Author

admin

Browsing

Procter & Gamble will cut 7,000 jobs, or roughly 15% of its non-manufacturing workforce, as part of a two-year restructuring program.

The layoffs by the consumer goods giant come as President Donald Trump’s tariffs have led a range of companies to hike prices to offset higher costs. The trade tensions have raised concerns about the broader health of the U.S. economy and job market.

P&G CFO Andre Schulten announced the job cuts during a presentation at the Deutsche Bank Consumer Conference on Thursday morning. The company employs 108,000 people worldwide, as of June 30, according to regulatory filings.

P&G faces slowing growth in the U.S., the company’s largest market. In its fiscal third quarter, North American organic sales rose just 1%.

Trump’s tariffs have presented another challenge for P&G, which has said that it plans to raise prices in the next fiscal year, which starts in July. The company expects a 3 cent to 4 cent per share drag on its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings from levies, based on current rates, Schulten said. Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, P&G is projecting a headwind from tariffs of $600 million before taxes.

P&G, which owns Pampers, Tide and Swiffer, is planning a broader effort to reevaluate its portfolio, restructure its supply chain and slim down its corporate organization. Schulten said investors can expect more details, like specific brand and market exits, on the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call in July.

P&G is projecting that it will incur non-core costs of $1 billion to $1.6 billion before taxes due to the reorganization.

“This restructuring program is an important step toward ensuring our ability to deliver our long-term algorithm over the coming two to three years,” Schulten said. “It does not, however, remove the near-term challenges that we currently face.”

P&G follows other major U.S. employers, including Microsoft and Starbucks, in carrying out significant layoffs this year. As Trump’s tariffs take hold, investors are watching Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for May for signs of whether the job market has started to slow. While the government reading for April was better than expected, a separate reading this week from ADP showed private sector hiring was weak in May.

Shares of P&G fell more than 1% in morning trading on the news. The stock has fallen 2% so far this year, outstripped by the S&P 500′s gains of more than 1%. P&G has a market cap of $407 billion.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Israel struck “terror targets of the Hezbollah Aerial Unit (127)” in the southern suburb of Dahieh, Beirut, the Israel Defense Forces said, as large plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the Lebanese capital late on Thursday.

Lebanon’s state-run NNA news also reported strikes from Israeli drones, saying that a “series of warning strikes, numbering more than seven” had targeted the city’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli military had previously warned of a coming strike in the area, intended to target alleged “underground UAV production facilities” controlled by Hezbollah.

IDF Arabic Spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an “urgent warning” via social media earlier on Thursday, urging residents of “Al-Hadath, Haret Hreik, and Burj Al-Barajneh,” neighborhoods to immediately evacuate buildings marked in red on attached maps and adjacent structures, and to stay at least “300 meters away” for safety.

A second “urgent warning” was issued by the Israeli military via a post on X accompanied by a satellite photo of Lebanon with highlighted zones they said showed the locations of Hezbollah sites. The warning urged residents to evacuate nearby buildings “immediately and stay at least 500 meters away from them.”

The announcement prompted widespread panic and evacuations, according to NNA. Social media video captured Thursday night showed dozens of cars leaving neighborhoods in the city’s south.

The strikes were carried out as Muslims in Lebanon prepared to celebrate Eid al-Adha, known as the Feast of Sacrifice, on Friday. Most Muslims in Lebanon usually celebrate the eve of Eid which fell on Thursday evening local time.

Israel previously struck the same neighborhood, a Hezbollah stronghold, in late March. A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon had been brokered in November 2024, but strikes on southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah militants and facilities have continued.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Friday marks 81 years since D-Day, the first day of the Normandy landings that laid the foundations for the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

The invasion – codenamed Operation Overlord – saw of tens of thousands of troops from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada landing on five stretches of the coastline of Normandy, France – codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beaches.

Planning for D-Day began more than a year in advance, and the Allies carried out substantial military deception to confuse the Germans as to when and where the invasion would take place.

When was D-Day?

