Posted by For the fourth month of 2024, the DOW lost 1990 points. That was a 5% loss for the month. Interest and dividend income was $2828 for the month. Withdrawals for living expenses came to $1559. Overall, my account balance decreased by 2.02% from the prior month. In the past month I sold 100 shares of Global X Autonomous EV ETF DRIV and purchased 50 shares of Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and 50 shares of ST Micro (STM). So far, LVS is down by 12.89% after pessimistic earnings forecast and STM is down by 7.58%. I normally buy stock 100 shares at a time, but in this environment, I decided on only 50 this time. These buys were made early in April, before the market started its downturn. I sold DRIV at a small loss despite it having Nvidia as its top holding. I still have 300 shares of QCLN which is down 25% because of its larger holding in Tesla.
For various reasons the electric vehicle industry has taken a serious decline this year. I think a lot of it has to do with high interest rates and growing pains. It just seems like the amount of negativity has escalated lately. There are still a number of hurdles to get past in order to achieve mass adoption of electric vehicles. There is a lack of fast charging stations, there are quality issues, and electric vehicles tend to depreciate faster than internal combustion vehicles. Since the technology changes so fast, EVs need to be only available under a lease option. Manufacturers need to take the vehicle back for upgrades or recycling after the lease has expired.
Now that we are into May, with lower interest rate hopes fading, there will probably be more downward pressure on stocks. The presidential election is also coming up later this year and the choices are not great. Another four years under Biden’s spending policies will make inflation even harder to manage. There needs to be some serious discussion about how to get the national debt under control. As I get closer to my time to apply for Social Security and Medicare, I worry that these programs will get changed for the worse and my retirement plans will be negatively affected. I am counting on Social Security plus my IRA savings to give me a comfortable retirement.