue into the foreseeable future — long after the company laps the quarters of the crazy gaming miss. What we don’t want is to invest in companies propped up temporarily by low comps. This is not the case with Nvidia.

Here is Nvidia’s revenue growth over the past five quarters, which shows the effects of the gaming segment:

As stated in our previous earnings coverage on Nvidia, all segments are expected to grow sequentially. I believe this is a major contributor for the rally we are seeing. The market saw what we saw, which was a sharp rebound in the fundamentals and that is critical to understanding why Nvidia is the top stock in the market right now.

Compare that picture to this one:

It’s not only the top line that is rebounding but also the bottom line too (which makes sense but is important to point out):

Moving along, data center revenue was $3.75B in Q1 FY23. The projected mid-point above is $4.075B, representing 8.7% YoY growth and 12.7% growth sequentially. Here is what was said on the call:

“Thanks for the question. First, talking about our data center guidance that we provided for Q1. We do expect a sequential growth in terms of our data center, strong sequential growth. And we are also expecting a growth year-over-year for our data center. We actually expect a great year with our year-over-year growth in data center probably accelerating past Q1.”

So, what we don’t see in the graph above is what the “accelerating past Q1” will be and this is the one data point that can get the stock to move AH.

Where Nvidia’s Price Will Go Next:

With the cash we raised throughout 2022, NVDA was the primary target of deploying some of this cash once our analysis signaled a bottom was in place. The below is a real-time trade notification we sent to our members on the October 13^th.

Since February of 2022, we have been systematically taking gains at key levels. Even with logging sizable wins in this position in 2023, it remains our top position while still having enough cash to buy at lower levels.

It is our belief that NVDA is setting up for a sizable pullback, which we believe will open the door for better long-term entries. The reasons for this are below:

The structure/pattern of NVDA’s bounce signals caution. If we look at the pattern off the October low, it may feel like a straight line up; however, you can clearly see 3 swings (marked a, b, c). The first swing up off the low (a), a bearish retrace that makes a higher low (b), and the current swing that we are still in (c).

When we see a 3 wave pattern off of a major low, more times than not, it is a corrective bounce in a larger downtrend. While it may feel impossible at such heights, please keep in mind how sentiment can and does work against us as investors. It felt like tech could never go down in late 2020, and then it felt like it would never go up in Q4 of 2022.

Nvidia is no different, and what we have is a pattern that suggests a larger pullback than most expect is likely, at minimum. So, until this 3 wave pattern can morph into a 5 wave pattern, the odds favor a sizable pullback soon.

Further evidence of this can be seen in how NVDA is now at a significant supply region that marked the top in late 2023. We are now in the region that would constitute a double top playing, and note how price keeps trending higher with less momentum.

We are approaching a double top in conjunction with one of my favorite “sell signals” - when you have price making 3 higher highs, while the momentum indicator being used is making 3 lower highs. This is clearly happening on multiple time frames, which we believe warrants caution.

Similar patterns can be seen on the weekly chart of NVDA below. As price pushes higher, it is doing so on less momentum and less volume. When we see the same pattern on multiple time frames, it further builds the case for caution.

Regarding the targets we are tracking for entries, there are two general paths I see playing out from the price data in the above charts.

The Blue Count suggests that we completed the large degree uptrend that started in 2018. This would put is in a very large corrective rally with the final leg lower coming later this year/early next year. This would have us retest the October lows, and possibly slightly lower. The big tell for this count playing out will be if the coming pullback is a 5 wave pattern pointing down. If we see a large 5 wave drop from the highs, it is signaling that NVDA will likely go lower than most are anticipating.

The Red Count suggests that the October low was THE low. This will still set us up for a sizable pullback into the $220 - $167 region before setting up to make a run to new highs. This count implies that the large uptrend that started in 2018 is not complete and will be targeting fresh highs in the coming year. The tell for this scenario will be if the coming pullback is a 3 wave pattern. If we see a 3 wave pullback, we will look to be heavy buyers in the general target box just outlined.

Conclusion:

My firm tracks Nvidia very closely due to its leading allocation in our portfolio. We saw evidence of a gaming bottom in November, which we published about here. We also felt Nvidia had masterfully timed it’s RTX40 Series with the Ada Lovelace architecture plus the H100 release to drop exactly when the crypto mining selloff would be most felt. We discussed this here in September. These points were entirely overlooked by Nvidia critics.

