To all my Partners,
By now all of you have received your individual monthly statements. If for any reason you have not, please contact me and I will be glad to resend it to you.
For the month of December, Bena Capital Fund gained +6.52%.
| 12-MONTH RETURNS | JANUARY | FEBRUARY 1-15th |
| +29.26% | -11.19% | +6.12% |
History has shown that some months are kinder than others to investors. According to records spanning over 95 years, since 1929:
The months with the biggest gains have been:
January, April, July & December
The months with the biggest losses have been:
February, May, August, September
For the beginning of the year, Bena Capital fund lost -11.1% in value. Actually, we did well in almost all of our stock holdings but 2 created the loss that brought us to the drop.
The first was Tesla. We were up and doing well in fact Tesla is one of those considered ‘The Magnificent 7’, which are the seven power stocks accelerating the gains of the S&P 500. But when they released their 4Q 2023 earnings, they didn’t hit the numbers/sales that Wall Street analysts were expecting. Also, their growth had been accelerating in the 50% range YOY from 4Q 2021 to 4Q 2022 but for the 4Q 2022 to 4Q 2023, the margins dropped to 38%. I knew eventually, nothing could grow 50% every year and a growth of 38%, I feel is very strong. This may be a one-off and be better for the 1Q of 2024 YOY, but still, it happened, and the stock Tesla had an overabundance of more sells, than buys. Since then, it has gone up some but not as much as from the day before the 4Q earnings announcement. My feeling is that it will eventually pick up and return but below are the annual deliveries of Tesla over the last 10 years:
Tesla Annual Delivers
| 2013 | 2,650 |
| 2014 | 22,450 |
| 2015 | 50,580 |
| 2016 | 76,230 |
| 2017 | 101,312 |
| 2018 | 245,519 |
| 2019 | 367,500 |
| 2020 | 499,550 |
| 2021 | 935,172 |
| 2022 | 1.31M |
| 2023 | 1.81M |
The other stock that gave us a hard time was United Health. Again, as in Tesla the 4Q returns for Humana were released with higher-than-expected Medicare costs for that health care stock. All other stocks in the healthcare sector were selling off in tandem with Humana. For our partners, we don’t even own Humana but still got caught in the tsunami of more sells than buys. Do I think the healthcare sector will be powerful heading into 2024 and beyond? Absolutely! Healthcare will be a major sector and we are very well positioned with a good percentage of our portfolio holding United Health (symbol: UNH), to prosper.
Because of my upcoming 2024 schedule with Bena Capital Fund, I’ve decided to put my PBS financial show, ‘Wall $treet Wrap Up’ on hiatus for a while. I may be restarting later but that’s to be determined.
Losses for 2023
Bena Capital Fund’s monthly losses were
| April | -5.76% |
| August | -2.32% |
| September | -4.54% |
| October | -2.56% |
Why do I bring up our past losses? Because looking back through the rear-view mirror, these losses seem much smaller than when we were experiencing them..remember? I also bring these monthly losses up to remind us that I can guarantee that for 2024, we will again see monthly, quarterly, or maybe a loss for the year! But over time, these probable losses will be turned into positive returns.
For our last 10 years, our returns at Bena Capital have been the following:
| YEAR | RETURN | YEAR | RETURN |
| 2014 | +52% | 2019 | +73.44% |
| 2015 | +0.05% | 2020 | +70.38% |
| 2016 | +18.4% | 2021 | +32.42% |
| 2017 | +29.08% | 2022 | -11.9% |
| 2018 | +14.7% | 2023 | +61.2% |
Our only down year was in 2022 when we had a -11.9%
Beating Other Hedge Funds:
January 1st through December 31st
Bena Capital Fund: +61.2%
| Citadel Wellington: 15.3% | Tiger Global Management: +29% |
| Bridgewater Assoc: -7.6% | D.E. Shaw: +9.6% |
| AQR Asset Management: 18.5% | Millennium Fund: +10.0% |
| Two Sigma: +12% | Point72 *Steve Cohen’s SAC: +10.6% |
Avg. gain of other hedge funds: +4.35%
Source: Prequin/Wall Street Journal
So, how did we do?
| For December: | 1-year (12-month) Returns: | ||
| Dow Jones: | +1.15% | Dow Jones: | +13.36% |
| S&P 500: | +1.58% | S&P 500: | +18.65% |
| Nasdaq: | +2.70% | Nasdaq: | +18.39% |
| Berkshire Hathaway: | +5.80% | Berkshire Hathaway: | +17.82% |
| Bena Capital Fund: | -11.19% | Bena Capital Fund: | +29.26% |
Some highlights of last month:
- January added 216K full-time & part-time jobs for month
- January’s unemployment at +3.7% (same as in December)
- January’s labor force participation rate: at 62.5%
- January’s CPI (Consumer Price Index) rose +3.1% for Y/Y
- NYC Mayor imposes an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. for illegal migrants in 24 NYC shelters due to violence occurring from migrants
- Amazon winds exclusive streaming rights to an NFL playoff game on Prime Video next season
- Apple’s CEO Tim Cook teases an A.I. announcement later this year
- Media mogul Byron Allen makes $14 billion offer for all of Paramount Global
- Walmart announces a 3-for-1 stock split effective February 23rd
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway last 4Q sold 10 million shares of Apple (approx. 1% of his Apple holdings)
- Credit card delinquencies surged in 2023, indicating ‘financial stress according to New York Federal Reserve
So what are we going to do about it??
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court saying he was not allowed to forgive student loan debt, the Biden Administration in February is forgiving $1.2 billion of student loan debt for 152,000 borrowers The Biden Administration has already cancelled $137.8 billion of student loan debt even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he was not allowed to do so.
Student Loan Forgiveness
Announced this week: $1.2B
Total under President Biden: $138B
Yes, it is election season!
Amazon is in & Walgreens gets the boot
Starting Monday, February 26th, Amazon will be replacing Walgreens as part of the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average
American Airlines is going higher & higher!
American Airlines effective immediately will be raising baggage fees to fly to now $40 for the first bag and $45 for a second bag. This is a $10 price hike. Southwest Air said they will continue to offer two free checked bags
Have you moved?
Our CPA, LaCaze Moss, will be sending out 1099’s to any of our partners who either were issued interest checks or withdrawals during the FY2023. If you have moved or changed addresses to where your 1099’s should be sent, please contact me with the new information.
Not all jobs are equal!
The Biden Administration is promoting the jobs added to the economy. What is not being said are the part-time vs. the full-time jobs added for the last year:
Jobs added to the economy
February 2023 – January 2024
+870,000 -97,000
Part-time Full-time
Men aged 25-54 not participating in the labor force
5.8% 11.4%
1976 2022
Source: BLS
The S&P Rises 3 out of 4 years since 1926!
The S&P is up approx. 75% of the time going all the way back for almost 100 years (since 1926)!
| S&P | % advance each year |
| 20%+ | 36% |
| +10% to +20% | 21% |
| 0 to +10% | 15% |
| 0 to -10% decline | 15% |
| 10%+ decline | 13% |
Source: Dimensional Funds
And we won’t make you have a minimum of $5 Million!
J.P. Morgan Bank is offering to pay 6% interest on CDs but the catch is a minimum deposit of $5 Million plus it cannot be already at their bank. It must be brought over from another banking institution. Bena Capital has been paying a 6% interest paid monthly over 12 months, for a couple of years now. Glad to see J.P. Morgan is seeing it our way!