The stock market dropped on Wednesday, pressured by escalating Middle East tensions and surging inflation.
Rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran drove oil prices higher and dampened investor sentiment. At the same time, stronger-than-expected inflation data fueled concerns that interest rates may remain elevated for an extended period. The May Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed prices increased 4.2% year over year, marking the highest annual inflation rate in three years.
Overall, S&P 500 fell 1.6% to 7,267, while NASDAQ declined 2.0% to 25,170.
Tweet of the Day
$AMD executives are an impressive bunch. Full portfolio rushing for the exit on complete share liquidations.
Basically every executive jumped ship and sold everything.https://t.co/quOg60ovUd
— Roger (@rdd147) June 4, 2026
Chart of the Day
Here is the one-year chart of Waste Management (WM) as of May 13, 2026, when the stock was at $216.
During the past four quarters, profit growth has averaged 7%, which is below its Estimated Long-Term Growth Rate of 13%. Some of the slow growth can be blamed on the company selling off some undesirable residential business, so we are fine with slow growth for now.
Last quarter, profits increased 8% while revenue grew 4% supported mainly by strong pricing in its core Collection & Disposal business. Core pricing increased 6%, while Collection and Disposal yield came in at 4%. Collection and Disposal volumes declined 2% due to selling off some low-margin residential business, severe winter weather, and difficult comparisons against prior-year wildfire cleanup activity.
The P/E declined from 31 to 27 during the past four quarters. We think the stock no longer overvalued.
WM is part of the Conservative Growth Portfolio. It’s a buy-and-hold Blue Chip stock.