Yes, a $2.5 billion revenue miss is crazy – but what was lying beneath the surface for chances of a quick recovery? The devil is in the details and not a lot of investors or analysts care to look into Nvidia’s complex hardware products.

For my readers, it has worked out in their favor that talking heads prefer to discuss stocks after they are up triple digits in price, and that the masses are collected around hindsight narratives. My firm is carefully and patiently building an AI portfolio that we believe will outperform institutions and hedge funds. Taking our sweet time to enter Nvidia at the lows – as we have done for the past five years and will continue to do so for the next five years — is part of that strategy.

Our firm issues real-time trade alerts when we buy, sell or trim stocks. You can learn more and view our other notable wins here.

Please note: The I/O Fund conducts research and draws conclusions for the company’s portfolio. We then share that information with our readers and offer real-time trade notifications. This is not a certain of a stock’s performance and it is not financial advice. Please consult your personal financial advisor before buying any stock in the companies mentioned in this analysis. Beth Kindig and the I/O Fund own shares in NVDA at the time of writing and may own stocks pictured in the charts.

If you would like notifications when my new articles are published, please hit the button below to "Follow" me.

InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips

Investing in monthly dividend stocks could prove to be invaluable. In fact, these financial vehicles can potentially serve as a lucrative source of recurring passive income. Better, with their predictable 30-day payout schedule, these stocks stand in stark contrast to their quarterly counterparts. A handful of these reliable monthly stocks offer a substantial yield and promise of potential share upside should the market rally continue. Therefore, investing in the best passive income dividend stocks could be a primary income source. In addition, they can help quell concerns over market instability, ensuring a steady inflow of dividends month after month. That said; let’s explore seven of the top monthly dividend stocks to buy.

Monthly Dividend Stocks to Buy: Realty Income (O)

Source: Dmitry Lobanov/Shutterstock.com

Realty Income (NYSE:O) is one of the most high-quality real estate investment trusts to consider. At the moment, it offers monthly dividends to its stockholders amidst a wavering market landscape. Bolstered by a robust portfolio of commercial properties and strong occupancy rates, Realty Income maintains a steady outflow of dividends. Also, its reliability and potential for capital appreciation make it an excellent candidate for income-focused investors.

Even better, Realty Income just blew past its top and bottom-line numbers. And, with a stellar occupancy rate of 99%, the REIT increased its 2023 guidance for normalized funds from operations per share of $4.05 to $4.15, as compared to the $4.12 consensus. Layer that with its track record of 26 consecutive years of dividend payout growth, and you have a bonafide winner.

Monthly Dividend Stocks to Buy: Permian Basin Royalty Trust (PBT)

Source: iQoncept/shutterstock.com

Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE:PBT) is a hydrocarbon specialist commanding a strong presence in the oil and natural gas sector. It draws its sales from the oil and gas treasures of the Permian Basin in west Texas, along with a handful of other Texan locations,

PBT’s performance has been remarkable despite the uncertainty in the geopolitical scene. Over the past year, PBT stock has soared, delivering more than a 44% return for its shareholders. From a financial standpoint, the trust has grown its revenues by over 300% year-over-year, along with an attractive balance sheet devoid of debt, which affords it tremendous flexibility.

Its stellar performances in the past few quarters result from an uptick in oil and gas production from its Texas Royalty Properties, nudging its distribution northward. Secondly, the trust has invested in new drill wells and completed wells supported by favorable market conditions. Moreover, PBT stock boasts a dividend yield of more than 4.7%, with 30 consecutive years of payments.

Monthly Dividend Stocks to Buy: Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (CRT)

Source: Shutterstock

Texas-based Cross Timbers Royalty Trust (NYSE:CRT) operates a robust royalty business, managing oil-producing properties in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The current geopolitical conflicts affecting hydrocarbon resources have placed Cross Timbers in a position to capitalize.

The company maintains a strong financial position, carrying zero debt on its balance sheet. This provides flexibility to weather the challenges presented in the current economic climate. Their focus on collecting net income from fossil fuel royalties and working interests, along with increased oil and gas prices, has contributed to their strong performance in accurate quarters. Furthermore, market volatility and decisions made by OPEC+ have added upward pressure on commodity prices, benefitting the trust.

The trust’s dividend offerings are mighty impressive, offering an 11% yield and three-year dividend growth of more than 36.4%, dwarfing the sector median by over 387%.

