Newsweek (October 23)
Ken Fisher, the CEO and founder of Fisher Investments, “has lost more than a billion dollars in client investments following remarks that have been widely denounced as sexist and offensive.” Fortunately, investors called him out. “As long as there are still men who think it’s OK to speak in these ways, industries will continue to send the message that business is a ‘man’s world.’ It’s time to end this — and to bury workplace sexism once and for all.”
Reuters (October 18)
“The prospect of Aramco selling a piece of itself has had Wall Street on tenterhooks since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman first flagged it three years ago.” But it looks like the IPO will again be delayed, possibly until next year, to “bolster investor confidence” by reassuring them of the company’s recovery from recent attacks. The sought-after $2 trillion valuation remains in question as “countries have been accelerating efforts to shift away from fossil fuels to curb global warming.”
Tags: Aramco, Confidence, Fossil fuels, Investors, IPO, MBS, Recovery, Valuation, Wall Street
Investment & Pensions Europe (October Issue)
“Interest rates in Japan have hovered around zero for about two decades. Since 2016, they have been negative.” Elsewhere, “the daunting prospects” of this phenomenon are only “starting to enter the collective consciousness of investors.” Other countries are now “watching as benchmark yields breach the zero level and stay there.” They may have much to learn from Japanese investors who “have lived through–and continue to manage investments–in this low rate environment.”
Tags: Benchmark yields, Consciousness, Daunting, Interest rates, Investors, Japan, Negative, Zero
News Week (October 4)
“Amid gathering economic gloom in the United States, some investors are betting the threat of impeachment will force President Donald Trump into cutting a deal with China to end a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.”
Tags: China, Deal, Economic gloom, Impeachment, Investors, Threat, Trade war, Trump, U.S.
Bloomberg (September 17)
Global investors have “sold $4.5 billion of Indian shares since June, on course for the biggest quarterly exodus since at least 1999.” That’s roughly a tenth of their total investment during the previous six years. “India’s economic growth has decelerated for five straight quarters.” India could now experience “a structural slowdown that pummels the country’s $2 trillion stock market, throws a wrench into growth plans of international companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Netflix Inc.,” and diminishes job prospects “for the millions of young Indians who enter the workforce every year.”
Tags: Amazon, Exodus, Global, Growth, India, Investors, Jobs, Netflix, Prospects, Shares, Slowdown, Stock market
New York Times (August 20)
“Nearly 200 chief executives, including the leaders of Apple, Pepsi and Walmart, tried on Monday to redefine the role of business in society—and how companies are perceived by an increasingly skeptical public.” The new inclusiveness of multiple stakeholders sounds appealing. Still, “for companies to truly make good on their lofty promises, they will need Wall Street to embrace their idealism, too. Until investors start measuring companies by their social impact instead of their quarterly returns, systemic change may prove elusive.”
Tags: Apple, CEOs, Idealism, Inclusiveness, Investors, Pepsi, Redefine, Role of business, Skeptical, Society, Stakeholders, Wall Street, Walmart
Financial Times (August 1)
Wall Street is enthusiastic about all things pet. “The growth of pet versions of everything from health food to personal service and new drugs is luring investors.” For example, “Zoetis, the animal pharmaceuticals company, has strongly outperformed its former owner Pfizer since being spun off in 2013; shares in Chewy, the online pet supplies retailer rose by 50 per cent on its first day of trading in June.” Consistency makes the pet industry stand out. The sum Americans spend on pets “has risen steadily at around 5 per cent annually for two decades, even following the 2008 financial crisis, when people bought less for themselves.”
Tags: Chewy, Drugs, Enthusiastic, Health food, Investors, Personal service, Pfizer, Pharmaceuticals, Wall Street, Zoetis
Financial Times (July 6)
“There is bad news and good news for emerging market investors this year. The bad is that EM growth is tanking; the good is that there is money to be made while it tanks.”
Financial Times (June 5)
“Just a month ago, multinationals and investors were looking forward to an agreement that would end the China-US trade war that has rocked global markets for the past year. Instead, talks broke down.” Donald Trump “further enraged Chinese officials by barring Huawei, the best-known Chinese telecoms company, from sourcing American components and technology.” China’s new list of unreliable entities appears to be in retaliation and it has panicked foreign investors. The “vague wording suggests Beijing could move against any person or organization.”
Tags: China, Enraged, Huawei, Investors, Markets, Multinationals, Panicked, Retaliation, Telecoms, Trade war, Trump, U.S., Unreliable entities
Wall Street Journal (May 11)
The tariff spat with China “is a political trade risk the economy hasn’t faced since the 1930s, and no one knows where it might end.” Although there “will be many economic losers,” including U.S. farmers who are getting hit hard, “the broader cost is a continuation of policy uncertainty, as CEOs and investors can’t be sure about their supply chains, their cost of goods and raw material, or how long the tariff brawl will last.” Ultimately, “the impact on GDP is hard to calculate but it’s real.”
Tags: CEOs, China, Cost of goods, Economic losers, Economy, Farmers, Investors, Supply chains, Tariff, Trade risk, U.S., Uncertainty
