Another week of Fab Five gains. These five stocks have increased more than $3.3 trillion in value in 2023 and are quickly on a march to $10 trillion in cumulative market cap. Those losses in 2022 are mostly forgotten, and even Meta is back on track. Apple and Amazon still need to report earnings (both this Thursday after the market closes), but so far the reception has been summery warm.

Each of the stocks in the Telco Top Five also reported earnings last week. The net result was neutral, with market cap losses by Verizon and AT&T offset by a solid gain in Comcast. The Philadelphia-based global broadcast, broadband, and theme parks company is now worth $20 billion more than its next largest rival (T-Mobile). AT&T is flirting with $100 billion in market capitalization (down $140+ billion since Jan 1, 2020 after adjusting for the WarnerMedia spin), even though they reported solid earnings. Cable company MVNO growth was the big headline (Comcast +316K; Charter +648K), along with Charter’s continued non-rural subscriber growth in what is a seasonally weak quarter. We will begin a multi-Brief earnings dissection next week.

Lastly, there’s the turmoil going on at Altice. Alexandre Fonseca, the chairman of Altice USA, abruptly resigned on July 17 after Portuguese authorities launched an investigation into certain supply chain practices. Their activities also resulted in one of the co-founders (Armando Pereira) being placed under house arrest. More in this Bloomberg article and hopefully from the company when they report 2Q earnings this Wednesday.

File is below. Have a terrific week!