U.S. Global Investors (GROW)

Source: Shutterstock

For those looking to branch out from the energy sector and invest in an undervalued monthly dividend stock, you should consider U.S. Global Investors stock. The firm has effectively carved out a niche as an innovative investment manager armed with a wealth of experience in global markets. With a focus on specialized sectors, U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) offers a unique opportunity for the adventurous investor.

The firm has paid out a dividend in the past 15 consecutive quarters, 36% higher than its sector median. Moreover, its dividend payout has grown over 44% in the past three years on average. Additionally, GuruFocus gives it a 10/10 rating in terms of financial strength, boasting robust liquidity metrics. Moreover, the investment research platform believes that GROW stock is significantly undervalued, trading at a 250% discount to its intrinsic value.

LTC Properties (LTC)

Source: Shutterstock

With its portfolio of senior housing and skilled nursing facilities, LTC Properties (NYSE:LTC) is an intriguing long-term play in the REIT space. In 2022, the company began to shrug off the pandemic’s lasting effects as occupancy rates climbed, nudging its shares back toward pre-2020 levels. However, its stock has pulled back of late.

Nevertheless, LTC Properties sits at the heart of a larger demographic shift with the aging baby boomer generation. This generational tide and a rise in life expectancy are set to make LTC stock an incredible long-term income play. Given this backdrop, LTC, with its compelling yield of 6.9% and an earnings yield of 6.1%, shapes it up to be a solid pick in its niche. However, it is important to note that the stock is for those with a long-term horizon who can stomach short-term volatility.

Main Street Capital Corporation (MAIN)

Source: Shutterstock

Main Street Capital Corporation (NYSE:MAIN) is an internally managed business development company that has proven to be a boon for shareholders since its initial public offering in 2007. With over $6.6 billion in capital under management, it’s no small fry in the investment pond. Interestingly, the bulk of its funds are invested internally, while the rest are put to work as investment advisors to external parties.

Operating fundamentals for Main Street are solid, with revenue growth averaging 12.2% in the past five years. Moreover, over the same time horizon, its net income and levered free cash flow margins have averaged 61.6% and 44.4%, respectively. More importantly, for its investors, it boasts a dividend yield of 6.7% with an impressive return on equity of roughly 12.7%. Hence, Main Street Capital is a compelling name in the investment landscape.

Apple Hospitality REIT (APLE)

Apple Hospitality REIT (NYSE:APLE) oversees a vast portfolio of upscale hotels, including notable brands like Marriott. With properties spanning over 90 distinct markets, the company has been incredibly successful in geographically diversifying its business. Moreover, the continued pent-up travel demand is working in its favor, providing a solid boost to its operations.

In the first quarter, the firm’s earnings exceeded Wall Street estimates, with leisure demand and increased business travel driving strong performance. Revenue rose to $311.5 million, surpassing the consensus estimate of $294.7 million and outpacing last year’s quarter ending in March. Additionally, hotel occupancy climbed to 72.0% from last year’s 67.0%, reflecting a promising trend moving forward. GuruFocus believes the stock is modestly undervalued with solid profitability metrics. More importantly, it yields a stellar 6.2%,  with the REIT paying out more than 60% of its net earnings to its shareholders.

On the date of publication, Muslim Farooque did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

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© Provided by Barchart

Copper is an industrial commodity that leads the base metals that trade on the world’s leading nonferrous forward market, the London Metals Exchange. Aluminum, nickel, lead, zinc, and tin prices tend to follow copper higher or lower. Meanwhile, copper’s role as an input in infrastructure building makes it a barometer for global economic expansion or contraction. China is the world’s leading copper consumer, while Chile has long been the top producer.

Copper’s role in green energy initiatives has caused Goldman Sach’s analysts to call the red metal “the new oil.” Copper is a primary input in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and other initiatives to replace fossil fuels. In a May 20 Barchart article, I highlighted copper’s “Pretty fundamentals and ugly technicals.” I concluded the article with the following:

(以下引用)

Copper faces bullish fundamentals and bearish short and medium-term technical price action. The price could continue to decline towards the $3.15 level on futures and below $7,000 on the LME forwards, but supply and demand dynamics suggest that another higher low is on the horizon. Buying copper at the current price level requires leaving room to add on further declines. Pretty fundamentals and ugly technicals can create lots of volatility that can shake the confidence of even the most committed bull.

