CHRIS VERSACE: Good morning, "Action Alerts Plus" subscribers. In today's rundown, I want to dig a little deeper into what I expect from this week's economic data. But before we do, let's discuss some of yesterday's actions with the portfolio.
We picked up shares of both ChargePoint and Marvell, partly funding those buys by trimming our exposure to Microsoft. As we talked about last week, Microsoft has moved past our price target and was quickly approaching the Wall Street consensus price target of $290. Clearly, the shares have been a strong performer so far in 2023. One that has been largely driven by AI-related headlines.
That had us thinking it was time to partly ring the register and book some of those big profits. And that decision was solidified by other recent developments, including IDCs report that we discussed yesterday about the continued weakness in the PC market and the prospects for its bottoming out being pushed into the second half of the year. Now, with those proceeds, we scooped up the shares of Marvell, a chip company that continues to have little consumer and market exposure and far more on digital infrastructure.
We continue to see that end market expanding over the long-term, given continued growth in our digital lives from a variety of areas, including streaming audio and video consumption, online shopping, social media, work from home, IoT, and other drivers. Now, yesterday's move with Marvell was part of our longer term plan to chip away at building a larger position over time. And we will likely continue to make some moves like this, especially if Marvell shares are below our average cost basis near $40.50. Yesterday, we also added shares of ChargePoint using this most recent drop that was due in part to the still tight correlation between all the EV charging companies and Tesla shares.
Coming into the week, Tesla cut prices for the fifth time so far in 2023, raising yet another round of questions over its profitability as competition in the EV space continues to climb. That is what pressured our shares of ChargePoint yesterday. Now, the other side of that is more companies bringing more EVs to market, which will fuel the need for EV charging stations. Later this week, the environmental-- excuse me-- the Environmental Protection Agency, better known and more easily referred to as the EPA, is poised to release even tighter emission rules for autos. That will likely spur along the ongoing adoption of EVs.
Now, as the EV market matures, we continue to think the tight correlation to Tesla shares will fade with the market correctly focusing on the growing need for EV charging stations. And with that out of the way, members, we are in a holding pattern of sorts today ahead of tomorrow's March CPI report, Thursday's March PPI report, and Friday's March retail sales data. We'll have full Alerts in your inboxes as each of these reports are released, discussing the implications not just for the market, but for the portfolio as well.
Now, let's talk about tomorrow's March CPI report. The core CPI data, which strips out food and energy prices, is expected to tick higher to 5.6% year-over-year. That's up from February's print of 5.5%. Now, here's the thing.
Even if the March data comes in slightly softer-- call it 5.4% year-over-year, maybe even 5.3% or so, it would still be far closer to the September peak of 6.6% than the Fed's targeted 2% level. So barring any far greater than expected drop in the March data, tomorrow's CPI report will likely cement expectations for a 25-basis point rate hike by the Fed in early May.
Now, we will also be watching what happens with those expectations for Fed policy moves in the second half of 2023. As we've been discussing with you currently, the market sees several rate cuts before we close out 2023. A view that remains at odds with even recent comments from Fed officials. What I'm referring to here is late yesterday, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said he sees inflation coming down slowly over the coming quarters and doesn't see inflation reaching the Fed's 2% target until 2025.
Now, here's the thing, members. That is not a fresh thought from the Fed. And it's one that means the Fed is poised to stay on path with its stated playbook to keep the Fed funds rate higher for longer until we see even more progress on inflation.
Now, let's remember, all of this is an evolving story that gets refreshed as new data is had. But from time to time, the market does get ahead of itself in terms of what it's expecting. So long as the data points to the economy holding up, something it has been doing, the higher for longer scenario is the likely one to be had. We'll continue to adjust our outlook as new data is had and adjust our decisions and our portfolio management style as needed. But for now, that scenario is the one we are likely to face. And it's also one the market will have to come around to.
Again, we'll have a full breakdown of the March CPI report and its implications in your inboxes tomorrow morning. That'll do it for today's rundown. Thanks for watching.