News and analysis

Basic Attention Token (BAT) is experiencing a 4.5% increase, reaching $0.3320 this week. Over the weekend, the token climbed to $0.3439, marking its highest level since November 5, 2022. In the first few days of March, BAT surged by 19.5%, outpacing Bitcoin (BTC), which recorded a 6.7% rise to $65,700. BAT had previously lagged behind, with a 28.0% increase compared to BTC's 44.0% surge in February.

While BAT currently lacks major internal drivers, discussions within its community are centered around the potential increase in the audience for the Brave web browser, which could boost demand for BAT. The token might soon hit the resistance at $0.3500 amid the ongoing rally in the cryptocurrency market.

I had dropped the ball for the first time this year in my investment strategy when halving a stake in Dell Technologies two weeks ago. I am eating my heart out right now as the market's response to the company's latest quarterly report sent its shares up nearly 22% in today's pre-market trading. Dell posted its Q4 profit per share at $2.20 this Thursday night, instead of $1.73 on average, according to Wall St poll preliminary estimates. It jumped so high, even though the total sales number was only slightly above consensus projections. In addition, its CEOs talked up still growing demand, especially mentioning - what would you think - surely, the AI factors. "Our strong AI-optimized server momentum continues, with orders increasing nearly 40% sequentially and backlog nearly doubling, exiting our fiscal year at $2.9 billion," the official announcement said. This was enough for the sugar high generated immediately in investors' blood. The AI-servers agenda based on graphics processing units is running the show, and Dell becomes one of the important producers of such servers.

Dell also raised its dividend payment by 20% to $1.78 a share, which made the hype wave even bigger. The client solutions segment which is engaged in PC business showed a 12% decline in YoY sales. This did not stop anybody, as the artificial intelligence arguments are considered now above anything else. Even the PC market reportedly may start to show moderate signs of a recovery after a negative slope since the spring of 2022, when the COVID-stimulated mass purchases for distant work boosted orders for electronics.

There was not enough space on the chart to properly mark the current price, so that it was possible to be made only by hand. The situation would be another good lesson for me. So, holding tech stocks for more lasting periods of time is ultimately the best tactic at the moment. It also turned out that I could not repress my feelings concerning the consequences of my own market decisions sometimes, even though on rare occasions already. You know, live and learn. Onward and upward, my friend, I told myself. Besides, now I am ready to use any opportunity to add to my stake in Dell again, in case some temporary price adjustment may lead the stock to the area between $105 and $110, compared to nearly $120 at the moment.

Synthetix (SNX) experienced a 10.0% increase, reaching $4.360 this week. On Thursday, the token achieved a higher level at $4.557, reflecting a 15.0% rise. The positive momentum is influenced by the surging Bitcoin (BTC), which recorded a 20.0% increase during the week. Bitcoin is now only 7.0% away from its all-time high, and if investors continue to short the major cryptocurrency while placing stop-loss orders behind the all-time high, a breakthrough into new highs is anticipated.

Synthetix is following the market trend, breaking through the resistance at $4.000 and attempting to maintain levels above $4.500. Successful consolidation above this level could propel the token towards $5.000. However, it's important to note that Synthetix may lack distinctive catalysts for its own upward movement beyond this target.

Netflix (NFLX) continues to climb further up, even in the days when some other mega caps like Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG) and Apple (APPL) stopped growing to adjust their price levels. The streaming giant, and one of my favourites, just added another 10% during the next month after its amazing quarterly numbers (released on January 23). The following morning on Wall Street, its share price ranged between $540 and $560, after a close at $492 on the previous day, very close to the price I bought the stock when coming back from my Christmas vacation. And now it costs nearly $100 more at $600, 22% higher against the start of the year. And my personal target for Netflix shifted to at least $800, if not approaching $1000, which would mean doubling. It sounds extremely cool for a non-AI stock in the chip insanity epoch. If one would ask me, what is exactly the driver for Netflix's very fast development on charts, then I will rather focus on keeping the ability to create awesome content.

