The stock market dipped on Wednesday, snapping its string of gains over the past week. Nevertheless, investors are still optimistic that there is above 70% chance of an interest rate cut in March next year.
Overall, S&P 500 and NASDAQ declined 1.5% to 4,698 and 14,778, respectively.
Tweet of the Day
$NET made new 52Wk Hi today, but still long way from its ATH.
Total shares held by institutional investors remain stable, now at ~248M+, ~84% of O/S, a 2% increase.
Hedge fund bullish sentiment is still weak.
Ken Griffin's Citadel is the top buyer and bought ~2.6M shs.… pic.twitter.com/khZIHeqSQj
— HedgeMind (@HedgeMind) December 14, 2023
Chart of the Day
Here is the one-year chart of Booking Holdings (BKNG) as of November 29, 2023, when the stock was at $3,126.
Booking Holdings killed it this quarter! Summer travel was on fire, bringing in a whopping 24% more bookings—$40 billion more than last year. People were still loving the leisure travel scene, with Air tickets booked increased by 57% year-on-year.
The company’s direct booking strategy is working well as 51% of rooms were booked on its mobile app and used its payment platform. Room nights sold increased by 15% last quarter (July through September). Room nights in October, however, (the month aftter the quarter ended) rose just 8%. Some of this was due to the war in Israel.
Could growth be slowing? Management sees strong growth on the books for the first quarter of 2024. Slowing growth, however, is something to keep an eye on as many Americans are now strapped for cash due to high credit card interest rates.
BKNG is part of our Conservative Growth Portfolio. The stock has been a market leader this year, but David Sharek, Founder of School of Hard Stocks, is expecting growth to simmer down in 2024.
