The Big Picture
The 10-year treasuries reached 1.5% this week, a level not seen since prior to the pandemic: the rising bond yields are believed to have caused the general sell off on the stock market, particularly for tech companies, even though the Nasdaq is still up more than 3% year to date. Consumer discretionary also lagged, while financials were flat, and energy came out as the best sector.
The 1.9 trillion $ stimulus was approved by the House yesterday but the Senate is likely to strip the 15$ minimum wage off the package. The next stimulus deal on the agenda is the infrastructure package which has bipartisan support except for the quantum.
Vaccine data keeps improving with the trendline of fewer infections, hospitalisations and deaths continuing. The vaccine rollout has now surpassed the 50 million doses mark which corresponds to half of the doses Biden promised to achieve in the first 100 days of office.
Market Performance
All indices finished lower this week: in the US the Nasdaq led with a 4.9% loss, followed by the S&P500 (-2.5%) and the Dow (-1.8%). In Europe, the Stoxx lost 2.4% while the Italian index retraced -1.2%. The Danish OMX20 fell 4.2%. The US Dollar was unchanged relative to the Euro. Crude $oil gained 7% and $Gold finished flat. $BTC-USD traded lower at 48k$ from the 57k$ level achieved last weekend.
Earnings
Four stocks of our portfolio reported Q4 earnings this week.
$BRK-B published their 2020 annual report on Wednesday and their Q4 earnings today (Saturday). In the annual letter to his shareholders Warren Buffett focused on operating margin, intrinsic value, and buy-backs. The company hasn’t made sizeable acquisitions in 2020 and has recently sold some $AAPL shares and increased the stake in value companies. The stock was marginally down this week.
$ADSK beat on both the top and the bottom line on Thursday but guided lower which led to a sharp decline, partly caused by the general weakness in the technology sector. The strong Q4 earnings were offset by revenue and EPS expectations below consensus.
$PCG reported a marginal earnings beat on Thursday, though revenue fell short. The company reaffirmed its 2021 guidance. The market did not react well and the stock fell by 9% and underperformed compared to the energy sector stocks.
$GMAB.CO reported Q4 earnings on Tuesday, with a revenue beat thanks to an 88% increase year on year. The Danish biotech company also reported operating profit above expectations and initiated a share buy-back programme.
Notable earnings this week included $NVDA, who smashed expectations, and $ABNB who missed on earnings but beat on revenue and has the prospect of restrictions lift which are expected to lead to a significant travel rebound..
Returning to our portfolio, next week $INW.MI will report their Q4 earnings.
Dividends
Most Danish companies go ex-dividend in March, while Italian stocks traditionally pay an annual dividend in late May and US stocks distribute quarterly dividends.
Portfolio Performance
Our portfolio fell 4.3% this week whereas the weighted average of the relevant market indices finished 2.5 lower.
We exited our position in $RWAY.MI on Monday as the stock showed more signs of weakness after the previous week’s sell-off. Technically, the stock has also fallen below the 38.2 fib which could have led to further downward action. Our tech stocks were hit by the sector weakness but their fundamentals remain intact. The only positive performance was that of $SYF which finished 1.6% higher and is now up 67% since we bought it.
Our Responsible Investor portfolio is now up 19.2% (20.2% including dividends) in 39 weeks. We raised same cash this week and are about 55% in stocks & ETFs and 45% in cash. On my watchlist this week I have $WMT, $MSFT, $AMBU-B.CO, $ABNB and $SQ.
The table below summarises the portfolio performance since inception.
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