The first thing one can see when opening the homepage of Netflix at the moment is Avatar: The Last Airbender, starring as the main dish of the Top 10. The release date was February 22, 2024, which was only one week ago, yet I am more than sure, Netflix CEOs would mark this saga as the major contributor to cash gathering for the first quarter. If you may be unfamiliar with the original adventure fantasy cartoon series about the journey of twelve-year-old Aang, the Avatar and also the last survivor of his nation of the Air Nomads, then you have missed a lot. This boy and his friends peacefully master the four elemental powers of nature to save a world at war when ruthless enemies are eager to fight. A whole nostalgic generation of young adults who wanted to see how this happened in a live-action world grew up. These former children, teenagers and their parents are dreaming of Aang riding his faithful sky bison Appa once again to reimagine the acclaimed animated series.

The movie makers suddenly found an unmistakable weak spot inside the hearts from various countries and all continents, who simply cannot resist the temptation to experience it, even if there are several seasons - as the TV series about the unity of all living beings and the playful avatar of this suffering world who is destined to save it is coming exactly at a proper time. According to the story, the Fire Nation is obsessed with solving all their hidden and obvious internal complexes on the battlefield. Isn't that an accurate diagnosis for our real world's disease that it badly needs, and therefore the simple movie is hitting the bullseye of the TV audience, as well as of the Wall Street crowds. For me, mentioning "bullseye" is the perfect play on words to describe the effect on markets.

Hindu people like the film, as they feel echoes of their national legends about Krishna and Rama in Aang's image, despite the slight ironic bantering over whether the stories of the past correspond to reality, or something was thought out for the benefit of the world and humanity. The Chinese part of the audience may like a balanced soft power approach, very similar to the philosophy of Taoism and Buddhism. There is something for Muslims, Christians and Jews to find close to them, as well as for family adventure lovers. For me, the storylines in Avatar: The Last Airbender look much more authentic than Amazon's Prime video attempts to invent the Lord of the Rings prequel, which many fans of Tolkien accuse of contrivance and unnatural artificiality, as well as protracted action that are too far in spirit from the books of the great creator of the Middle-earth universe. And it would be worth saying, this Netflix series appeared to be much more universal than the recent Disney premieres thickly mixed on the woke agenda, including remakes of their own early masterpieces of a cinematic heritage such as the Little Mermaid or Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers with almost unrecognizable old characters who are not able to meet people's expectations, being too far from the best standards of glorious Disney traditions. The new version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs does not look promising as well in this context. The number of plot twists and funny jokes in Avatar: The Last Airbender is substantially more than in James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water, which is the third part of Avatar's saga streaming on Disney+, although the graphic execution of the nature for the Aang universe can even be compared to the famous franchise to some extent.

Combined together, all this may strongly add to the reasons why Netflix nearly doubled its market value in less than 12 months, while Disney stocks continued to consolidate near the vicinity of its multi-year lows. The Disney+ streaming business achieved great success in the COVID years when people spent lots of time at home, yet to consolidate the success was a more difficult task. So, Disney shares only recovered to the levels of early spring 2022, still giving a 45% discount compared to its all-time highs of 2021, yet the crowd of potential purchasers for Disney is still inertial and mostly hesitant, unlike Netflix investors. It seems that Netflix was able to please its customer's silent request for the inner substance of its message, also using the hyping computer effects of neural networks in an appropriate manner, and it saved the audience from the boredom of the surrounding world, while simultaneously giving hope for more spiritual ways of resolving the tangle of human contradictions between nations. This is important for those who still care about this world, and also brings profit to film-makers.

Besides, the Top-10 of Netflix series now include the 6th season of a Formula 1: Drive to Survive, the 3rd season of Wrong Side of the Tracks drama about a war veteran who takes matters into his own hands when his teenage granddaughter falls victim to the drug dealers and Fool Me Once thriller where ex-soldier Maya sees her allegedly murdered husband on a secret nanny cam to uncover a deadly conspiracy. I am going to watch all these movies soon, by the way, and I think I will not be the only person who will find reasons to extend my subscription on Netflix in the near months. Customers’ enthusiasm usually builds a nest for the further uptrend in the company’s business, isn’t it?