Sustainable Impact Investing, or ESG investing, is gaining traction not only with Argus Research clients but also with the global investment community. BlackRock CEO Lawrence Fink, who oversees approximately $9 trillion in assets, announced in January 2020 that his firm would be investing in companies that are making progress on sustainability. He doubled down in his January 2021 letter, calling on company managements to disclose their plans for making their businesses "compatible with a net-zero economy" by 2050. As assets have flowed in over the past 40 years, Sustainable Impact Investing has evolved. The discipline, originally known as Socially Responsible Investing, focused at first on excluding companies that conducted business in South Africa, or participated in industries such as tobacco, alcohol, and firearms. Performance of these initial strategies lagged, and the approach has been modified. Now, instead of merely identifying industries to avoid, the discipline promotes "sustainable" business practices across all industries that can have an "impact" on global issues such as climate, hunger, poverty, disease, shelter, and workers' rights.

This is the week that many have been waiting for, with Nvidia's quarterly results after the close on Wednesday. Expectations are, of course, "off the charts." That brings in an element of anxiety related to the stock as well as for the entire AI and semiconductor universe. NVDA's chart is setting up quite nicely before the print, as it has traced out a continuous inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. A break over $970 would complete the bullish pattern and open the door for a possible measured move to the $1,120 to (about) $1,200 level. A disappointment in results and/or guidance (seemingly not likely given the company's enormous beats in recent quarters) could send the shares back to moving average support in the $800/$880 zone or result in a possible test of the recent $756 low. Because of Nvidia's market-leading relative strength and momentum, any weakness likely will be gobbled up quickly.

KLA Corp. is a leading supplier of process-control and yield-management solutions for the semiconductor and related nanoelectronics industries. KLA provides chip and wafer manufacturing products, including defect inspection and review, metrology solutions, lithography software, and other offerings. In addition, KLA provides power device, LED, micromechanical systems, and other products for the display market. KLA Corp. was formerly known as KLA-Tencor Corp. and changed its name in 2019.

With earnings season in full swing, the volume of insider transactions has fallen to seasonal lows, with only 615 transactions meeting the criteria for inclusion in Vickers Weekly Insider Report. While that is down from the recent weekly high of 2,284 transactions, there is still noteworthy data to consider.