The operation was originally scheduled to begin on June 5, 1944, when a full moon and low tides were expected to coincide with good weather, but storms forced a 24-hour delay. Allied divisions began landing on the five beaches at 6:30 a.m. on June 6.

What does D-Day stand for?

The term ‘D-Day’ was military code for the beginning of an important operation, with the first ‘D’ being short for ‘Day.’ This means that D-Day actually stands for ‘Day-Day.’

According to the Royal British Legion, the phrase ‘D-Day’ was used fairly often before the Allied invasion in June 1944. After this, however, the two became synonymous, and now D-Day is commonly understood to refer to the beginning of Operation Overlord.

Which Allied countries were involved?

D-Day saw unprecedented cooperation between international armed forces, with more than 2 million troops in the UK in preparation for the invasion, according to the Imperial War Museums (IWM).

Most of these troops were American, British and Canadian, the IWM reports, but troops also came from Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Poland to participate in Operation Overlord.

What preparations were made?

The Allied troops’ invasion was coordinated across air, land and sea, in what can be described as amphibious landings.

These were preceded by an extensive bombing campaign to damage German defenses, as well as the employment of deception tactics.

Operation Bodyguard was an umbrella term for the deception strategy leading up to the Allies’ invasion of Europe in June 1944. Operation Fortitude was a tactic under this umbrella specifically related to the Normandy invasion, and was intended to make Nazi Germany believe that the initial Normandy attacks were merely a diversion and that the true invasion would take place elsewhere.

According to the IWM, Fortitude North intended to trick the Germans into believing that the Allies would attack Norway, and Fortitude South was designed to convince the Germans that the Allies were going to invade Pas de Calais, a French department northeast of Normandy that is closer to the UK.

What happened on D-Day?

The US troops were assigned to Utah beach at the base of the Cotentin Peninsular and Omaha Beach at the northern end of the Normandy coast. The British subsequently landed on Gold Beach, followed by the Canadians at Juno, and finally the British at Sword, the easternmost point of the invasion.

By midnight, the troops had secured their beachheads and moved further inland from Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword.

However, not all the landings were successful; US forces suffered substantial losses at Omaha Beach, where strong currents forced many landing craft away from their intended positions, delaying and hampering the invasion strategy.

Heavy fire from German positions on the steep cliffs, which had not been effectively destroyed by Allied bombing before the invasion, also caused casualties.

How did the Germans try to defend themselves?

According to the IWM, Germany’s reaction to Operation Overlord was “slow and confused.”

Weather conditions on June 6 were still poor, many senior commanders were not at their posts, and Operation Fortitude convinced Adolf Hitler that the Normandy invasion was a feint before a bigger attack at Pas de Calais.

Germany’s air force was in action elsewhere, countering American bombing operations over Germany. Its navy ships were docked in ports or already destroyed by the Allies. This left only the German army to defend against Operation Overlord, according to the IWM.

On top of this, the success of Operation Fortitude meant that many army units were kept away from the Normandy battlefield until July, as an attack in Pas de Calais was still expected.

German troops manning coastal defenses “did as much as they could have been expected to,” the IWM says, before eventually being “silenced” and Allied units advanced inland.

How many people died on D-Day?

On D-Day alone, around 4,440 Allied troops were confirmed dead, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), with more than 5,800 troops wounded or missing.

Because Omaha Beach was the bloodiest landing beach, the US Army lost the most men in the amphibious landings. Some 2,500 American troops died in the beach assault and airborne operations on D-Day, according to the CWGC.

The precise number of German casualties on the day is unknown, but they are estimated to be between 4,000 and 9,000.

Who were the Bedford Boys?

Of the tens of thousands of troops that stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, 44 were soldiers, sailors and airmen from Bedford, Virginia, in the US.

Within minutes of reaching Omaha Beach, 16 of these men were killed and four were wounded. Another Bedford soldier was killed elsewhere on Omaha Beach, and three others were presumed killed in action, bringing Bedford’s D-Day fatality figure to 20 men.

