Market Talk
The
US debt ceiling bill cleared the House of representatives to pass to the Senate. It should pass and the debt ceiling will be lifted again. This allows the government to continue kicking the can down the economic road with trillions of dollars in new democrat tax n' spend debt until January 2025.
As far as the economy, the jobs reports may be misleading as higher paying tech firms have been laying off and auto companies like Ford move plants to Mexico.
The war in Ukraine rages with Russia regularly trying to plummet Ukraine into the dark ages with missile strikes from air, land and sea. For now, the Ukraine defenses have held off many airstrike attacks on the capital, Kyiv, thanks to Patriot surface to air anti- missile systems supplied by America. The Patriot system involves contracts to Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin. There were reports that the Patriot has downed Russia's highly touted hyper-sonic missile that they try to rain down on civilians. Where is this all going? How will it affect the future? I wonder how Russian families think about the Putin nightmare taking their sons into the abyss of war. Do they still buy the Russian propaganda bullshit that it's about defense of their "motherland"? not, never was.
In closing this market talk, I want to note the world seems to be in a much more dangerous place than ever before. The market shrugs it off (for now).
Stock Talk
I will try to tie up some loose ends of recent previous stock posts. Overall, I remain a
little stock cautious and more in dry powder.
I bought a few some shares
of Ramaco Resources, METC to see how the latest findings of Magnetic REE mine out. Now, since buying some in early May, I recently find out that there is a proxy proposal that somewhat changes the structure of METC shares. It seems a little confusing but, if approved, there would be a new class B of shares with one class B share distributed for every five shares of METC held on record before the close of business on May 12, 2023.
Perhaps the recent drop is because the date of record is passed so the share levels reflect that new buyers would not participate in 1 for 5 class B distribution. I would prefer that if METC intends to move forward that they extend the date of the 1 for 5 offering into the future closer to the time of actually extracting the newly discovered rare earth elements. (cautionary note: I hardly ever get what I prefer in stocks)
As closing thoughts on METC, at the present share level the dividend is over 5%. Should the rare earth findings prove to be mine-able, the earnings of METC could outperform the overall market. Magnetic rare earths are used to make electric motors more efficient in high heat conditions. An example is that rare earth elements in electric vehicles extends their range in distance to travel on a single charge.
For
me, it's the major magnetic rare earth elements discovered in their
already working mine in Wyoming. I posted before that I am NOT in favor
of mandated electric vehicles and the forced extinction of the internal
combustion engine. However, recent government mandates are pushing
industry to mass production of ev's. And, America is sorely behind our
adversary, China. A major find of Magnetic REE in the Ramaco Mine belt
seems like a potential American treasure.
The METC proposed proxy change will be discussed on June12 at a shareholder meeting (see above link). I will let the market decide how the changes are to be perceived and voted on. I am holding a few shares, but a "not too much" position. There are speculative features about the rare earths being reported and I am unsure how the market will view this new proxy charter being proposed.
I close this post by noting that any view on the market and stocks on any
particular day may change in the future days to come. That is why
we watch and see how our views match up with the reality of the time.
But trying to look ahead a few months into the future may be a way to do
things. If you think too deep about world events and the recent
alliances forming, projecting ahead can be a dicey endeavor. With all
the above caveats and attempted prognostications, I will close this
post.
Stay tuned for more opining on the market and stocks to watch.
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This site does NOT make Buy / Sell recommendations.
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