The Dividend Cafe

In this week’s Dividend Cafe we will … Give a quick summary of the market this week Do a deeper dive into all the rage in big tech Question if big tech is the only game in town to invest in innovation Look at health care spending in Q2 and why it may shock you Analyze the dollar’s decline Explore the power of the Fed, in very practical terms … Wonder out loud what is going on with the Main Street Lending program The highlight of the week – What to think about Equities Right Now Walk through the full Economic Report Card of the week Politics & Money – the Biden VP pick, investor fears, and the fate of a new stimulus deal Chart of the Week – why China tensions are not going anywhere, and most people like that! … and much, much more … Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

COVID Health Information • The seven-day average of new tests is now 820,000, a new high (by far). Nationwide, the increase in cases over the summer is practically in line with testing increases. It is the select states where positive cases outpaced increases in testing. • Add Johnson & Johnson’s Ad26.Cov2-S to the list of vaccine candidates showing very positive results. Their trials thus far were limited to monkeys, though a clinical trial has now begun in Europe and the United States. The full study has been peer-reviewed, and is available upon request. The source of excitement here is that the strong antibody response is coming from a single dose … They are targeting phase 3 trials for September • A source of mine had been sending me daily updates throughout the last few months on one of New Jersey’s premier hospitals and their COVID exposures, particularly when they were seeing hundreds of patients per day, suffered extraordinary losses, and were having to re-purpose facilities to meet demand. At some point it waned, then they shut down the COVID wing, then the COVID patient load of standard inpatients and ICU steadily declined. Well, today, I got an update. For the first time, this hospital does not have a single COVID patient. Praise the Lord. • Not a lot of change in the general messages of the chart quadrant today. Cases are declining; hospitalizations are declining in the troubled places and flattening elsewhere; a few smaller states are seeing some mild growth in cases off of very low levels. The questions in front of us deal with society’s ability to “live” with this virus, and to continue mitigation against severity and mortality. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

COVID Health Information In the “F.A.C.T.” section below, you will see what I believe is the most important data point this summer around the Arizona/New York case data … Yesterday’s new cases vs. the Tuesday of last week declined 4.5%, making it the third day in a row of week-to-week decline, something that Pantheon pointed out to me this morning has not happened since late May. The 7-day moving average of new cases is down 4% since its peak. The California and Texas hospitalization reporting is totally screwed up, and so national trends are distorted when two of the largest states can’t get their reporting straight. Where states had a hospitalization issue and are not struggling with reporting, the trend is very clear that hospitalizations are declining, ICU’s are declining (though not as much as hospital admissions), discharges are increasing, and stay time in hospitals has been cut in half from what it was in April. I want to provide all data, good and bad, so I have been including each day the facts around case growth in some states like Oklahoma, Alaska, Rhode Island, etc. And while the empirical fact of case growth, not case decline, has been pointed out there, I think it adds to the honesty of the presentation to mention that the “case growth” there has come off of very, very low bases. A fascinating look at Sweden’s situation with some quotes from the “Anthony Fauci of Sweden” (Anders Tegnell) throughout. I read a fascinating study this morning from the Mayo Clinic concluding that there have been substantially lower COVID infection rates for those who have received vaccines in the last five years for non-COVID related diseases such as polio, Hepatitis, geriatric flu, and others … Happy to send to those interested (a heavy read). Sometimes the thing to do when forecasts are off is not be critical, but be grateful. And also, to learn for the future … DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

COVID Health Information • Cases were down 8.3% from the same day last week, and these two consecutive days of week-over-week decline represent the first two days of such in about eight weeks. • Testing is up, case growth is dropping, so positivity rate is dropping. All data points have more room to go, though. • The vaccine candidate from Pfizer/BioNTech have begun stage three trials and are targeting a regulatory review by October. Moderna is also in a large, final-stage trial for their candidate. • Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health (Dr. Fauci’s boss), has provided some stunningly useful insights in understanding the greater resistance to COVID embedded in the society than we previously thought. T cell resistance based on past exposure to other coronaviruses (sometimes the cause of colds we have all had) is explaining a larger immunity and resistance than previously understood. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