According to the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, Bedford suffered the highest known per capita D-Day loss in the US.

What followed D-Day?

Despite securing a stronghold on the French coast on D-Day, the Allied forces faced the risk that German bombardment could push them back into the sea.

They needed to build up troop numbers and equipment in Normandy faster than the Germans, allowing for a continued invasion into mainland Europe.

The Allies used their air power to slow the German advance toward Normandy by blowing up bridges, railways and roads across the region. This allowed the Allies to gain total control of Normandy 77 days later and move on toward Paris, which they liberated in August 1944.

What impact did the operation have on the war?

The US Department of Defense calls D-Day the “successful beginning of the end of Hitler’s tyrannical regime.” The IWM calls it the “most significant victory of the Western Allies in the Second World War.”

By being able to get forces into Normandy, the Allies were able to begin their advance into northwest Europe. Though World War II lasted nearly another year in Europe, the success of Operation Overlord led to the liberation of France and allowed the Allies to fight the Germans in Nazi-occupied Europe.

The US’ National World War II Museum says that a good way to appreciate the significance of D-Day is to imagine what would have happened if the operation had failed. According to the museum, another landing would have not been possible for at least a year.

In this time, Hitler could have strengthened Nazi-occupied Europe’s coastal defenses, developed aircraft and weapons, bombed the UK even more heavily and continued his killing campaign, the museum says.

Fighting by the Allies on the western front and Russian soldiers on the eastern front eventually led to the defeat of the German Nazi forces.

On May 7, 1945, the German Third Reich signed an unconditional surrender at Reims, France. Victory in Europe (V-E) Day is celebrated the following day as that’s when the armistice went into effect.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Russian ballistic missiles and drones have been launched toward Ukraine from multiple directions, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram Friday.

Tkachenko accused Russia of hitting residential areas with the drone attack, saying a high-rise building the the Solomyansky district of Kyiv was damaged.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko also reported fires in the districts of Holosiivskyi and Darnytskyi of the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian air defense units have been activated in the Obolon area of Kyiv, Klitschko said on Telegram early Friday morning local time.

“The attack on the capital continues. Stay in shelters!” the mayor said.

The Russian missile attack on Ukraine comes days after Ukraine’s security service launched a series of daring, large-scale drone attacks deep inside Russia, striking airfields and hitting 41 Russian military aircraft.

On Tuesday, Ukraine also launched an attack on the Kerch Bridge, the only direct connection point between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula, with 1,100 kilograms of explosives that had been planted underwater.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

North Korea says it has successfully refloated a new destroyer that capsized upon launch last month, with state media reporting the damaged vessel will be moved to a dry dock in a different shipyard for repairs.

“After restoring the balance of the destroyer early in June, the team moored it at the pier by safely conducting its end launching on Thursday afternoon,” a report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

A satellite photo taken by Planet Labs on June 5 showed the formerly stricken vessel righted and seemingly floating in water away from the pier where the disastrous launch took place.

The 5,000-ton destroyer is the country’s newest warship and was meant to be a triumph of North Korea’s ambitious naval modernization effort.

Instead, a malfunction in the launch mechanism on May 21 caused the stern to slide prematurely into the water, crushing parts of the hull and leaving the bow stranded on the shipway, KCNA reported at the time. A day later, state media reported the damage was not as bad as initially feared.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who witnessed the failed launch in the northeastern city of Chongjin, called it a “criminal act,” and the government quickly said it arrested four people it claims are responsible for the launch accident.

Kim ordered officials to swiftly repair the as-yet-unnamed ship before the late-June plenary session of the ruling Workers’ Party, calling it a matter of national honor.

KCNA reported Friday that Kim’s goal will be met.

“The next-stage elaborate restoration is to be carried out at the dry dock of the Rajin Dockyard for the period of 7-10 days,” KCNA reported, adding that Central Committee Secretary Jo Chun Ryong, who is leading the repair effort, said “the perfect restoration of the destroyer will be completed without fail” before the plenary meeting.

