The great American author O. Henry once wrote, "smite the poet in the eye when he would sing to you the praises of the month of May. It is a month presided over by the spirits of mischief and madness."
Investors most likely agree with that sentiment now that May is behind us. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) was down 6.2% for the month, which was its the worst performance since May 2010. The S&P 500 was down 6.3%, which was its worst result since September 2011. One of the biggest busts of all in May, of course, was the Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) IPO, which Bloomberg Business Week dubbed the worst IPO of the decade.
Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a lot of optimism out there. Europe continues to fester. China is beginning to slow down. And the U.S. economy just sputters along with its anemic recovery. One might say that increasing pessimism was the big story of last week, which may herald attractive opportunities for ordinary investors. As always, we'll be looking intently for such opportunities. Let's review some other top stories of the past week, along with our takeaways.
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Internet trends. Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins delivered a powerful presentation at the D10 Conference this week on the state of the Internet. We were particularly encouraged by her optimistic thoughts on mobile monetization. She believes that mobile monetization has more going for it than early desktop monetization had and thinks that mobile monetization in the U.S. could surpass its desktop analog within one to three years.
Takeaway: This is a fascinating insight that has important ramifications for Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Facebook, and LinkedIn (Nasdaq: LNKD). Conventional wisdom has said that the increasing shift toward mobile would hurt these companies considerably. Meeker seems to think that's not necessarily the case. That's good news for our 10-Bagger portfolio, which holds positions in all three of these companies. -
Boy, do people hate Facebook. Facebook continued to dominate the financial media, and most of the coverage was extremely negative. As natural contrarians, we are attracted to different perspectives, and we found The Case for Facebook a refreshing alternative to a lot of the groupthink that has been so prevalent lately. Here is a quote from the piece that is very powerful:
Takeaway: We bought a small stake in Facebook at $31.52 per share, and we may consider picking up additional shares, especially if the stock continues to get cheaper. All of the negativity may ultimately be a good thing for investors looking to pick up shares in the company for the long term.Facebook is bigger than tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter.com, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Google Plus ... times two. Put all these numbers together and what you get is: One in every five page views on the Internet is a Facebook page. If the Internet is valuable, Facebook is valuable.
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We like Tim Cook. Apple CEO Tim Cook was interviewed at the D10 conference this week, and we came away very impressed. He's a thoughtful leader who has done a terrific job in balancing the need to both preserve Apple's unparalleled culture and make key changes in certain areas.
Takeaway: We're very bullish about Apple's future and believe that Cook has been almost flawless since taking over the reins. David Einhorn recently jested that he saw no reason Apple can't become a $1 trillion dollar company. And we agree completely.
Our senior technology analyst is just as bullish as Einhorn on Apple's outstanding prospects going forward. He details in our new premium research report exactly why he thinks Apple holds such upside potential. Claim your copy.
See you next week, Fools! Don't forget to follow us at @10-Bagger Stocks on Twitter for all of the latest information relating to our portfolio. And don't forget to add each of the companies mentioned here to your very own My Watchlist so you can track them and monitor their progress.
