Investing Thread

[MU82]

The Supreme Court bars the White House occupant from firing Fed governor Lisa Cook.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4608128-supreme-court-rejects-trumps-bid-to-fire-lisa-cook-as-her-suit-proceeds

Stock market is up today.

[Uncle Rico]

https://bsky.app/profile/bencollins.bsky.social/post/3mpkefhsvok2s

Heckuva system, Brownie

[TSmith34, Inc.]

There are a good numbers of small investors/fools/MAGAs that got swindled, sure, but the majority of the depicted losses aren't losses at all. They are corporations that paid bribes and got rewarded with $50B of new contracts, and very wealthy individuals that secured commutations/pardons/get out of jail free cards.




Astonishing grift--get bribed $2.3B and then use U.S. Treasury dollars to pay off the doners.

[MU82]

And yet the easily duped cultists talk about how they love the way their cult leader is going after fraud.

[Uncle Rico]

And yet the easily duped cultists talk about how they love the way their cult leader is going after fraud.

Well, "fraud" by non-white people

[TallTitan34]

https://x.com/chrisdmowrey/status/2072098606782529707?s=46

[jesmu84]

https://x.com/chrisdmowrey/status/2072098606782529707?s=46

The most corrupt administration in the history of the US and it isn't close.

[Jay Bee]

Another high for the DOW today.

[Uncle Rico]

Another high for the DOW today.

Gas is the highest it's been on the 4th of July since 1922.  Oil companies raking in profits.

[Jay Bee]

Gas is the highest it's been on the 4th of July since 1922.  Oil companies raking in profits.

#FakeNews #Lies

Also, WILDLY lower than other years on a CPI-adjusted basis.

Bloated governments raking in tax money to throw at stupid sh1t that we should not be paying for.

[Uncle Rico]

#FakeNews #Lies

Also, WILDLY lower than other years on a CPI-adjusted basis.

Bloated governments raking in tax money to throw at stupid sh1t that we should not be paying for.

Not fake news.  Highest since 2022.  Fiscal conservatism failing the Americam family again while the rich get richer.  Sad!

Also, using expletives is strictly forbidden on scoop.  You should be banned.

[MU82]

#FakeNews #Lies

Bloated governments raking in tax money to throw at stupid sh1t that we should not be paying for.

Yup. Like $200B for an unnecessary war that accomplished nothing, and a "gift" jet from Qatar that cost taxpayers $500M to retrofit and that the Grifter will get to keep using after he leaves office, and $500M for a ballroom only one American wants, and hundreds of millions of dollars for a grotesque arch that will cast a shadow over Arlington Cemetery, and ...

[Jay Bee]

Yup. Like $200B for an unnecessary war that accomplished nothing, and a "gift" jet from Qatar that cost taxpayers $500M to retrofit and that the Grifter will get to keep using after he leaves office, and $500M for a ballroom only one American wants, and hundreds of millions of dollars for a grotesque arch that will cast a shadow over Arlington Cemetery, and ...

True!

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Jobs

June: +57,000
April, May revisions: -74,000

Trump 2.0: 37,000/month average

ETTD

[MU82]

From the WSJ:

President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs in April 2025 pushed financial markets into a tailspin, sending Wall Street and everyday investors scrambling to shield themselves from the fallout.

Trump's money managers were also busy. In a series of trades on April 3 and April 4—the days after Trump announced global tariffs in the Rose Garden—his investment accounts bought and sold hundreds of individual stocks, according to financial disclosures released this week.

The strategy shifted somewhat on April 8, when his accounts only purchased 327 individual stocks, spending more than $3.6 million to scoop up Apple, Berkshire Hathaway and other blue chips. There was no selling that day.

Trump posted on social media the next morning that it was "a great time to buy" and paused much of his tariff regimen that afternoon. Markets boomed.

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/trumps-brokerage-accounts-made-big-trades-around-liberation-day-tariffs-06e92290

[Uncle Rico]

From the WSJ:

President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs in April 2025 pushed financial markets into a tailspin, sending Wall Street and everyday investors scrambling to shield themselves from the fallout.