The quick action to refloat the ship surprised analysts, who, based on satellite images of the accident, thought the process would take much longer.

“Sheer manpower and – let’s face it – an innovative approach to righting the ship, delivered a solution in two weeks that people like me didn’t expect for four to six,” said analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain.

The innovative approach apparently was using aerostatic balloons attached to the ship’s hull to help balance and refloat it, satellite imagery showed.

Damage to the hull was less severe than analysts expected when they saw what happened on May 21.

During the sideways launch, in which the ship was supposed to slide into the water laterally, the stern of the warship slipped into the water while the bow remained on land.

Analysts thought the stresses placed on the hull and keel during such an accident could have potentially led to its scrapping.

But “the hull damage must have been significantly less than estimated,” Schuster said.

Schuster said if North Korea can devote the same effort to internal repairs to the warship as it did to refloating it, it could be made ready for sea trials much sooner that he would have thought after the accident.

Internal spaces of the ship, as well as machinery and electronics, will have to be purged of sea water and dried salt in the repair process, he said.

“Nearly everything is doable if you are willing to commit the resources and have the human talent to employ it,” Schuster said.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

The fragile trade truce between the United States and China has, for now, been pulled back from the brink.

US President Donald Trump finally got his long-anticipated phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during which the two agreed to resume trade talks that had stalled over accusations from each side that the other had reneged on previous promises.

Thursday’s 90-minute conversation brought a temporary reprieve from an escalating feud between the superpower rivals, but it offered no clear path toward resolving their deep-rooted divisions – especially over crucial supply chains that both sides consider vital to national security.

US officials accused China of backpedaling on its pledge made during May talks in Geneva to ease export restrictions on rare earth minerals critical to a wide range of industries. Beijing, meanwhile, has bristled at Washington’s moves to warn companies against using China’s most advanced AI chips, restrict chip design software sales to China and “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas.

“After what happened during the past 10 days, I already call (the phone call) a win,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank.

“Both sides acknowledge that this was a positive interaction, and the two leaders coming together can solve problems. It’s good for their strong man image and leadership credentials.”

While Trump had repeatedly expressed keenness for the call, including complimenting Xi’s toughness in a late-night social media post this week, Xi has taken his time in picking up the phone.

“The Chinese state is under significantly less pressure than its American counterpart in coming to the negotiating table,” said Brian Wong, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. “The Chinese leadership joined the call from a position of political strength, even whilst economic concerns are very much alive and real.”

Supply chain bottlenecks

Trump’s eagerness to talk – and his speediness in declaring that he had “straightened out” the dispute over rare earth exports with Xi – has once again demonstrated to the Chinese leader just how powerful his nation’s dominance in the sector is.

Since April, when China announced the export controls, the new system has disrupted the shipment of the minerals, raising alarms among officials and businesses alike in Europe and America.

In the Chinese readout, Xi insisted that China had “seriously and earnestly” complied with the agreement, even as US officials have repeatedly accused Beijing of slow-walking approvals for rare earth exports.

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, noted that official rules dictate that applications for export licenses can take up to 45 working days to be approved.

“In principle, I can agree to export to you, but I can speed things up or slow them down. In reality, on a technical level, it also depends on the overall bilateral trade and economic atmosphere,” he said. “If the bilateral relationship is good, then I’ll go a bit faster; if not, I’ll slow down. But you can’t say I’m violating the agreement — I’m still following the standard procedures.”

While American businesses are likely to see more export licenses approved in the next couple of weeks, according to Wu, the export control regime is here to stay.

Zhiqun Zhu, director of the China Institute at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, put it more bluntly, calling China’s dominance on rare earths “one of the few cards” it holds in the trade war.

“Why would the US government expect China to give up the rare earth card to please the US if it treats China as the enemy?” he wrote in an article prior to the Trump-Xi call.

In the days leading up to the phone call, Chinese scholars have suggested that Beijing should use its leverage on rare earths to get Washington to ease its own export controls on cutting-edge chips. Unlike rare earths, China doesn’t dominate this industry at the highest levels, and it views any supply bottleneck on the US side as an obstacle to its technological development.

