Diamonds and Dogs

5/28/19

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) getting into the gaming business. Chipmaker, AMD is up 10% at a two month high after unveiling a new line of chips for PCs and gaming that will ship in the next six months. They include a central processing unit called Zen 2, a third-generation of AMD's Ryzen desktop processor, along with various other chips and gaming graphics cards. The reviews so far have been good as one analyst said AMD stole the show with its announcement at a roadshow called, Computex in Taiwan. Rival Intel is down 2% and down 27% in the last month near a 52 week low.

 Brazil suing big tobacco. Phillip Morris (PM) and Altria (MO) are down over 3% as Brazil is following the U.S. and Canada in taking on Big Tobacco, becoming the first country in Latin America to sue cigarette makers over the financial toll of smoking. The big tobacco companies have paid more than $126 billion combined so far to settle similar legal claims in 46 states in the U.S. Brazil has not put a price tag on their lawsuit, but I suspect it will be big.