This is the replay of the Market Outlook National Video Call with David L. Bahnsen and Scott Gamm from July 27, 2020. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Dividend Cafe reminds of the uncertainty that exists around the world today. Europe may seem to have rectified some parts of their uncertainty, but they invited new uncertainties in doing so. The U.S./China tensions are not solving themselves, and you may have read somewhere that COVID case growth hasn't solved itself yet either (highly contagious viruses are interesting, that way). It is a both unavoidable and unsettling reality of life right now - many conditions, globally and not just domestically, are uncertain. In answer to this uncertainty, the Dividend Cafe provides a little refresher of some of the most basic investment principles we believe in, applied to the methodology The Bahnsen Group has built its business around - dividend growth. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Data this week has been quite a mixed bag with some of the encouraging data being more encouraging than I expected, and some of the negative data being more negative than expected. “Sustained outright declines in new cases are not that far off” [Ian Shepherdson, Pantheon Macroeconomics], but right now we are just watching the new case curve peak, and disparate results in different states makes it all tough to analyze. The chart and information I provide at the top of our FACT section below is, I think, the most important part of today’s missive. Fundamentally, these three realities have all held up incredibly true: (1) Case growth has been mostly amongst the young and healthier, and (2) Treatments have substantially improved since March/April. I was fascinated to see that Sweden had 132 new cases countrywide yesterday, while Australia had 468. It is just an interesting contrast between a vigorous lock-down and shut-out of visitors (Australia), versus the encouragement of a herd immunity build-up. Sweden’s new cases and mortalities are now so low that all eyes are really on whether or not they get a sort of “second wave.” The chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Institute of Epidemiology in India stated yesterday that Dehli, India is fast approaching herd immunity, another massive world city showing huge positivity in seroprevalence tests and therefore a large part of the population already infected. Major League Baseball season officially kicks off tonight, and while fans are not allowed for now even with masks and distancing (no comment), it is symbolically and substantively delightful that the Yankees will be teeing off on the Washington Nationals tonight. I expect big ratings. Really big. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market was up 165 points today, mostly on a flat/choppy day that simply escalated in the last two hours of trading. The general mood was that reports the Republicans are open to extending the federal unemployment benefit at a $400/month level through December drove the last day market move higher, but I am skeptical. It is certainly possible, but it strikes me as utterly incomprehensible that the market would not have known Republicans were going to do something like this. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market closed up +150 points today, though the Nasdaq sold off. Energy led the way today, while Health Care & Technology were the losers. As for health data: Case growth Monday was 4.2% lower than Monday of last week. The national percentage of positive tests was down to 7.9%, the lowest in nearly two weeks. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market was flat today in the Dow, but both the Nasdaq and the S&P were up (the Nasdaq meaningfully so after last week’s travails). Today’s missive really, truly does go all around the horn – lots and lots of up to date health info, and some useful info with the stimulus bill, housing, the Fed, and more. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

In this week's Dividend Cafe we focus on the trade-off of volatility and expected returns A market summary of the week that just was Where the next stimulus bill may be heading Why QE is not acting like debt monetization (yet) ... and so much more Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market missed out on its first five consecutive days of price increase by dropping 135 points today … Initial jobless claims came in at 1.3 million for the week, a tad higher than 1.25 million expected. Continuing claims dropped to 17.3 million, a bigger drop than expected and now down 30% from the 25 million high of March. Retail sales were up +7.5% in June vs. +5% expected. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market closed up 230 points today, zig-zagging around most of the day after opening up +350 points. The driver was optimism around vaccine talk (and it is not just one source of optimism, as you will see in today’s Health Data). Earnings season is too young to be much of a driver but I selfishly like what I have seen so far. Let’s jump around the bend as always … Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Futures were up close to a hundred points last night, vacillating between the flat line and +100, at 3:30am ET this morning they were flat, and by 4:00am they were +100. But really it was all worthless until bank earnings started coming in, and when the first mega-bank reported their results, futures had a mixed response (some names up, some names down) The market opened up a bit and throughout the day grinded higher. Bottom line, by 4pm ET, the market closed up 557 points, and the Nasdaq even ended up despite moments of big sell-off mid-day. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

This is the replay of the Market Outlook National Video Call with David L. Bahnsen and Scott Gamm. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

