March 2022 -- really the entire first quarter of 2022 -- was a tumultuous period. Out of control inflation, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Federal Reserve's promise to raise interest rates, a resulting slowdown in economic growth... Markets were understandably unhappy last month.
And yet in the midst of all this bad news, stocks are rallying. Such is often the case. Stocks represent ownership of a business, and businesses are valued based on their ability to generate profits in the future, not so much in the present or the past. As bad as the media headlines have been, the businesses in our portfolio are still healthy and growing.
With that in mind, we wanted to put together some high points from our "Market Updates" section of the blog from March 2022 -- brief articles that focus on actual business data rather than news media coverage generated for the sole purpose of selling advertisements.
NVIDIA held its bi-annual GTC (GPU Technology Conference) in March, with lots of new product and service announcements. NVIDIA has become a full-blown technology platform, one we think deserves to be mentioned among the largest tech companies out there (the Amazons, Microsofts, Apples, and Googles of the world). The bedrock for this claim are NVIDIA's chips and the software it develops using them. NVIDIA chips: https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/03/24/nvidia-new-powerful-ai-chips-what-need-know/ NVIDIA autonomous vehicles: https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/03/28/is-nvidias-autonomous-car-project-just-a-pipe-drea/
Google parent organization Alphabet is acquiring a cybersecurity company. Cyberattacks are running rampant and aren't going away. Google betting big on this massive problem is great news for our everyday use of tech, and for shareholders. https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/03/15/alphabet-betting-big-on-cybersecurity-what-means/
Meta Platforms (Facebook) has been in the news for all the wrong reasons for several years now. One of the latest that cropped up in the last quarter: Apple changing the advertising game on iOS. Meta can learn some valuable lessons from another of our portfolio holdings, Qualcomm. https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/03/08/meta-can-learn-3-lessons-from-qualcomm-in-its-batt/
With inflation running rampant, materials, energy, and manufacturing stocks have been the focus of many investors. In our view, chip manufacturing is going to be one of the most important economic issues of the next five years. That's why we added chip fabrication equipment leader Applied Materials to the portfolio last month. The details, viewed through the lens of NVIDIA and Intel (perhaps) partnering on chip manufacturing. Applied Materials will win no matter which chip company gains market share: https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/03/30/what-nvidia-booming-growth-means-for-intel/
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