Great quarter indeed.  Congrats

lt cap,

Thanks so much for the take on NOK, esp. the forward looking 5G transition. If we have a swoon, I might be tempted to follow suit and grab shares, altho at 50% of what I once had, I still have a bunch. And I would guess that the analysts are going to be chary of hammering the sector, given the capex that's just over the horizon. (That said, I'm completely puzzled, as usual, why CIEN has retreated from the $27's to the $25's over the past week or so - and as usual, no news to hang that on.)  I *was* wondering whether the US ban on ZTE etc. would make European suppliers more popular there - hope so, we could use it. I've read that the sales of NOK phones (and reviews) are nothing to get excited about. But that's not their main arena, in any case.

Intel did indeed kind of crush it. And they've done some smart things as well - like with their cable tv box initiative earlier, they've shut down their 'wearables' dept. An awfully crowded space. I've been dismayed to see them steadily backing down after that earnings call propelled them to $57+. They now back around $51. Competition itself doesn't worry me that much. But they seem to be having a devil of a time bringing the 10nm shrink to market. It was supposed to be 2017, then 2018, and now they're just silent about it. What strikes me as important is that traditionally Intel brags about always being in a comfortable lead over other foundaries. If they have one still, it's probably pretty small.   They have been fortifying their 'smart' personnel by stealing two current-or-former personell, apparently to bolster what seems to be a plan to go head-to-head with Nvidia in producing their own discrete graphics cards. I hope they know what they're doing on that, as Nvidia has eaten AMD's lunch since time immemorial in the GPU department.

This market seems to be setting itself up for some additional declines.  I think the market and the economy are in an "as good as it gets" state, meaning there is more risk than reward.  i think a bit of a slow down in the economy may be in the cards. Maybe we have to get past the summer and early fall (past October) before both can regain some traction.

Hmmm ... great APPL quarter, they set it up for folks to dump and now the smart money is buying it at lower prices, lets see if it holds through tomorrow.  A $100B capital return program.  Wow! Massive.  I still have some shares, not a big position at all. I kept a little bit from the position I had several years ago when APPL fell hard which I sold after it gained some 40%.  Duh! I should have kept it all.  It is now some 100%+ from those levels I sold at.

Will see if APPL is the catalyst the market needs to shake it off its boots and make it start the next leg up.  So far that has not been the case, this market has not been impressed with very decent earnings.  AMZN's blow out quarter initially bolted the stock by some $140 in AH but it retraced much of it in the next trading session, still has not been able to reclaim its 52 week high.  Its valuation is still incredibly high. Its forward PE is over 100.

Those unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy working out exactly as expected, with stock buybacks to support the wealthiest, who will also get taxed less on that.

And the increase in gas prices is wiping out whatever benefit the tax cut had for those on the lowest rungs of society.