Following his conversation with Xi, Trump announced that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will join Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in the next round of trade talks.

That was noted by observers in both China and the US as a sign that US export controls may now be up for negotiation in a potential win for Beijing.

“The US Department of Commerce is responsible for export controls, which means that in the next stage, China-US negotiations will likely go beyond tariffs and also address issues such as export controls and entity sanctions,” Wu said.

During his first term in office, Trump lifted a ban on American companies doing business with Chinese telecom giant ZTE at Xi’s request to get a trade deal. But six years on, easing export controls on China will be a tough sell in Washington, where blocking Beijing’s access to advanced American technologies has become a rare bipartisan issue.

“Just having Lutnick there (in the trade talks) doesn’t mean that the US is going to make concessions on semiconductors,” Sun said.

She predicts more flare-ups of tensions down the road. “This ‘three steps forward two steps back’ is going to be the norm from now on. We’re not going to see a deal agreed without any drawbacks, and we’re going to see this repeating itself,” she added.

Different approaches

While the call signaled temporary relief, it also exposed stark differences in how the US and China approach their trade disputes: Trump tends to treat trade as a primary and standalone issue, whereas Beijing often views it in the context of broader bilateral relations.

Trump said in his Truth Social post that the hour-and-a-half conversation phone call was “focused almost entirely on TRADE,” while the Chinese readout singled out Xi’s stern warning on Taiwan – the reddest of lines for Beijing – and the issue of Chinese student visas.

The Chinese leader urged the US to “handle the Taiwan question with prudence” so that “‘Taiwan independence’ separatists” will not be able to “drag China and America into the dangerous terrain of confrontation and even conflict.”

The contrast strikes at the core of the gulf between China and the US, Wong said.

“Whilst Trump views the competition through primarily trade surplus/deficit terms, Xi views territorial integrity as … more important than the country’s economic interests,” he said.

From Beijing’s perspective, there are plenty of worrying signs. Last weekend, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Asian allies that China posed an “imminent” threat to Taiwan, a self-governing democracy Beijing views as its own and has vowed to take control of, by force if necessary.

Days before, Reuters had reported, citing US official sources, that Washington plans to ramp up weapon sales to Taipei to a level exceeding Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China’s intensifying military pressure.

Another issue of concern for Beijing is the fate of Chinese students in the US. Last week, Secretary of State Macro Rubio, a known China-hawk, announced a plan to “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese students, a move that has caused widespread anxiety and anger in China.

The Chinese readout quoted Trump as saying that Chinese students are welcome in the US. Trump later told reporters in the Oval Office: “Chinese students are coming. No problem. No problem. It’s our honor to have them.”

Wu said the adjustment of the visa policy will be a test of Trump’s leadership. During their call, Xi told Trump that the two leaders should “take the helm and set the right course” for bilateral relations, saying it’s particularly important to steer clear of “various disturbances and disruptions.”

“This remark had a clear target – it implies that within Trump’s team, there are people trying to disrupt or undermine the bilateral relationship, so now it’s up to President Trump to show leadership,” Wu said.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

A lot has happened in the stock market since Liberation Day, keeping us on our toes. Volatility has declined significantly, stocks have bounced back from their April 7 low, and the economy has remained resilient.

If you’re still feeling uncertain, though, you’re not alone. The stock market’s in a bit of a “wait and see” mode, going through a period of consolidation as it figures out its next move. 

The S&P 500 ($SPX) is hesitating to hit 6000 despite reclaiming its 200-day simple moving average (SMA). This indecision can leave investors feeling stuck in “no man’s land.” And it’s not just the S&P 500, either; most major indexes are in a similar scenario, except for small caps, which have been left behind. This could be because the market has priced in a delay in interest rate cut expectations.

Tech Is Taking the Lead

If you drill down into the major indexes, there is some action you shouldn’t ignore. Tech stocks have started to take the lead again, although momentum has been lacking. Over the past month, the Technology sector has been up over 4%.

