Get Invested: Embrace Market Declines
Our “Get Invested” series is a simple yet powerful resource designed to help anyone understand why investing in stocks for the long term is one of the best financial decisions they can make. The slide below from our Get Invested piece is titled “Embrace Market Declines.”
Emotions and investing don’t mix. Emotional investors tend to sell when the market is going down and buy when the market is going up. They should be doing the opposite. As shown below, if you only owned the US stock market on the day after up days since SPY began trading in 1993, your cumulative gain would be just 44%. If you only owned the market on the day after down days, you’d be up 851%!
If you have any questions about our Get Invested resource, please email us or give us a call at 914-315-1248. You can view the full piece by becoming a Bespoke client.
Click here to learn more about Bespoke’s wealth management services.
Brunch Reads – 2/23/25
Welcome to Bespoke Brunch Reads — a linkfest of some of our favorite articles over the past week. The links are mostly market-related, but there are some other interesting subjects covered as well. We hope you enjoy the food for thought as a supplement to the research we provide you during the week.
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima: On the morning of February 23rd, 1945, five days into one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, a small group of US Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division, began their ascent up Mount Suribachi, the dominant high ground on the island of Iwo Jima. The battle for the island had already claimed thousands of lives, and Japanese forces, deeply entrenched in bunkers and tunnels, continued to resist fiercely.
The Marine eventually reached the summit and hoisted a small American flag. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal was there to capture what would become one of the most iconic images in American history. His photo of six Marines raising the flag, five Marines and one Navy corpsman, immortalized not just a military victory but grit and sacrifice. Rosenthal’s photo won a Pulitzer Prize and later inspired the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. But for the men who raised the flag, three of whom never left the island alive, the moment was less about glory and more about survival.
Economic Trends
With Falling U.S. Sales, Companies Are Trying to Hit the Sweet Spot for Prices (WSJ)
Companies are scrambling to keep shoppers happy as people get pickier about where their money goes. Reynolds American is pushing cheaper Newport packs, PepsiCo is tweaking chip sizes so people can buy more or less depending on their cash flow, and Estée Lauder is trying to revive sales with everything from budget-friendly makeup to $1,000 perfumes. It’s less about slashing prices and more about convincing shoppers they’re getting the most bang for their buck, whether that’s stronger trash bags, more concentrated cleaners, or luxury beauty products that feel worth the splurge. [Link]
Continue reading our weekly Brunch Reads linkfest by logging in if you’re already a member or signing up for a trial to one of our two membership levels shown below! You can cancel at any time.
Get Invested: There’s Always Light…
Our “Get Invested” series is a simple yet powerful resource designed to help anyone understand why investing in stocks for the long term is one of the best financial decisions they can make. The slide below from our Get Invested piece is titled “There’s Always Light at the End of the Tunnel.”
Through wars, assassinations, bankruptcies, and crashes, the US stock market has always gone on to make new highs. A wise investor once said: “Never bet on the end of the world, because it only happens once.”
If you have any questions about our Get Invested resource, please email us or give us a call at 914-315-1248. You can view the full piece by becoming a Bespoke client.
Click here to learn more about Bespoke’s wealth management services.
The Bespoke Report – 2/21/25 – Short, But Not Sweet
To read our weekly Bespoke Report newsletter and access everything else Bespoke’s research platform offers, start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium. In this week’s report, we look at factors contributing to this week’s sell-off, some positive trends, the housing market, and much more! Don’t miss it.
Get Invested — 2025 Edition
Daily Sector Snapshot — 2/21/25
Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 2/21/25 – More Pain for UNH
See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium. CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.
“You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.” – David Foster Wallace
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
If you’re looking at futures on the Dow, it’s not looking like a positive start to the last trading day of the week. Futures on that index are down nearly half of a percent on news that the index’s second most heavily weighted component – UnitedHealth Group (UNH) – is down over 10% following a WSJ report that the Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the company for its billing practices related to its Medicare Advantage plans. Outside of the Dow, though, S&P 500 futures are flat, and the Nasdaq is on pace to open 0.35% higher.
Overnight, Asian markets traded higher to close the week with broad-based gains as Japanese CPI rose 0.5% m/m versus an increase of 0.6% in December. In Europe, stocks have also bounced back from yesterday’s decline with the STOXX 600 trading up over 0.5% putting it back into the black for the week. The gains come despite some mixed PMI readings where the Manufacturing index came in higher than expected (but still in contraction territory). At the same time, the Services PMI, which was above 50, missed expectations.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down less than 0.5% yesterday, but there were some big moves in individual stocks as some of the market’s highest flyers in recent weeks/months were taken out to the woodshed. Among the largest US banks and brokers, the percentage declines may not have been as large as some of the other market areas, but relative to their normal price moves, the declines were large. Of the six large US banks shown below, all of them were down at least 1%, with four down over 3%; JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Morgan Stanley (MS) both fell more than 4%.
The moves may have been painful, but putting them in perspective, most of these stocks have seen large gains in recent months. On a six-month chart, they don’t look especially significant. Besides Bank of America (BAC), they were all either at or right near 52-week highs heading into yesterday’s decline.
The Closer – What Drives the Dollar? – 2/20/25
Log-in here if you’re a member with access to the Closer.
Looking for deeper insight into markets? In tonight’s Closer sent to Bespoke Institutional clients, we lead off with a look at what drives moves in the dollar (page 1) followed by a look at some discrepancies in the latest jobless claims and Philly Fed data (page 2). We then show some of the mean reversion that has taken place in the past couple of sessions (page 3). Next, we review today’s 30-year TIPS auction (page 4) before closing out with a recap of the latest EIA data (page 5).
See today’s full post-market Closer and everything else Bespoke publishes by starting a 14-day trial to Bespoke Institutional today!
Chart of the Day: Is Walmart (WMT) The Wrong Business Or The Wrong Price?
Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: Airbnb (ABNB)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers Airbnb’s (ABNB) Q4 2024 earnings call.
Airbnb (ABNB) operates a global marketplace for short-term rentals, connecting millions of travelers with unique accommodations in over 220 countries. The company has transformed the hospitality industry by enabling individuals to monetize their properties, offering everything from city apartments to countryside retreats. What sets Airbnb apart is its scale, over 5 billion site visits per year, and its evolving platform, which increasingly integrates AI, flexible payment options, and host services. ABNB’s Q4 revenue grew 12% YoY to $2.5B, driven by product improvements and global expansion. The Co-Host Network hit 100,000 listings, boosting supply and host participation. AI-powered customer support launches in 2025, positioning ABNB as a leader in AI-driven travel experiences. Expansion outside its core markets accelerated, with targeted growth in Brazil and Japan, where bookings are growing twice as fast as mature markets. Regulatory challenges persist, notably in New York, but ABNB is strengthening city partnerships globally. The better-than-expected results were well received as the stock pushed 14.5% higher on 2/14…
Continue reading our Conference Call Recap for ABNB by becoming a Bespoke Institutional subscriber. You can sign up for Bespoke Institutional now and receive a 14-day trial to read our newest Conference Call Recap. To sign up, choose either the monthly or annual checkout link below: