We are entering a golden age for biotech companies and Vestact-recommended stock Amgen is not being left behind. There are three major innovations in progress now: (1) advancements in AI and deep learning, (2) significant cost reductions for collecting biological data through lab automation, and (3) the precision editing of DNA with CRISPR.

Naturally, people are asking when the competition will jump in and start grabbing some of that pie? That question is tough to answer with certainty, but at this stage, it looks like it will be very difficult for competitors to gain market share or even for the likes of Amazon and Microsoft to build competitive chips in-house.

Investors eagerly awaited Nvidia's earnings report this week. Everyone was on tenterhooks, wondering whether the chip giant could maintain its remarkable momentum from 2023. Nvidia delivered! Its fourth-quarter results underscored the relentless demand for artificial intelligence (AI) systems, driving the chip giant to keep pace with skyrocketing needs.

Successful companies generate new sales. We like our portfolio investments to have accelerating top-line growth, with year after year of booming revenues.

The core of a Vestact portfolio is comprised of large, well-known multinationals like Apple, Microsoft, and Visa. We are always on the lookout for companies operating in future high-growth industries though. We call these our 'future hero' companies.

Market scorecard US markets were shut for Presidents' Day yesterday, making it very quiet in the Vestact office. The results from Walmart and Home Depot today, and Nvidia tomorrow will set the tone of the market for the rest of the month.

Cloud services have been growing incredibly fast over the last decade or so. Now that all the big players have released their quarterly results, we can take a closer look at who is dominating the sector.

Investing in an S&P 500 tracker provides diversification across 500 large US companies, low costs, tax efficiency, and potential for long-term growth.

Market scorecard US markets were down on Friday to finish the week lower. Last Monday both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 reached new record highs but saw a pullback in the days following a hot inflation read. The S&P 500 closed the week down by 0.42%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined by 1.28% during the same period.

Uber results out last week showed that it's reached a significant milestone - its first full-year operating profit since listing nearly five years ago.

Market scorecard US markets continued to march higher yesterday. The rally was broad with banks and energy companies leading the gains, the latter aided by a rise in oil prices. The winners were Wells Fargo (+7.2%), Tesla (+6.2%), and Chevron (+3.4%), while the losers included Deere & Co. (-5.2%), Adobe (-2.4%), and Google (-2.2%).

Market scorecard US markets had a strong session yesterday, retracing losses from Tuesday. The S&P 500 closed above 5 000 points again. Nvidia rose another 2.5% to overtake Google as the third-largest listed company in New York, with a market capitalisation of $1.825 trillion.

For over a decade, Amazon was the odd one out when it came to profit margins amongst the big tech giants. Online retail is a high volume, low-margin business and Amazon could not compete with the software leaders when it came to free cash flow generation. But that has started to change. Take a look at the image below, showing the massive surge in cash flow that is underway at Amazon.

Market scorecard US markets closed lower last night following slightly hotter-than-expected US inflation numbers. This means that the Fed's work to tame inflation is not done and the pivot to cutting interest rates has been pushed out by a few months. The news dragged down all eleven sectors of the S&P 500. Since we've been at all-time highs, weaker trading days are sometimes ascribed to "profit taking".

Amgen's results from last week weren't as exciting as Eli Lilly's, but were still decent, with revenue and profit both higher than analyst expectations. Revenue was up 7% for the full-year, driven by record sales for 18 of their brands. We like Amgen because it isn't a one-trick pony.