This week’s Dividend Cafe is a long and juicy one – lots of topics, lots of practical subjects (see list below), and plenty for the wonky types and those who loathe such verbose diversions. But what is most important to me in this week’s Dividend Cafe is that it addresses the issue I believe is most necessary for grown-ups to deal with in this day age: In this week’s Dividend Cafe we will: • Recap the week that just was in markets • Make the case for a market change in the near future – not one defined by all going down or all going up, but rather one defined by a shift in leadership, away from the popularity group and into the more fundamental group. • Set the table for a “two-act play” around how we evaluate the economy – the lockdown recession and recovery from such; followed by the “aftershock” phase that deals with structural ramifications from that first phase • The burden of where rates are now and where they have been • Ask what has happened to oil prices in 2020, and why! • Take a look at what the real issue I have with bonds is as I look out into the future • Note the threats hanging over FANG • Look at what to expect out of the earnings season that begins this week • Ask where are we with the U.S. dollar, and what becomes the more investible equity space when the dollar declines? The answer may surprise you. • Provide a little history on the quarters and years that follow strong quarters. It’s rare to get such universally compelling data. • Provide our weekly economic report card of the good, bad, and ugly out there, with a special look this week at manufacturing, services, air travel, and more. • Do Politics & Money • And in the Chart of the Week, let you decided if we are inflationary woods, or a deflationary jungle Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

I’ll save you the play by play of what happened with futures last night and this morning, but it was pretty boring. And the markets moved higher a bit pre-market when the jobs numbers came out (see below). But what moved markets lower during trading today seems to be (and I say “seems” because it really doesn’t seem to be much of a market moving event to me, but it was perfectly time to the release of the news) the announcement that the Supreme Court is allowing the New York DA to get Trump’s tax returns. Anyways, the market went down over 500 points, but closed down 350, and actually the S&P was down less than half what the Dow was, and the Nasdaq was modestly up today. So it was not a normal day. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Futures were modestly positive all of last evening and into my morning wake-up. They turned negative a few hours before the market opened and bounced around pre-market. The market opened up a bit, then dropped a few hundred points, then bounced around throughout the day, and rallied into the close to end up +177 points on the day. Not a huge day one way or the other, but some intra-day volatility (as usual). Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

I woke up this morning to an overnight Nikkei that had dropped a tad, European markets down a tad, and U.S. futures down 100 points or so. Futures eased lower throughout the morning (which I might add, now total about six hours before the market opens, versus three hours on west coast – and I love it!) … The market opened down 200 and stayed in that range most of the day before petering out in the final hour of trading and closing near the low (in fairness, this would have been five days in a row of the market being up) … Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Market futures never did point down last evening, and I woke up very early eastern time to futures pointing up 450 points. After a cup of coffee I realized that China’s market was up a stunning 5.7% today alone. Consider this for those mystified by the actions of the U.S. stock market: the Shanghai Composite Index is now the highest it has been since early 2018. We live in crazy times. Anyways, the Dow opened up big, and traded between +300 and +400 most of the day, and closed right near the high of the day, up +460 points. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

In this week's Dividend Cafe we will look at: The real lesson of 2020 so far, evidenced in Q1 being the 9th worst quarter in history, and Q2 being the 9th best quarter in history, and what behavioral lessons some investors may want to pick up from this. We do an extensive dive into what lies ahead for 2020, and our views on economic recovery, stimulus, a vaccine, volatility, and so much more. What the jobs report yesterday did to encourage us, and what is still lacking - and will be for quite some time Why Fed liquidity provisions may or may not matter to the real economy (i.e. jobs), but certainly matter to investors The under-appreciated tensions coming to the surface with China after Bejing's passage of this Hong Kong security measure. What history says about an investor's timeline and corresponding expectation How foreign investors apparently feel about American markets right now And all the economic data for the week to form that perfectly mixed picture of ambiguity. Retail. Consumption. Jobs. Capex. Copper. Checking account balances. We have it all. And in Politics & Money ... the betting odds are blowing out for Joe Biden; what does that mean for investors, and what might the next three months of the stock market tell us about what to expect in November Finally, in the Chart of the Week, some calendar history to take us home Let's jump in to the Dividend Cafe! Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market closed the shortened holiday week up over 800 points for the week, with the market up almost 100 points today. Futures were really flat last night, and at 4:30am Eastern this morning were up over 200 points. The jobs report came at 8:30am ET and futures added on another 200 points. Markets were up 400 points at one point and moved up and down throughout the day before selling off substantially in the final 30-45 minutes of trading (not a surprise at all going into the long holiday weekend). Regarding that jobs report, the big bullish news was that 4.8 million jobs were added back in June, about 1.6 million more than the 3.2 million consensus expectation. I want to reiterate – the fact that the “experts” continue to get economic projected data so wrong is not so much that they are incompetent as that this is all very, very hard – and not based on solid historical precedents. That said, I would recommend the pundits moderate their predictions with greater humility, but again, this is uncharted territory. 2.1 million jobs in leisure and hospitality were brought back. This makes it all the more important that policymakers not capitulate to the panic mob and allow a safe and sensible re-opening to continue. More importantly, it does show a continued trend that job losses were initially classified as temporary, are indeed proving to be temporary. Now, permanent job losses were up 500,000, and that is a cause for concern. The percentage of the unemployment we have classified as “temporary” as gone from 78% to 59%, yet that is largely because a good portion of those temporarily unemployed people have been hired back. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