FIGURE 1. S&P SECTOR ETF PERFORMANCE OVER THE LAST 30 DAYS. Technology is the clear leader with a gain of over 4%.Image source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes. It’s encouraging to see tech stocks regain their leadership position. Tech is a major force behind the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ). The daily chart of the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) shows the ETF has been trying to break above a consolidation range it has been stuck in since mid-May.

FIGURE 2. DAILY CHART OF XLK. Although the ETF has barely broken above its consolidation range, we need to see greater momentum to confirm a follow through to the upside.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.Nothing is standing in the way of XLK reaching its all-time high, but the momentum isn’t quite there yet. The 14-period relative strength index (RSI) is below 70 and looks to be stalling, pretty much in line with the overall stock market’s price action.

So, what’s the market waiting for? Maybe a catalyst, like Friday’s non-farm payrolls report. This week’s JOLTS, ADP, and ISM Services data didn’t move the needle much, but the NFP report could be the game changer.

S&P 500 Technical Forecast

Where could the S&P 500 go from here? Let’s dive into the weekly chart.

FIGURE 3. WEEKLY CHART OF THE S&P 500. The index is spitting distance to its all-time high. A break above the November high would clear the path to new highs.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

The S&P 500 broke above its 40-week SMA on the week of May 12 and has held above it. However, it has been in a consolidation for the last month, similar to that of XLK.

The S&P 500 is approaching its November high of 6017. A break above it could push it toward new highs. On the flip side, if it slides below the 40-week SMA, it would be a cause for concern and could mean the May 12 gap-up could get filled. Keep an eye on the 5688 level. If the S&P 500 pulls back close to that level and turns around, it would be a healthy correction — an opportunity to buy the dip. A further downside move would mean exercising patience or unloading some of your positions.

What’s Going On With Gold and Bonds?

While stocks are grinding sideways, gold prices are rising, and bond prices are showing green shoots. This price action tells us that investors could be bracing for slower growth ahead. It’s not something to panic about — just something to watch.

You can get a quick look at what gold, bonds, and all the major indexes are doing by checking out the StockCharts Market Summary page and Your Dashboard.

So, what should you do?

Hold, add, or fold? That’s the big question. The market needs time to digest a lot, from economic data to geopolitical risks and policy headlines. Keep checking in and monitor the sectors, observe index performance, and note how other areas of the market, such as precious metals and bonds, are reacting.


 Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

Recently, the S&P 500 ($SPX) has been racking up a good number of wins.

Since late April, the index has logged its third winning streak of at least five: a nine-day streak from April 22–May 2 and a six-day streak from May 12–May 19. That makes for a cluster of long winning streaks, which is something that also showed up in late 2023 and mid-2024.

To put it simply, these bunches of buying usually show up in uptrends. Note how there were no five-day winning streaks during the three corrections pictured on the chart below (in August–October 2023, July–August 2024, and February–April 2025). Most of the clusters happened as the S&P 500 was in the middle of a consistent upswing; the only time we saw a long winning streak occur right before a big downturn was in late July 2024. That came after a strong three-month run from the April lows, with the S&P 500 gaining 14% in three months.

CHART 1. WINNING STREAKS IN THE S&P 500. Since late April, the S&P 500 has logged a nine-day streak from April 22 to May 2 and a six-day streak from May 12 to May 19.

Currently, the SPX is up 23% in just under two months. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a break in the action at some point soon.

The key difference between now and July is that back in July, the S&P 500 was making new highs for two straight months. That’s not the case now, as the index is still below the February 2025 highs. So it’s not apples to apples, but, at some point, the market will have to deal with more than a minor pullback once again.

Sentiment Check

After the close on Wednesday, I ran an X poll asking if the 0.01% move was bullish or bearish. The result: 61% said bullish.

This tells us that most people saw Wednesday’s pause as a sign that the bears are unable to push the market higher, which could be true. But it also suggests complacency. The onus still is squarely on the bears to do something with this, with the only true sign of weakness in the last six weeks coming on May 21, when the S&P 500 plummeted 1.6%. That ended up being an aberration… for now.