Trump's money managers were also busy. In a series of trades on April 3 and April 4—the days after Trump announced global tariffs in the Rose Garden—his investment accounts bought and sold hundreds of individual stocks, according to financial disclosures released this week.

The strategy shifted somewhat on April 8, when his accounts only purchased 327 individual stocks, spending more than $3.6 million to scoop up Apple, Berkshire Hathaway and other blue chips. There was no selling that day.

Trump posted on social media the next morning that it was "a great time to buy" and paused much of his tariff regimen that afternoon. Markets boomed.

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/trumps-brokerage-accounts-made-big-trades-around-liberation-day-tariffs-06e92290

What about Nancy Pelosi?

[TSmith34, Inc.]

What about Nancy Pelosi?

Chuck Schumer is scribing a letter as we speak, and I can guarantee you it will be strongly worded. Very strongly.

[MU82]

Donald Trump Jr. helped take an online retailer known as the "Amazon of guns" public last year. Now, GrabAGun (PEW), where the U.S. president's son is a shareholder and board member, could reportedly reap a windfall from a proposed rule change at Trump's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives that would make it easier to ship guns directly to people's homes.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4609806-trump-jrs-amazon-of-guns-could-make-millions-under-new-proposed-firearm-rule-reuters-reports#comment-103069705

Thank goodness ... we need more guns in America, and we need every man, woman and child to be able to get them easily.

And it goes without saying that we everyday Americans need the nation's leading crime family to personally profit from governmental policy changes. That's just science.

[MuggsyB]

AAPL seems to have bounced bsck after I got angry when it was at 285. 

[MU82]

From Andrew Ross Sorkin's daily e-newsletter:

A fledgling investment firm run by Donald Trump Jr. and a partner, Omeed Malik, a former banker and a Democrat turned Trump donor, has produced remarkable returns in a short period of time.

The firm, 1789 Capital, has cashed in on the policies of the current administration openly and without apology, Maureen Farrell reports for The Times:

Just two years ago, 1789 managed a few hundred million dollars. It now oversees more than $3 billion. Its main investment fund generated returns of roughly 200 percent as of June 30, according to a person familiar with the firm's performance. While still early in its investment cycle, those returns eclipse the average returns of about 21 percent from venture capital firms started in 2023, according to PitchBook, a provider of financial data.

Trump Jr. and Malik have positioned their investments to benefit from White House policies. That includes stakes in companies with large government contracts, and others that have benefited directly from new policies or rollbacks of existing laws.

1789 Capital's bets have included:

++Shares in some of the most coveted private companies before many went public, including SpaceX, Anduril, Cerebras and Reflection AI, often secured by leveraging their political and business connections.

++The prediction market Polymarket, which was worth $300 million when 1789 invested. After a federal regulator granted the company an operating license in the U.S., its valuation ballooned to $15 billion.

++Vulcan Elements, a rare earths magnet manufacturer, then valued at about $200 million. A few months later, the company landed a $620 million loan commitment from the Pentagon. The company is now worth $2 billion.

There are few rules for relatives of the president. Trump Jr. said that, as a private citizen, he was free to invest however he wanted and has done nothing illegal. He said he only talks to his father "every few weeks" and they never discuss business.

But the rise of 1789 Capital has raised eyebrows, Farrell writes:

Angela Lee, a venture capital professor at Columbia Business School, said she's never seen a firm started by first-time fund managers raise so much money. "Any way you cut it, it's unprecedented," she said. One plausible explanation for the firm's rapid success, she said: "People are paying for proximity to power."

[JWags85]

Angela Lee, a venture capital professor at Columbia Business School, said she's never seen a firm started by first-time fund managers raise so much money. "Any way you cut it, it's unprecedented," she said. One plausible explanation for the firm's rapid success, she said: "People are paying for proximity to power."

I'm not going to dispute the abnormality of their start and growth and the obvious connection to the White House as the catalyst...but in my opinion it's pretty poorly research/unaware to say it's "unprecedented" when there is Situational Awareness LP that was started by a 22 year old with zero investment experience that manages 6-7x what 1789 does. This is almost entirely because he's super well connected to the top management at all the AI companies, including his fiancée who is chief of staff at Anthropic.  Oh and SHOCKINGLY, Situational Awareness has gotten basically every big bet right