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The month that was:
The rally continued in May. The Nasdaq went up by about 8.4%, the S&P 500 went up by about 5.3%, and the Dow went up by about 2.9%. AI and chip stocks led the way again. Micron went up about 88% in May alone, and Dell more than doubled.
On May 15th, Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the new chair of the Federal Reserve. He takes over at a hard time. Because of high oil prices, inflation rose to 3.8% in April, the highest since May 2023. Some investors now think the Fed's next move could be a rate hike instead of a cut. A fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran mostly held, and oil prices came down a little from their highs in April.
Not every stock went up. Zoetis, which makes medicines for pets and farm animals, fell about 32% in May after it lowered its forecast because pet owners are spending less on expensive treatments. Intuit fell about 15%.
This month, I sold a few shares of some of my biggest winners. When a stock goes up 10 times in value, investors call it a "tenbagger." Last April, during the tariff crash, I bought Micron for about $65 to $72 a share. This month, it hit $743. That is more than 10 times what I paid!
When a stock goes up that much, it can become a huge part of your portfolio. That makes your portfolio riskier, because if that one stock falls, it can hurt you a lot. Trimming means selling a small part of a winning position to take some profit, while keeping the rest in case it keeps going up. That way, you lock in some of the gains, but you don't miss out if the stock keeps rising. I don't want to sell my best companies too early, so I only sold a small number of shares.
Buys -
Bought 23 ABT at $86.97
Abbott Laboratories makes medical devices, like glucose monitors for people with diabetes, as well as nutrition products and medical tests. Abbott's stock has fallen about 38% this year after it lowered its forecast and agreed to buy a cancer testing company for $23 billion. Abbott has raised its dividend for more than 50 years in a row, so I started a long-term position.
Bought 2 MCK at $749.45
Bought 4 COR at $263.52
McKesson and Cencora are two of the three big companies that deliver medicines from drug makers to pharmacies and hospitals. Their business is very steady, because people need their medicine no matter what the economy is doing. I started positions in both.
Bought 6 SYK at $294.17
Bought 2 TMO at $449.12
I started a position in Stryker, which makes artificial knees and hips and surgical equipment, and I bought back some Thermo Fisher.
Bought 2 SPOT at $440.70
Bought 4 SFM at $86.59
I started a small position in Spotify and added to Sprouts.
Sells -
Sold 2 MU at $743.00
Sold 1 LRCX at $287.35
Sold 2 MRVL at $181.11
Sold 1 IESC at $674.89
I trimmed a few shares of my biggest winners. The Micron shares were sold for a profit of more than 1,000%. The Lam Research shares, also bought during the tariff crash, were up more than 350%. The Marvell shares were up more than 200%, and the IES Holdings shares were up more than 300%.
Sold 15 BLDR at $73.80
Sold 4 ROP at $357.52
Sold 5 CSL at $326.57
Sold 2 ISRG at $432.36
Sold 3 TYL at $309.53
I also sold my Builders FirstSource shares for a loss of about 10%, because high mortgage rates are hurting home building. I sold some other shares to raise cash.
Buys and Sells -
Bought 15 INTU at $332.45
Sold 19 INTU at $310.59
Intuit fell again after its earnings report. I sold most of my shares for a loss of about 19%. Software stocks are still very out of favor.
Bought 13 FROG at $57.33
Sold 13 FROG at $70.45
JFrog jumped after strong earnings, and I sold my shares the next day for a profit of about 23%.
Bought 100 NVOX at $14.79
Sold 100 NVOX at $15.61
NVOX is a leveraged ETF that tries to move twice as much as Novo Nordisk each day. I held it for one day and sold it for a profit of about 6%. As I explained in my November newsletter, leveraged ETFs are very risky, so I only use them for very short trades.
Bought 28 TOST at $29.27
Sold 28 TOST at $25.16
Bought 26 PLTR at $146.22
Sold 18 PLTR at $136.11
Toast and Palantir both fell after their earnings reports, and I sold for losses of about 14% and 7%.
Bought 22 ASTS at $72.99
Sold 22 ASTS at $77.60
Bought 9 DASH at $167.97
Sold 9 DASH at $172.26
Bought 129 ESTC at $56.12
Sold 129 ESTC at $55.53
Bought 15 ADBE at $256.73
Sold 9 ADBE at $249.61
Bought 4 BR at $153.41
Sold 12 BR at $153.73
Bought 2 FDS at $248.47
Sold 3 FDS at $208.27
I also made trades in AST SpaceMobile, which is building satellites that connect directly to cell phones, DoorDash, Elastic, Adobe, Broadridge, and FactSet.
Thanks for reading my newsletter!