The Bot Brief

"There is no force on earth more powerful than an idea whose time has come."    - Victor Hugo

Bots in the News:

In anticipation of the market shortened Thanksgiving holiday season, stocks vacillated from an abandonment of AI to a strong recovery last week following the earnings report of NVIDIA. Knocking the socks off analysts’ expectations, NVIDIA rebounded on Thursday morning only to collapse and carried much of the AI darlings downward as well. Evidently, the bears’ victory was short lived as the same stocks rebounded on Friday.

The bears have correlated the current environment with the dot-com era due to market valuations. The government slowdown together with increasing fears of a void Fed December policy added further ammunition to the market pullback. The election of several key political posts favoring socialist candidates was not helpful either.

Friday offered an alternative market perception as all three major indexes posted superior recoveries. The volatility over this past week certainly portends some investor confidence that will likely only be reduced following clarity on the Fed’s posture, the recovery of delayed economic data due to the government slowdown and further examples of positive impact of AI on the economy and corporate earnings in general.

The Bot Index fell 2%, a similar number to the performance of the S & P 500. The bots were led by a 23.42% jump in shares of the life sciences company Azenta Corp. The company’s third quarter earnings report impressed investors with a 5% jump in revenues (well above analyst’s expectations) and margin expansion from a negative 2% to a plus 1.2%. Management[‘s response to the good report was that the quarter focused on an operational overhaul, decentralized structure, commercial investment into a greater field presence and a shift in the sales model.

Google (Alphabet) neared the $4 trillion market value mark as Barrons posted a featured headline, “Google Stock Has Been the Clear AI Winner—and the Gains Could Keep Coming.”

The stock rose 8.18%.

Weaker names included: NVIDIA -5.98%, Joby Aviation -9.29%, AeroVironment -6.41% and Palantir Corp. -11.01%.

Member: American Economic Association, Society of Professional Journalists, United States Press Association. Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts, Robotic Industries Association (now A3 Automation), Member IEEE.

The Bot Brief is a weekly newsletter designed for economists, investment specialists, journalists, and academicians. It receives no remuneration from any company that may from time to time be featured in the brief and its commentaries, analysis, opinions, and research represent the subjective view of Balcones Investment Research, LLC. Due to the complex and rapidly changing nature of the subject matter, the company makes no assurances as to the absolute accuracy of materials presented.