This is the audio replay of National Call Market Outlook from TBG CIO - David L. Bahnsen. With Host Scott Gamm of Strategy Voice and Associates. Discussed is the impact of increased COVID cases in certain states on markets, and will attempt to evaluate the latest economic and investment developments, and what we are anticipating as we officially enter the second half of the year. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

• Some clarification on COVID and the current media coverage • How the result of “financialization” is to ignore capital investment, and how starving the economy of capital spending deprives it of future productivity • The stress of the stress tests! • The lost decade of gold is a powerful antidote to the strange argument that central bank abuses are bullish for gold. If the last decade wasn’t the golden era of central bank libertinism, I don’t know what was. And yet gold is just now trying to get back within striking distance of where it was ten years ago?? • A refresher on our friend, Illiquidity, and why behavioral finance drives the return premium in private market assets – a section that should get its own dedicated Dividend Cafe! • How good/bad is the economic “recovery” going? • And the secret sauce on how politics works in conjunction with markets … what we expect out of the next few months as various political scenarios play themselves out • The Chart of the Week looks at the three stages of the COVID era … Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Futures last night really hugged around the flat line non-stop from 3pm pacific until 9pm or so when I stopped checking. At 3am this morning they were still flat, and throughout the morning going into the market open they moved a tad lower. The Dow got down as much as 200 points, gyrated around most of the day up and down, and then rallied the final hour of trading to close up 300 points. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Market futures were pretty much flat all of last evening, and I awoke at 3:15am to a down 250 level. By the open, futures were pointing to down ~700. It opened there, got as down as -850, and closed down 700 points on the day. COVID case growth and coverage of it is a fine explanation for market volatility today, but again the performance in structured credit today – mortgages, loans, etc. – paints a different picture. Threats of tariffs with Europe probably did not help, and neither did ongoing polls showing Biden’s lead over Trump continuing to grow. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Well this was one of the crazier 24 hours in quite some time, more so for what happened last night than today. Futures opened up about 100 points last night, and slowly inched higher for the first couple hours into the evening. Around 6:30pm pacific/9:30pm eastern, my devices starting blowing up that futures had collapsed 400 points (so a net swing of over 500 points) after “White House advisor, Pete Navarro, announced that the phase one China trade deal was over.” Well, it turns out, not for the first time, Navarro was speaking hyperbolically. Within 30 minutes futures came roaring back to even. President Trump took to the airwaves to say that the trade deal is “fully intact.” I decided to watch the replay of Navarro’s Fox interview, and it was rather obvious that it was a long-winded question and the answer was disconnected from that portion of the question. Regardless, by 3:30am this morning futures were up 300 points. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Futures were pointing down as much as ~300 points Sunday night (netted for fair value), though that number improved as the night went along. By 3:15am this morning they were pointing to a flat market open. The market traded down ~200 points early and closed up over 150 points, in a 400-point range today … Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

