AMD and SanDisk have earnings momentum heading into the new week. That's what the headline says. Momentum. Not earnings. Not guidance. Not actual numbers that exist in reality. Momentum.
Momentum is the financial media's favorite word for "price went up and we need to fill column inches about it." It's astrology for people who think they're too smart for astrology. The stock moved because it moved and now it has momentum because it moved and that momentum will continue until it stops and then we'll write about how it lost momentum. Circular reasoning so perfect it could win a Fields Medal if the Fields Medal were for being useless.
These two chip stocks are leading 130 S&P 500 companies into earnings season. Leading them where, exactly. Into a conference room where they'll read prepared statements that were written by lawyers who hate joy. Into a Q&A session where analysts will ask if management is comfortable with consensus estimates and management will say they don't comment on forward guidance except they just did by saying they're comfortable. Into the waiting arms of retail traders who think earnings momentum is a strategy instead of what it actually is which is a description of something that already happened.
SanDisk makes flash memory. AMD makes chips that go into computers. Both companies will report numbers. Those numbers will either be higher or lower than other numbers. Then the stocks will move in a direction that has nothing to do with the numbers because the numbers were already priced in three weeks ago when someone's cousin who works in supply chain management posted about it on Reddit.
The momentum will continue until approximately eight seconds after the earnings call when it will reverse completely and every moron who bought shares on Thursday will learn that momentum works both ways.
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