UBER Stock: One to Watch

Sometimes, a specific stock can provide clues about the broader market’s next step. Right now, we think that the stock is UBER.

Technically speaking, UBER is at a critical spot, and it’s also an important stock given that it was one of the first growth names to break out to new all-time highs. The stock remains in a long-term uptrend, which, of course, is bullish, but it has quietly pulled back 13% from its May 20 high of $93 and was just down nine out of 10 trading sessions (see the weekly chart of UBER stock). We can see that the stock has fully retraced the price action from the pattern breakout near $82.

CHART 2. WEEKLY CHART OF UBER STOCK. The stock is in a long-term uptrend, although it has retraced. Here’s where things get really interesting. UBER has now formed a potential bearish head-and-shoulders pattern, seen on the daily chart. If the stock breaks below $82, it will target the 71-zone.

CHART 3. DAILY CHART OF UBER STOCK. Will UBER’s stock price hold support or break below it? This chart is one to monitor.

So, here are three outcomes to watch for. UBER’s stock price could:

  1. Hold support (bullish).
  2. Break below $82, but then reverse higher, which would be a bear trap (bullish).
  3. Break below $82 and continue lower and hit the downside target (bearish).

If #3 occurs, the odds are UBER won’t be declining by itself; it’ll likely drag the broader market down with it. This shows the significance of UBER stock, which certainly makes it one to keep an eye on.


I’m a huge fan of using platforms like StockCharts to help make my investment process more efficient and more effective.  The StockCharts scan engine helps me identify stocks that are demonstrating constructive technical configuration based on the shape and relationship of multiple moving averages.

Today I’ll share with you one of my favorite scans, called “Moving Averages in Correct Order”, and walk through three charts that highlight the benefits of identifying charts in primary uptrend phases.

Primary Uptrends Can Be Defined By Moving Averages

This scan, which StockCharts members can access in the Sample Scan Library, basically looks for three criteria to be met for any chart:

  1. 20-day EMA > 50-day SMA
  2. 50-day SMA > 100-day SMA
  3. 100-day SMA > 200-day SMA

The general approach here is to find charts where the short-term moving averages are above their longer-term counterparts.  By making multiple comparisons, we can ensure a more consistent uptrend phase based on the recent price action.  

Let’s review two charts that I feel are representative of the stocks that will tend to come up using this scanning approach.

You’ll Probably Find Two Types of Charts in the Results

The most common result will be a chart that is in a long-term primary uptrend, making consistently higher highs and higher lows.  Netflix (NFLX) is a great example of this sort of “long and strong” price action.

The four moving averages have remained in the proper order as described above for most of the last 12 months.  After NFLX pulled back to its April low, a bounce back above the March swing high moved the 21-day exponential moving average back above the 50-day simple moving average.  From that breakout point, the stock has continued to push to new all-time highs into early June.

One thing I love about this scan is it helps me confirm which stocks are in persistent uptrends, because those are the types of charts that I generally want to be following as they trend higher.  But sometimes, a pullback chart will come up in the scan as well.  Here’s TJX, which has recently pulled back after achieving a new all-time high in May.

We can see that the moving averages returned to the proper order in early April after rotating higher off a major low in mid-March.  From that point, TJX had a false breakout in mid-April before finally completing the move to a new high in early May.  TJX subsequently gapped lower after an earnings miss, and the stock has now pulled back to an ascending 50-day moving average.

The TJX chart reminds me of three benefits of following moving averages over time.  First, we can look at the slope of an individual moving average to evaluate the shape of the trend on a specific time frame.  Second, we can compare multiple moving averages to validate the trend on multiple time frames.  Finally, we can use moving averages as potential support and resistance levels in the event of a pullback.

With TJX testing an ascending 50-day moving average this week, I’m inclined to treat this chart as “innocent until proven guilty” as long as it remains above this key trend barometer.  But if and when the 50-day moving average is violated, and if the moving averages are no longer in the proper order, then I would need to reevaluate a long position.

