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The best Internet stock picks

Tech stock picks below. Click on the slides if they’re too big for your browser.

Ladder (LADR) upped its dividend by 3%. Despite its recent rise (after I plugged it), it’s still yielding over 8%. Dividend ex-date is June 8, with dividend being paid on July 2.

More good stuff

+ Reboot your WiFi router. It’s infected. Turn it off, wait 30 seconds, then turn it on. That should should get rid of the virus.

+ Turn your WiFi router off completely if you leave your house for a holiday. Summer is thunderstorm time. Lightning strikes can destroy your router. Unplug your phone line if on DSL. Lightning creeps up phone lines.

+ My Apple Watch lets me know who’s calling when I’m on the tennis court. Hence I don’t have to rush over to courtside and find my iPhone — only to find that it’s some moron trying to sell me a cure for my bad back or my bad knees. These spam calls are getting creative.

My Apple Watch is useless for measuring my exercise. But I can read messages and emails.

+ New studies show vitamin supplements are useless. The worst is Prevagen, the jellyfish pill that’s totally useless, but selling like crazy because of its irritating TV ads.

Fruitless exercise?

I spent 15 minutes every day unsubscribing. Does it do me any good? Who knows.

Sometimes I think if I unsubscribe I’m only confirming that I exist. And hence alive.

Online retail sales still account for 12%  of retail

The devastation they’re bringing to retail stores is clearly evident in New York City. Just drive up or down one of the avenues and eye all the retail stores for rent. Sears is shuttering 72 of its dreary stores.

Some dead shops are being converted into restaurants. Some into walk-in health care. Some will just stay vacant for years.

Famed Mary Meeker just published her TECH STATE OF THE UNION: Everything happening on the internet in 2018. She has 294 slides in her deck. Here are some of her conclusions:

1. The Internet is gaining more users, but growth is slowing.
2. People are spending more time every day on it.
3. WiFi is exploding. She figures 450 million WiFi networks.
4. Amazon Echo’s installed base is hockey-stickying (i.e. growth going through the roof).
5. Amazon leads in R&D. Next is Google, Intel, Apple and Microsoft.
6. USPS leads in parcel delivery, followed by UPS and FedEx.
7. This chart blew me away:

Amazon1

8. Look at the growth in online subscription services:

Online

9. It’s getting cheaper to store digital stuff. I suspect this is technology’s fastest drop in prices of any of its stuff. It’s driving the growth of the cloud and iPhones, laptops, etc.

Storage

10. How the world has changed:

LocomotiveJobs

AgricultureJobs

11. The Internet has made it easier for freelancers to find work. Those people are seeing faster growth than conventional 9-5 jobs.
12. There are now more than two million apps on the Apple store.
13. The cloud is getting cheaper each year, not just because of dropping storage prices.
14. China is huge and exploding:

ChinaGrowing

16. There’s still plenty of room for Internet entrepreneurs. Look at Slack’s growth:

Slack

Now ask yourself where should I have the bulk of my investments?

Clearly NFLX, AMZN, GOOGL, BABA, MSFT, ADBE, SQ, CRM and NVDA.

You can view all Mary Meeker’s slides here.

Photographed off CNBC.

This is Trump’s best ever tweet showing his racial insensitivity and his gigantic ego.

Savor and marvel. Remember he’s our president.

TrumpTweet

More wonderful cartoons

ifyousayso

whichleg

BirthdayCard

HarryNewton
Harry Newton, who sees insanity:

Tonight, a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum from Canada, the European Union and Mexico, which supply nearly half of America’s imported metal, will go into effect at midnight. This makes no sense. Unless stopped quickly, it will lead to a trade war….and perhaps an end to our present economic expansion. Will this tank the market? Quite possibly. Stay away from anyone who makes anything, e.g. Whirlpool.

Whirlpool

 

 

3 Comments

  1. Jerry says:

    I loved the Trump tweet and I’m a Rust Belt voter – the folks who get presidents elected. I agree with Roseanne about Valerie Jarrett. I am an evangelical Christian so I’m going to heaven. Jarrett and Anderson Cooper are going to hell. I also approve of the tariffs. People in the Midwest have been overlooked far too long. I hope these tariffs break you rich folks.

    • Omer Acikel says:

      You sound like God Jerry, already knowing who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, funny if not bizarre. But a word of advice for you, the world is evolving at ever fast pace and the US is falling behind, and if you think you can stop that by selecting someone who you think represent you, I only say wake up and see the changes because he has no clue. The irony is that you seem to hate rich people for no apparent reason, yet expect better things from one. Watch the elections when people speak my friend.

  2. TomFromVa says:

    Not sure why the cited tweet is so insensitive – it seems to be another example of the ill-tempered left screaming about insensitivity while at the same time embodying it. If you dont believe me, just look at the self-righteous prigs on the CNN homepage on any given day.