(以上引用)

COMEX copper futures for July delivery were at the $3.7320 per pound level on May 19, with the three-month LME forwards at $8,251.50 per ton. Prices have moved lower over the accurate trading sessions.

Robert Friedland is a mining legend

Robert Friedland is an American/Canadian mining mogul. The billionaire specializes in securing funding for exploration and developing mineral and energy resources and technology ventures. He was Steve Jobs’ close friend and confident. Friedland was the caretaker for his wealthy uncle’s apple farm as a young man, and Steve Jobs’s weekend visits to help with the apple orchard was the inspiration for naming his company Apple.

Friedland made billions in gold and metals mining ventures. He is the executive co-chairman of Ivanhoe Mines (IVPAF), a copper and precious metals exploration and mining company. Robert Friedland has been a mining leader and legendary figure for decades.

Friedland says the current price weakness is temporary

Robert Friedland recently commented in on the copper market and its price decline, saying, “It’s temporary. We’re very bullish on demand.” Mr. Friedland cited copper requirements for decarbonization that continue to increase the demand with tight supplies as insufficient mines are being built to satisfy future needs.

The long-term trend in London Metal Exchange inventories validates copper’s tight supply-demand fundamentals.

© Barchart

Source: LME/Kitco

The chart shows the decline from nearly 340,000 metric tons in LME warehouses in mid-2019 to below 100,000 tons in late May 2023. Declining stocks, increasing demand from green energy initiatives, and limited new mines coming online are fundamentally bullish for the copper market.

Copper needs to remain above the $3.15 per pound level- There is downside risk at the current price

Fundamentals may be bullish, but the technical price action since March 2022 remains bearish in mid-2023.

© Barchart

The chart illustrates the drop from $5.01 in March 2022 to $3.15 per pound four months later in July 2022. At the $3.70 level on June 1, copper futures remain a lot closer to the July 2022 low than the March 2022 high.

© Barchart

The long-term chart dating back to 1970 shows the bullish copper trend for over two decades remains intact, and only a drop below the $3.15 technical support level would change copper’s path. Copper did not trade above $2 per pound until late 2005 and above $3 until 2006. The red nonferrous metal has not been below $3 since 2020 and under $2 since 2016.

At the $3.66 level on June 1, copper has some downside risk, but the risk-reward dynamics of the long-term trend and supply and demand fundamentals continue to favor the upside.

The most direct route for a risk position in copper is via the COMEX futures or LME forwards. Copper mining stocks offer exposure to the metal but involve other risks of management, specific mines and countries, and other idiosyncratic issues that can impact share prices. A copper ETN and an ETF track copper’s price for investors and traders who want to avoid the leveraged and margined futures and forward arena.

JJC is a copper ETN

The iPath Series B Copper Subindex ETN product (JJC) tracks copper prices. At $19 per share on June 1, JJC had $61.664 million in assets under management. JJC trades an average of 26,877 shares daily and charges a 0.45% management fee.

The last rally in COMEX July copper futures took the price from $3.8290 on March 16 to $4.1865 on April 14, a 9.3% gain.

© Barchart

Over around the same period, the JJC ETN rose from $19.45 to $21.32 per share or 9.6%. The ETN did an excellent job tracking copper futures.

CPER is a copper ETF

The U.S. Copper ETF product (CPER) provides market participants another option. At $22.87 per share on June 1, CPER had $131.194 million in assets under management. CPER trades an average of 52,247 shares daily and charges a 0.88% management fee. While the expense ratio is higher than JJC’s, CPER offers slightly more liquidity as its assets and volume are higher.

© Barchart

Over the period when July copper futures rose 9.3% and JJC moved 9.6% higher, CPER rose from $23.29 to $25.60 per share or 9.9%.

The only drawback for JJC and CPER is they only trade when the U.S. stock market is operating, and copper futures and forwards trade around the clock. The ETN or ETF products can miss highs for lows occurring when the stock market is closed.

Time will tell if Robert Friedland’s call on copper is correct. The mining legend has a vested interest in higher copper prices, so he is talking his book. However, climate change initiatives and supply and demand fundamentals point to higher copper prices, making the current price level attractive.

