A few stocks to watch and what they’ve been doing:
Amazon (AMZN): Jeff Bezos laughs at all the Oscar jokes. He can afford to. Two weeks ago today you could’ve purchased one share of AMZN for $1820. This morning it’s at $2,113. That’s nearly a $300 (16%) increase in one fortnight. Long-term buy and hold. Maybe wait until a down day in market if you’re not already in
Tesla (TSLA): Up 5% Monday morning, but hell I dunno. I’d probably wait until it’s below $720 at least to jump in if I were you. But if you wanna satisfy a FOMO urge, buy a share or two here at $785.
Slack (WORK): Let’s say coronavirus isn’t the last pandemic (it’s not). Let’s say companies and people appreciate the savings in costs of conferencing on-line as opposed to getting together in person. Granted, the happy hours are not as much fun. That’s where Slack comes in. The stock is up above $24 this a.m. Two weeks ago you could’ve bought it in the $20 range. That’s a 20% jump in a fortnight. Like AMZN, buy and hold for a long time.
Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC): Uh-oh, cryptocurrency. Yes, but it’s up 3.5% this morning and more than 25% since January 23rd. Can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket.
Interesting conversation on CNBC just a few minutes ago. Tennessee Republican senator Marsha Blackburn was on and she and Joe Kernen were doing a victory lap about the economy (unemployment up, stock market down, which is true). Andrew Ross Sorkin attempted, through Kernen’s constant interruptions (Kernen is the embodiment of the bullying and chauvinistic white, white-collar male), to get Blackburn to agree that if the economy is so good, wouldn’t this be the time to attempt to control the deficit increasing?
Kernel again interrupted and asked, “What, the way Obama did?” while completely ignoring that most of that increase was a result of TARP, which is like blaming a hospital for using the electricity to use defibrillators to save a heart attack victim’s life as opposed to the victim who smoked and overate every day for the previous 30 years. But never mind that.
Blackburn did agree that there’s too much fat in government. That’s when Michael Santolli, another CNBC regular, jumped in and noted that 80% of the federal budget is, and I quote, “Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and Defense, and it would seem that defense is off the table…”
First, funny how Santolli put defense last. Second, why didn’t someone interject and ask, “WHY IS DEFENSE OFF THE TABLE?” While Social Security costs the country more, we all pay into it every week of our working lives. Defense is the second-biggest single expenditure. If it were cut by one-third we’d still be spending more on it than any other nation—oh, and we’re not within 3,000 miles of a hostile neighbor. Hmm.
You’re absolutely correct: Bryan Cranston appeared in one Best Picture an in another (Saving Private Ryan) that should’ve won
Honestly, it was not easy getting to five this year. As an explanation, I have not seen The Master nor Silver Linings Playbook. Did not like, like at all, Moonrise Kingdom or Django Unchained. I understand that Beasts of the Southern Wild was supposed to be transcendent— I just didn’t get it. Please feel free to add to the list.
Argo: A deserving Best Picture winner, written like a classic Shakespeare play. There’s drama about but taking the edge off are the two fools, here played by Alan Arkin and John Goodman, who are also actually heroic. You don’t think this deserves to occupy the top spot? Argo f*ck yourself!
Zero Dark Thirty: Jessica Chastain as the female CIA operative who helped take down Osama bin Laden. Suspenseful and less testosterone than most post-9/11 Patriot Act-level films.
Lincoln: Daniel Day Lewis as our 16th president.
The Queen of Versailles: What do you get when you mix Florida, overindulgent opulence, a trophy wife and a time-share scam? The perfect zeitgeist documentary.
Les Miserables: Another Katie-Mccollow-fave-that-must-be-included-lest-I-lose-calling-privileges nod.
At the 92nd Academy Awards, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite makes history as the first film entirely in a foreign language to win Best Picture. It also wins Best International Film (the old “Foreign Film” award) and Bong wins Best Director. He also won for Best Original Screenplay. Four Oscars.
So this is the year that Asia gave the world Parasite and the coronavirus.
It was a night of M&M’s ads and an Eminem performance.
This GIF of Bong Joon-ho looking at his Oscar is the most pure thing I’ve ever seen https://t.co/Hb46stphbD
–Best Supporting Actress winner Laura Dern: “Some say ‘Never meet your heroes’ but I say, ‘If you’re lucky, you get them as your parents.'” Now that’s a well-raised child. #DianeLadd #BruceDern
–That PERFECT montage of songs from films that just fit perfectly (even if none of them were from before 1980 or so). And leading into a live performance of bearded, brown-haired Eminem performing “Lose Yourself.” Leave it to the Oscars to even make the rapper white.
–Selma Hayek holding the hand of Oscar Isaac on stage: “I can now definitively say I’ve held an Oscar on this stage.”
—Penelope Cruz reminding everyone who the most effortlessly beautiful woman on the planet is.
–Another average-at-best Elton John song. How can a certified genius also create such a plethora of mediocre tunes? And of course it won for Best Original Song (we’d have gone with “Stand Up” from Harriet).
–The most sincere and charming speeches by Bong Joon-ho and that sweet Scandinavian lass who won for Best Original Score. Foreigners: they’re nicer and much more appreciative than we are.
–A certain 5-letter word was not uttered once at the Oscars last night.
–Olivia Colman: “Last year was the best night of my husband’s life.”
It’s not their fault people have gotten too cute with dress code descriptions. pic.twitter.com/T6T2rsFA4B
