Diamonds and Dogs

7/24/18

Alphabet (GOOG) becoming the Berkshire Hathaway of the Internet.  Google jumped 3.8% to new highs following better than expected earnings. Revenues rose 25.6% year over year to $32.66 billion. Alphabet's investments in emerging businesses are starting to bear fruit — including YouTube, autonomous cars and cloud computing — drawing comparison to Berkshire Hathaway's success. Alphabet also posted a $1.06 billion gain in its equity investments for the time period.

Whirlpool(WHR) swirling lower. Whirlpool dropped 14% to a new low following disappointing earnings and guidance. The chief contributors to the earnings miss and the company's biggest concerns going forward are the cost of steel and resin that go into making the large metal boxes that become washing machines, dryers, stoves and refrigerators. The two other important factors are freight, affected by the cost of fuel and a shortage of drivers in the trucking industry, and tariffs, including those imposed by President Donald Trump's administration on steel imports earlier this year. Other than that, the company is doing great.