Why the Transition to Proper Order is So Important

This final example shows how the transition between moving average configurations can prove so valuable in understanding trend transitions.  Here’s a daily chart of VeriSign (VRSN) showing how the relationship between the moving averages can help us better label the different trend phases.

On the left third of the chart, we can see the moving averages mostly in a bearish order, confirming a distribution phase for the stock.  Then in June 2024, the moving averages change to where there’s no real clean definition of the trend.  This represents a consolidation phase, where buyers and sellers are essentially in agreement.

Finally, we can see that when the moving averages finally achieve a bullish configuration, VRSN is now in an accumulation phase of higher highs and higher lows.  And as long as those moving averages remain in the proper order, the uptrend phase is confirmed.

The goal with this moving average scan is to help us identify charts that are just rotating into the accumulation phase.  It’s also designed to encourage us to stick with winning trends as long as the price action confirms the uptrend.  And if and when the moving average configuration changes, then our approach should probably change as well!

RR#6,

Dave

PS- Ready to upgrade your investment process?  Check out my free behavioral investing course!

David Keller, CMT

President and Chief Strategist

Sierra Alpha Research LLC

marketmisbehavior.com

https://www.youtube.com/c/MarketMisbehavior

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice.  The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.  

The author does not have a position in mentioned securities at the time of publication.    Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.

As more parts of the world face intense drought, new technologies are emerging to clean and reuse existing water. Investors are seeing potential for big profits.

Water treatment is expensive. It uses a lot of energy and produces its own waste that gets disposed of at a hefty price. Capture6, a startup in Berkeley, California, says it’s developing a solution, and one with an added benefit to the environment.

Capture6′s technology repurposes industrial and water treatment waste, generating clean water and capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

“That combination of water treatment, brine management, and carbon capture all at once is part of what makes us unique, what makes our process innovative,” said Capture6 CEO Ethan Cohen-Cole, who co-founded the company in 2021. “We are able to do so at reduced energy costs.”

The process is complex. It starts with the waste from any sort of water treatment process. Once the solids are removed, that waste is called brine, which is leftover water plus concentrated salt — sodium chloride. Treatment facilities usually have to pay to get rid of it.

But Capture6 takes that brine, strips out the fresh water and separates the salt into sodium and chlorine. It then turns the sodium into lye.

“That lye has the really neat property that if you expose it to the air, it will bond with CO2 and strip it from the air, and that’s the punch line to the process,” said Cohen-Cole. “We have processed the waste salt, we’ve returned fresh water to our partner, and we’ve captured CO2 from the air.”

It’s a particularly attractive proposition in areas most in need of clean water. Capture6 is working in Western Australia, South Korea, and in drought-stricken California, at the Palmdale Water District north of Los Angeles. The district is still testing the technology, but is already projecting huge cost savings in its brine management.

“It will save us 10% on that capital cost, as well as saving us 20 to 40% in operational costs,” said Scott Rogers, assistant general manager at Palmdale Water District. “We’re recovering anywhere from 94% to 98% water out of water that would just normally be wasted.”

Rogers says it’s early but when more facilities start using the technology, it will create a circular economy that can benefit the environment.

Capture6 has raised $27.5 million from Tetrad Corporation, Hyundai Motors, Energy Capital Ventures, Elemental Impact and Triple Impact Capital.

Cohen-Cole says the company’s entire process could run on renewable energy, so all of the CO2 that it captures will be net negative, improving the environment. That allows the company to generate added revenue by selling carbon credits.

It’s just one technology in a growing field of carbon capture, removal and sequestration. Others include direct air capture, burying carbon underground or injecting it into the ocean.

The Trump Administration recently canceled $3.7 billion worth of awards for new technology, including carbon capture, to fight climate change. Capture6 has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and from state-level sources including California, according to the company. So far, none of that has been canceled.

— CNBC producer Lisa Rizzolo contributed to this piece.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS