Opening Bell News: Walmart and Microsoft hit all-time highs

Welcome to the Opening Bell News Podcast. Join host, Michael Lee from Michael Lee Strategy, MichaelLeestrategy.com or explore the podcast breakdown below.

Economic Headlines

We’ve got a ton of economic news to dissect, including retail and wholesale inventories. Both of which came in above expectations.

• INVENTORY: Retailers are building inventory. Which plays into what we’re seeing in terms of consumption.
• Inventory building is positive for GDP for two reasons.
  1. Products being purchased count towards GDP.
  2. Inventory build-up shows that retailers are confident in making sales.

• CONSUMERISM: Consumer spending was reported today, which supports retail and wholesale data.
• Consumer spending was up 1.6% month-over-month against a revised 6.2% in June.
• Consumer sediments were also reported above expectations, and higher than last month. Reporting between two thirds and 70% of GDP, which is positive.
• The consensus for work consumer sentiment was 72.8, it came in at 74.1 up from 72.8 last month.

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Opening Bell News Economy Overview

We were in the nineties prior to the pandemic. We’ll see how long it takes us to get back there. But we are definitely heading in the right direction.

Even if August and September are flat, consumer spending is going to be up somewhere between 35% and 40% at an annual rate in the third quarter, over the second quarter.

This progression shows that the economy is snapping back tremendously, in fact, some would even say that the economy is starting to roar.

Stocks Hitting All-Time Highs

Walmart (WMT)

Walmart (WMT) stock hit an absolute all-time high this week.

• The high of the day was $141.07.
• That is the highest the stock has ever been in history.
• Walmart had great earnings last week.
• They’re being included in the TikTok deal discussion.
• The other thing we’re seeing from Walmart is the ability to be an omnichannel retailer.

What is an Omnichannel retailer?

A retailer that can sell online, in a store, or offer in-store pick-up via online ordering.

Microsoft (MSFT)

Another big name stock hitting an all-time high this week is Microsoft (MSFT):

• Microsoft is at the forefront of the TikTok deal.
• MSFT was above $50 in the year 2000. It didn’t get back there until 2016. For 16 years there was almost zero movement.
• Since Steve Bombers stepped down, MSFT has just been on an absolute ascent.

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Opening Bell News Stock Overview

The overall stock market appears to have the win in its sail. It’s looking like all three major indices are going to close at or near record territory.

The Dow’s lagging a little bit behind with the big Dow reset recently so we expect to see a new high in the Dow Jones industrial average sometime in the next couple of weeks. Yet the NASDAQ and the S&P500 are continuously making new highs daily.

It really is a remarkable comeback in terms of the consumer and equity markets. Simply put, it’s all good news from now until the weekend.