• There is a solution of the problem of always having a reason to sell, and always having a reason to buy: It is – always having a plan … • The nation’s debt is talked about as much any topic in the political/economic sphere, but rarely talked about with any real practical sense of what the eventual possible outcomes actually look like. Today we provide five crystalized options for what eventually comes of America’s national debt. This is crucially important for people who care about their kids and grandkids, and people who don’t. • The “financialization” of the American economy is happening right before our eyes, and it is a major consequence of the monetary regime in which we live. It needs to be understood – the good, bad, and ugly. • Why inflationary efforts are creating more deflation – an economic primer you will love, and your college professors never gave (or got themselves) • Proof that dividend growth requires active management, and that passively trying to get it will ensure you lose it • Small-cap investing is very promising coming out of recessions, and if you think dividend growth needs active management, you should see the data in small-cap! • The economy is picking back up – but wow does it have a lot of work to do. Check out the updated data from air travel, restaurant reservations, retail shopping, and more. And then, check out what really, really matters – business investment. Some investors are focusing on mall traffic in Q2 of 2020. We are focusing on industrial production in Q1 of 2021. • The Chart of the Week tells you why the market keeps embarrassing not just bears, but those who don’t understand how markets work • And in Politics & Money, look at worst news imaginable for President Trump, and the best news imaginable … all at once. It’s an action packed Dividend Cafe, so jump on in … There is no U.S. Open to watch, so you really have no excuse. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Futures overnight dipped 400 points by my bed time, were basically back to even at 3:15am, and then dipped a tad before the 5:30am release on jobless claims. That number came in at 1.5 million, and the market didn’t respond. We opened down and reached down -270 before reversing. It was a bouncy day but never was the range of movement very wide. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Futures overnight dipped 400 points by my bed time, were basically back to even at 3:15am, and then dipped a tad before the 5:30am release on jobless claims. That number came in at 1.5 million, and the market didn’t respond. We opened down and reached down -270 before reversing. It was a bouncy day but never was the range of movement very wide. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Market futures pointed down 100 last night, up 200 at 3:00 in the morning, and eventually opened dead flat. The market was quite boring most of the day, and closed down 170 points, dropping in the final hour of trading (just minutes after I told the Wall Street Journal how nice it was to be up or down less than 50 points). Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Market futures last night were up 400+ points and the Nikkei in Japan soared over 1,000 points (+5%) overnight. I woke up this morning to a +520 in the Dow futures, and an hour later a report popped that futures were up “amid reports that Trump is preparing a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal.” There is one little problem with the reports that the market futures were up on reports of this infrastructure proposal … they had been up for 13 hours before that “story” broke. And of course, it is no story at all, as we shall see in our public policy section below. On the day markets closed up 527 points. The VIX dropped a bit over 2% – not a lot – but is down 23%+ from the high level of Thursday. Markets were up 800 points, and at one point were back to even, but again, closed up over 500. Intra-day volatility is alive and well. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Replay of National Call Market Outlook with TBG CIO and Founder, David L. Bahnsen and Scott Gamm of Strategy Voice Associates. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

1,800 points came off the Dow in one day, the fourth worst day of the year by the way, and while I spent significant time unpacking it, studying it, and understanding it, I did not spend any time "sweating" it. As you will see in the content of this week's Dividend Cafe, I believe there is very little evidence of health-related issues at this time to drive markets lower (i.e. so-called "second wave" rhetoric) Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market declined 1,800 points today behind a conflation of factors we will unpack below. Futures were pointing to down 200 at bed time last night, were down over 500 at 3:15am, and dropped more than 850 points from then until the market open. We opened down that much, and then throughout the day saw new intra-day lows hit, as the yield curve flattened and some of the recent high flyers sold off a great deal Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market was all over the map today, with futures up last night at bed time, flat this morning, then up, then down, etc. This is today’s intra-day chart for the Dow – a snooze fest compared to March volatility, of course, but rather substantial up/down movements as far as normal market days go, closing near low levels of the day. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Is the market about to go through a period of “rotation?” Growth vs. Value, Large Cap vs. Small-Cap, Cyclicals vs. Defensives - does it even matter? Our investment committee is back together, sheltering in place at our own studio, bringing you our perspective on all these subjects and more. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market rallied another 460+ points today, and the S&P closed back where it started the year (so not quite back to its all-time high, but back to its New Years Eve level). The Dow has a little more work to do still. The entire thing is surreal. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

I find it inconceivable that we will not have up and down volatility at some point in the near future. But I am not surprised by this market's resilience. The forward-looking capabilities of the market are powerful, even though they are more often subject to excess. On the downside and the upside - no perfect equilibrium can ever be found. This is why market timing is the errand of a fool. I hope and pray our society will find a forward-looking optimism, as well. That what is wrong in our country can be fixed by that which is right in our country. Believe it or not, even apart from all I care about on these pages regarding the markets and investment capital, it is to those greater ends that I work. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The weekly jobless claims came in at 1.87 million, and continuing claims totaled 21.5 million. We will get the official unemployment number for the month of May from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tomorrow morning. The numbers today were about as bad as expected if not a bit worse, whereas yesterday’s number was exponentially better than expected. More on all of that in tomorrow’s Dividend Cafe! Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market exploded 527 points higher today, now well past 26,000 on the Dow, and in the high range of our general short term target. REIT’s, financials, and energy names led the way today. And while the question of, “how can markets be going higher when ___” are completely understandable and reasonable, the answer(s) remain no different regardless of how you fill in that blank. First, markets need no reason to do what they do in either direction, ever. Second, they are forward-looking and have incredible knack for shaking off what they know will be out of the news in days if not hours. Third, the Fed. Fourth, the economic re-opening is going very well. And finally, fifth, the Fed. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Early on in the COVID affair my general feeling was that the most ignored yet needed data point was the recovery rate, as first three people I knew tested positive and quickly recovered, then eight, then twenty, then ~thirty, etc. The key timing issue was that a significant portion of the people I knew early on that tested positive were already recovered by the time they got their test results, as back then getting the test, and getting the results, had a nearly ten day lag from the time one initially had symptoms bad enough to warrant getting tested. Here we are nearly three months later and I am sure we have less of a percentage who already recovered by the time they get test results (because of improved testing), but I still strongly suspect “recoveries” are rampant (we intuitively know this, and empirically know it), yet the data has either no way to capture it, or a big lag in capturing it. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

This is the Replay of the National Video Call hosted by David L. Bahnsen- Markets are continuing to shock investors and a wide array of interpretations of health data and economic data are circulating. We will delve into all of this and more. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

I am constantly challenging myself to get my applications of “first things” right in the investment world, but my principles themselves are not constantly changing. I say that with pride. The challenge that exists for the investment professional who has done the work of developing operative principles is to constantly evaluate their application of said principles, to alter, change, adjust, or modify as needed. And here is the other piece to that: To thoughtfully consider what it would mean to their client’s capital if they were wrong. Investing client funds as if one can not be wrong in investment application/execution/implementation is the height of arrogance. The humility to constantly check one’s work and one’s strategic thinking is a money-saving character trait. Sometimes it gets forced upon you in my business. So this week’s Dividend Cafe focuses on many first principles in investing, and many beliefs we have about executing on our principles. But it also hopefully reflects the humility that is needed in risk management. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market pointed to a modest up opening this morning in the overnight futures, and it did just that. And the market stayed up ~100-200 points throughout the day, until the final hour of trading where it went from +150 to -150. The media has reported it as a combination of news that POTUS was signing an executive order trying to reign in social media companies as well as news that the White House would hold a press conference Friday to discuss some aspect of the China relationship. I believe it was entirely the latter and not at all the former (the social media flexing was known to be coming all day, and surely the market does not see it as having a lot of teeth). The uncertainty around the China announcement was surely worth a couple hundred points … The weekly jobless claims came in at 2.1 million, down from the 2.5 million level of last week, and way down from the 6.9 million high level in late March, but still extremely high, and extremely sad. The number had been just 212,000 per week on average in January and February before the economic shutdown. Continuing claims, though, tallying the unemployment benefits of state programs, fell last week for the first time since the COVID moment began. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

First of all, please note our bi-weekly national video call this coming Monday, June 1, at 11:00am pacific time. I plan to address some things Monday I have not yet addressed through this COVID period, and invite your presence on the call. The market exploded 550 points higher today and is now up over 1,100 points in the last two days and ~2,500 points in less than two weeks. Without any direct news or events to explain the increase, broad-based optimism about the economic re-opening is certainly the most logical explanation. I would definitely read today’s Market Technicals for more color here. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market was up 530 points today behind extraordinary optimism in economic re-opening and directional good news on a vaccine development (more on both below – a lot on the health side). Futures had pointed to a ~300 point move higher throughout Memorial Day,and the Nikkei in Japan surged over 500 points last night (now back above 21,000). Futures in the U.S. were +500 when I woke up this morning, and the Dow was at one point +700 on the day. We closed just a pinch below the 25,000 level on the Dow Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

And in this week's Dividend Cafe we are going to dive into a bunch of these subjects - not because they are abnormal or extraordinary, but because they are normal. The normal reality of financial markets and of being engaged in the management of such continues its beat. And though I far prefer to do my analysis and work from my office with my team versus the sub-optimal conditions of quarantine, I embrace this normalcy, and welcome the challenge of both this moment, but all future challenges and opportunities as well. Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

The market was down a hundred points today, and basically stayed between flat and down one hundred all day. Oil remains around $34/barrel. Muni bonds continued about ten consecutive days of trading well. Corporates were off a tad. And syndicated loans seemed to be up a tad despite equity markets being off a tad. Weekly initial jobless claims came in at 2.4 million, bringing the total number to 38 million since the COVID pandemic began (~8 million of those 38 million, though, are no longer on unemployment, presumably having found new jobs or re-secured their old job). Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com