More Metals News from Barchart

・Stocks Mixed as Tech Climbs on a Decline in Bond Yields

・Dollar Gains on Yuan Weakness and a Slide in Stocks

・Stocks Retreat on Weak Chinese News and Increased Fed Rate-Hike Prospects

・Dollar Falls Slightly on Lower T-Note Yields

On the date of publication, Andrew Hecht did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.

© Provided by The Motley Fool The flag of the United States of America flying in front of the Capitol building

Every month, we ask our freelance writers to share their top US stocks with investors — here’s what they would like to buy for June!

[Just beginning your investing journey? Check out our guide on how to start investing in the UK.]

Alphabet

What it does: Alphabet is an American multinational conglomerate. It is the parent company of Google along with other subsidiaries that include YouTube, Android, and Waymo.

By John Choong: Those who wrote off Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock when it tumbled below $90 earlier this year must be feeling a deep sense of regret as the shares had recently hit a one-year high. As such, investors may want to think twice now before turning bearish on the Google-owned company.

After a stellar set of Q1 results, Sundar Pichai and his team released further improvements and new offerings to the firm’s current set of AI tools. And with most of Alphabet’s more sophisticated technology still packed in its war chest, there’s still plenty of upside to be realised. NVIDIA’s massive return to prominence after rising over 200% in under a year shows how blue-chip stocks can witness massive growth too.

Pair the above with Alphabet stock’s rather lucrative multiples, which are trading close to decade lows, and I cement my buy case.

John Choong has positions in Alphabet.

Apple

What it does: Apple is the largest consumer technology company in the world, best known for its iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

By Matt Cook. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been a mainstay of my investing strategy for some time now.

However, June is a month that I’ve been specifically waiting for. Apple will be hosting its yearly Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) from June 5-9.

To open the event, Tim Cook will present the keynote on June 5, where he is expected to reveal Apple’s virtual/artificial reality headset.

As I’m invested for the long haul, the reveal of the AR/VR headset in June could well define my growth for the next decade — just as the iPhone has defined Apple’s growth since 2007.

It’s my belief that these headsets could represent the future of nearly all computing needs. It has the potential to replace smartphones, tablets, and computers.

I’ll be watching closely to see what Apple unveils. If it goes as well as I expect, I’ll be buying more shares than normal in June.

Matt Cook owns shares in Apple.

Norfolk Southern

What it does: Norfolk Southern owns and operates rail infrastructure, including more than 20,000 miles of track across the Eastern US.

By Stephen Wright. I think the best thing for investors to do is to go where the opportunities are, whether that’s in the UK or elsewhere. And I’ve got my eye on a US stock right out of the Warren Buffett playbook.

The stock is Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC), one of the two major railroads operating in the east of the USA. The company has a 30% operating margin, reasonable debt, and trades at a pricet-to-earnings ratio of 16.

Railroad companies are famously difficult to disrupt, which is why Buffett likes them so much. Usually, though, they trade at prices that reflect this stability. 

Norfolk Southern is currently dealing with the fallout from a derailment earlier this year, though. This presents a risk and this is why the share price is down.

I think this is likely to be a short-term headwind and the underlying fundamentals for the business look pretty good, though. I’d look to take advantage and buy the stock today.

Stephen Wright does not own shares in Norfolk Southern.

Visa

What it does: Visa is an electronic payments company that operates in more than 200 countries worldwide.

By Edward Sheldon, CFA. Visa (NYSE: V) was recently described as the ‘perfect stock to own’ today by a well-known investor — Joe Terranova, senior managing director and chief market strategist for Virtus Investment Partners — and I tend to agree with this view.

One reason I’m bullish on the company at present is that it’s benefitting from the ongoing recovery in global travel. In the first quarter of 2023, for example, cross-border volume growth was up 24% year on year.

Another is that it offers a natural hedge against inflation. As prices rise, so do its revenues, as it takes a small slice of every transaction on its network.  

A third reason I’m bullish is that Visa is having a lot of success with business-to-business payments. Over the last six months, it has signed up roughly 30 banks across 20 countries for its payments services.

On the downside, the stock is trading at a premium to the US market. This adds risk. I’m comfortable with the higher-than-average valuation, however, as this is a high-quality company with fantastic long-term growth prospects.

Edward Sheldon owns shares in Visa

The post Best US stocks to buy in June appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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© Provided by Columbia WIS TV SCDNR said they’ll be out in full force this weekend canvassing 650 miles of Lake Murray shoreline, divied up across four different counties.

LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) - The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) said they’re gearing up for a high-traffic weekend across land and water.

They are urging the public to take advantage of free resources to keep you, your passengers and the waterway safe.

First Sergeant Hunter Robinson with SCDNR said boating safety starts before you leave the dock.

He encourages people to take their free, in-person boating safety course which teaches the fundamentals of safe and responsible piloting.

According to SCDNR, every boater should get the online float plan and ensure their watercraft has legally required safety equipment, which includes:

• U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets for everyone on board,
• At least one fire extinguisher for vessels with a fastened gas tank
• A whistle or sound device so other boaters can hear if you’re in distress
• A functioning searchlight if you’re on the water after sunset

SCDNR said they’ll be out in full force this weekend canvassing 650 miles of Lake Murray shoreline, divided up across four different counties.

SCDNR reported 21 accidents and five deaths last year on Lake Murray alone.

Robinson said the agency’s main goal is to prevent those tragedies from happening through education.

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© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

For millions and millions of app developers and tech enthusiasts around the world, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is like Christmas. Another edition of WWDC is around the corner, June 5 to 9, and everyone is looking forward to a slew of big announcements. 

Every year, in the lead-up to WWDC, there is another exciting moment. Young students from around the globe use Swift Playgrounds to showcase their coding skills. With the Swift Student Challenge Apple encourages student programmers to compete for a one-year membership to the Apple Developer Programme and be a part of various sessions at WWDC. There are several winners of the Swift Student Challenge and we spoke two of them who are currently over the moon — Asmi Jain, 20, and Saurabh Jamadagni , 21.

Asmi Jain

Asmi Jain is a 20-year-old student based in Indore and she took inspiration from her brother, who is a Swift coder. After beginning to code at the age of 18, she wanted to create apps in the health and wellness space. The Medicaps University student regularly takes part in college events like Smart India Hackathon. Besides winning the Smart India Hackathon, she is also her college lead for Google Developer Student Club.

Her submission for Swift Student Challenge is EyeTrack App, which is designed to help people with eye disorders like strabismus or lazy eyes, which cause misaligned eye movements. It also benefits individuals with good eyesight who want to maintain their ocular health. The app provides an overview of strabismus and its types, followed by specially designed eye exercises.

“Originally, I had a different idea for my SSC’23 submission, but I quickly recognised that the problem was more complex and required significant time to tackle comprehensively. As a result, I decided to shift my focus to developing an eye-tracking app, which plays a vital role in addressing a specific aspect of the problem. Witnessing people with strabismus struggle to focus on objects and experiencing eye strain from extended laptop use motivated me. To make the app even more effective, I plan to integrate additional features to transform it into a real-time therapy tool. The whole playground itself is made mostly using SwiftUI; ARKit framework to track and visualise the user’s eye gaze in an AR environment,” she told us.

For millions around the world Swift is the go-to programme because of its intuitive nature, even for Jain.  “Swift places a strong emphasis on safety and reliability. Swift promotes clean and expressive code. It has a simple and concise syntax that resembles natural English, making it easier to read and understand. It provides an interactive development environment called Playgrounds. It allows us to experiment, prototype, and test code snippets in real-time, visualising the output as we write the code. Swift has a vibrant and growing community of developers, which means there are ample support, resources, and learning materials available,” she said.

She began to code after being intrigued by the ability to manipulate objects on the screen and adding custom elements, which she saw her cousin do. “That initial experience sparked my interest in learning programming languages. In university, we explored various coding languages and engaged in brainstorming sessions to generate ideas. Participating in hackathons and taking on different tech challenges further deepened my involvement in the field. The excitement and satisfaction of coding and problem-solving have been integral to my journey in technology.”

She says iOS/iPadOS devices have a large user base and offer integration between hardware and software. “This integration allows us to take advantage of features such as augmented reality (AR) capabilities, enhancing the functionality of our apps. It provides a set of development tools and resources, including Xcode, Swift, and documentation. It promotes a minimalist approach to design, emphasising clean and uncluttered interfaces. Strive for simplicity in both visual and interaction design, ensuring that one can easily navigate and understand app. It places great importance on attention to detail, encouraging us to refine the app. Close attention to typography, spacing, colour schemes, and animations to create a visually-appealing app.”

