P.S. I’ve found one surprise energy pick that I think is going to be absolutely critical over the next year.

Click here to get the full details.

COACH’S CORNER

Cheers,
Chris Hood

WORD ON THE STREET 

More Layoffs At Meta, Ukraine Fights On In Bakhmut, RIVN Down

• EV Company In Freefall – RIVN fell more than 6% in after-hours trading after it announced it was selling $1.3 billion in bonds to increase capital.  The stock has lost about 60% of its value over the past year.

• Ukraine Doesn’t Retreat In Bakhmut – In what could prove to be a momentous military decision, Ukraine is not pulling out of the symbolically important city of Bakhmut in Donbas. The city has little strategic value, but has been host to a brutal slugfest between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and pro-Russian paramilitaries with the Wagner Corporation.

• Tech Bloodbath Continues – Meta Platforms (META) just cut 11,000 people, but will Mark Zuckerberg stop there? NO! Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp’s Daddy is expected to announce more job cuts as soon as this week. It’s just the latest in the endless layoffs for the tech industry.

• 10-Year Treasury Yield Hits 4% – The 10-year Treasury yield hit 4% (briefly) for the first time since November, and that has investors thinking twice about stocks. With Treasury securities looking more attractive, investors are tempted to pull money out of the stock market. The Fed is expected to raise interest rates at least one more time, so it may not stop here.

HOT SPOTS: What’s Going on in Geopolitics

• China Says Relations Have Left “Rational Path” – The People’s Republic of China is being increasingly direct about a possible confrontation with the United States. Foreign Minister Qin Gang said relations with the United States have left the “rational path” and said the U.S. should “hit the brake” if it wants to avoid trouble. If not, he warned, “no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there will surely be conflict and confrontation.

• Four Americans Kidnapped In Mexico By Cartel – Four American citizens who were in Mexico for a medical procedure have reportedly been kidnapped by a drug cartel after they were mistaken for Haitian smugglers. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward, but the Americans are still missing as of this writing.

• McCarthy Backs Down From Taiwan Trip – Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) won’t be duplicating Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. The Speaker is reportedly planning to meet President Tsai Ing-wen in the United States. China blasted then-Speaker Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, calling it a major barrier to Sino-American relations. It stepped up military provocations in response.

CUTTING EDGE: What‘s Happening In Tech

• Tesla Steps Up RV Price War – Tesla (TSLA) is cutting prices for its Model S and Model X cars. It’s a follow-up to the cuts in January, which kicked off an EV price war. “The desire for people to own a Tesla is extremely high,” said Elon Musk last week. “The limiting factor is their ability to pay for a Tesla.

• AI Could Take Lead In Cancer Screening – At least five hospitals and/or clinics in Hungary have used AI to scan for breast cancer since 2021. Success has reportedly been so impressive that scientists in the UK and Finland are going to begin using the technology. In a study that examined 250,000 scans, AI was able to match or exceed the performance of a human radiologist in detecting breast cancer.

• Game Developer Names And Shames Cheaters – Battlestate Games, the Russian game developer behind Escape from Tarkov, has taken strong action against cheaters. It banned 6,700 cheaters – and published all their nicknames on a publicly available spreadsheet. More than 4,000 cheaters were banned from Escape from Tarkov through last weekend.”

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