In his podcast addressing the markets today, Louis Navellier offered the following commentary.
If you wish to listen to this commentary, please click here.
Pivotal OPEC Meeting
The OPEC+ meeting on June 4th should be pivotal. Tensions have been rising between Russia and Saudi Arabia, since despite pledging production cuts, Russian has been pumping increasing volumes of cheap heavy crude oil onto world markets, which has been undermining Saudi Arabia’s efforts to boost prices.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak issued a statement that said Moscow was abiding by its voluntary pledge to cut oil output by 500,000 barrels a day from March until the end of the year, however, Russian crude oil exports have actually risen in the past several weeks.
Saudi Arabia needs $80 per barrel crude oil to balance its massive budget, Russia is now hurting Saudi Arabia’s domestic support for its citizens. As a result, I am expecting a very assertive Saudi Arabia at Thursday’s OPEC+ meeting and further production cuts.
I should add that to further infuriate Russia, Saudi Arabia recently invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend the annual Arab League summit as a special guest.
Saudi Arabia has also offered to mediate an end to the war. As an example, Saudi Arabia helped negotiate a high-profile prisoner swap last year between Russia and Ukraine, plus announced $400 million in humanitarian aid for Kyiv.
China has also been striving to mediate an end of the Ukrainian and Russia fighting. The fact that Russian keeps losing men to fight is causing tremendous unrest within Russia, so Russia remains a wildcard on the world stage. I should add that Russian drone attacks on Ukraine have escalated recently, so world outrage remains high.
Tech Stocks Strength Gets A Boost From AI
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) boom is contributing to the tech stocks strength, especially Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). I should add that Nvidia recently announced a wide-ranging lineup of new AI products for robotics design, gaming, advertising and networking.
The company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, also unveiled an AI supercomputer platform, DGX GH200, that will help its customers create successors to ChatGPT. Huang told graduating students at National Taiwan University that “Agile companies will take advantage of AI and boost their position. Companies less so will perish.”
The Nvidia CEO added “While some worry that AI may take their jobs, someone who’s expert with AI will.” Huang concluded by telling graduates that “In 40 years, we created the PC, Internet, mobile, cloud, and now the AI era. What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it like we did. Run, don’t walk.”
Sharon Zhou, the co-founder and CEO of Lamini, which is startup that helps companies build AI models like chatbots said there is a chip shortage and added “Because there is a shortage, it’s about who you know.” The most amusing comment from Zhou was when he referred to the AI chip shortage by describing it by saying “It’s like toilet paper during the pandemic.”
One of the biggest AI bottlenecks is the speed that data moves with data centers, so Nvidia is now on a quest to upgrade the speed and efficiency of cloud computing centers.
Super Micro Computer is also another AI major beneficiary, since it specializes in the high-performance servers that will be experiencing increasing demand to speed up cloud computing. Specifically, Super Micro Computer’s order backlog for servers featuring graphic chips is now at its highest level ever and it is rushing to add manufacturing capacity.
Coffee Beans: In Deep Water
An Indian government official has been suspended after ordering a reservoir to be drained by two million liters of water so he could find his phone said to contain sensitive government information. The water emptied from the dam would be enough to irrigate at least 1,500 acres of land. Source: Sky News. See the full story here.