Of course, at the moment all eyes are on her winning the WWDC Swift Student Challenge. “Winning the Swift Student Challenge brings recognition and visibility within the Apple developer community. Winning projects are showcased on the Apple Developer website and I will get attention from industry professionals, potential employers, and fellow developers. The challenge serves as a platform to enhance coding skills, explore new concepts, and gain hands-on experience in developing an app or project.”

Jain expects some huge AI focused announcements at WWDC this year and she is also looking forward to updates on iPadOS as she is into video making and editing. “As an aspiring video editor and content creator, I am excited about the availability of Final Cut Pro on the iPad. It opens up new possibilities for editing on a portable device, allowing me to work on my videos anytime and anywhere. The iPad’s convenience and versatility, combined with the advanced features and capabilities of Final Cut Pro, make it an innovative and appealing option for my video editing needs. I look forward to exploring the creative potential of it.”

Saurabh Jamadagni

For 21-year-old Saurabh Jamadagni, his first brush with programming included Python concepts through YouTube while in school. The Pune-based scholar started exploring iOS development when he was in college. For SwiftUI, he was following a 100 Days of SwiftUI challenge created by the Hacking With Swift forum.

His playground submission, ‘Heavens my neck hurts’, is directed towards developers or people who have to sit in front of a computer for long hours and suffer from stiff neck or bad posture practices. He created an app that would allow users to take a small break without them feeling that they were being unproductive.It was obviously inspired by the time he spent coding. “One of the things that fascinates me about software development is the ability to transform ideas into reality and solve problems that I personally experience. I faced the issue of neck stiffness, to the extent that it would even cause discomfort when I wasn’t in front of my computer. I had to get it checked. Although my submission doesn’t provide a definitive solution to this problem, it allows users to consistently perform neck stretches during their breaks. I found this momentary relaxation to be quite beneficial, as it made me more mindful of my posture when I returned to work,” Jamadagni told us.

To ensure user safety and avoid potential injuries, he conducted research by practicing several articles on neck exercises that don’t require complex or compound movements. “This allowed me to keep the exercises in my app simple. Additionally, I added a fun spin on Piano Tiles as an Easter egg because I believe everyone should have some form of recreation during their breaks. The app primarily observes the user’s head pose, either through the camera or AirPods sensors, using the Vision framework provided by Apple. Based on the head pose, we can assume three axes of rotation for our head, around which the exercises are performed. This rotation information helps me determine if the user has stretched adequately. According to a Healthline article, a good degree of rotation for the neck flexion exercise is a tilt of 40 to 80 degrees. Therefore, I designed the exercises in a way that ensures the user achieves the minimum threshold for each stretch. The game element in the app also utilises the head pose data,” he said.

Jamadagni used Python to learn programming concepts, as well as object-oriented principles. Although some aspects of these concepts vary from language to language, such as memory allocation and variable type casting, the fundamentals remain the same. “While I didn’t build any projects with Python, I used it to solve puzzles and learn about data structures and algorithms. Initially, I wasn’t sure about iOS development as it is considered a niche field. However, I decided to deliver it a shot and focus on one skill, as I had been frequently switching between courses without making much progress during the first one and a half years of college. It was time for me to commit to something and learn it without constantly wondering about other options. I followed a tutorial, built a basic app, and ran it on my personal device. It was a thrilling experience to be able to do that. I delved deep into the possibilities of mobile computation.”

A big talk at the moment revolves around AR. He thinks Apple’s hardware has immense potential. “The current Apple hardware is capable of doing incredible things when it comes to AR. Speaking of the Vision framework, it is a local processing solution on your device. No models need to be trained for it to recognise poses. It is an exceptional API implementation that seamlessly works with Apple hardware, allowing you to draw real-time pose markings in AR. This process involves capturing every frame, running the model on it, and returning an observation before the next frame arrives. Additionally, it enables object tracking directly on your device! We can create AR games using frameworks like SceneKit, which can also be used offline. The current hardware can deliver substantial computational power in real-time.”

Like we said, WWDC is Christmas for developers. And Jamadagni is excited like everyone else. “As WWDC approaches, the hype and rumours really get you creating your own wish list. AI has been a major focus this year, and one particular rumour that has piqued my curiosity is its potential addition to Xcode. I wonder if Apple will announce anything related to AI for Xcode. I am definitely excited about the next version of iOS and the updates coming to current frameworks. I am thrilled to win the Swift Student Challenge. I am confident that it will open up numerous work and networking opportunities for me.”