Equities.com (May 31)
“Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, and its meteoric rise has made it a mainstay of conversation for investors, media, and technologists alike,” especially now that a coin is priced at over $2,000. “But the true impact of Bitcoin is actually far more reaching than this – it’s actually helped to birth new markets for over 800 other cryptocurrencies…. For the first time since Bitcoin was founded, it now makes up the minority of the entire cryptocurrency market at about 47.9% of all coins and assets.”
Tags: Bitcoin, Coins, Cryptocurrency, Impact, Investors, Mainstay, Media, Technologists
Institutional Investor (May 24)
Quants may be able to “fundamentally transform the ability of investors to find companies that embrace ESG principles.” Beyond crunching more widely available ESG data, some hope that unstructured data, ranging “from people’s comments on social media to data mined from online retailers,” can reveal “hard-to-measure issues like corporate culture or a commitment to the environment.”
Tags: Commitment, Corporate culture, Data mining, Environment, ESG, Hard-to-measure, Investors, Quants, Social media, Unstructured data
Bloomberg (May 22)
“Investors dumped Brazil’s stocks and currency Thursday as the country’s ever-proliferating corruption scandal spread to President Michel Temer. This latest twist in a seemingly endless saga not only threatens to stall vital economic reforms but also comes close to showing that the corruption in Brazil’s government is literally beyond control.”
Wall Street Journal (May 17)
“Activist investors, a perennial nuisance for chief executives, are becoming an existential threat. Since January, they have helped push out the leaders of three high-profile S&P 500 companies” (AIG, CSX Corp. and Arconic Inc.). Moreover, “they are gunning for the CEOs at other companies,” such as Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. and Avon Products Inc. “So far in 2017, activists have started nine campaigns targeting top management, the fastest pace on record.”
Bloomberg (April 12)
“U.S. public companies are moving away from the traditional shareholders’ meeting, opting instead to interact with investors online. Sensible as this might seem in the internet age, it’s important to ensure that it becomes a way to improve — rather than stifle — communication.”
Tags: Communication, Companies, Investors, Online, Shareholders' meetings, Stifle, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (April 9)
“When to Sell? Look at the HQ. If a company moves to lavish headquarters, it’s often time for investors to get out.”
Tags: Headquarters, HQ, Investors, Lavish, Sell
Institutional Investor (April 6)
“PNC Capital Advisors is putting its large-cap mutual funds under a factor-based computer model.” Now that quant funds tend to outperform human stock pickers, at least in the large-cap space, the move seeks to reduce costs, improve performance and attract more investors. “Quantitative factor-based models” appear to “reduce human being’s tendency to make behavioral mistakes. Portfolio managers are prone to confirmation bias as human beings are rarely swayed by new information that goes against long-held beliefs.”
Tags: Confirmation bias, Costs, Investors, Large caps, Mutual funds, Performance, PNC, Portfolio managers, Quantitative, Stock pickers
Reuters (March 22)
“The Trump Trade could start looking more like a Trump Tantrum if the new U.S. administration’s healthcare bill stalls in Congress, prompting worries on Wall Street about tax cuts and other measures aimed at promoting economic growth.” Investors are less optimistic “that U.S. President Donald Trump will swiftly enact his agenda, with a Thursday vote on a healthcare bill a litmus test which could give stock investors another reason to sell.”
Tags: Congress, Economic growth, Healthcare, Investors, Tax cuts, Trump Tantrum, U.S., Wall Street, Worries
Financial Times (March 14)
The Japanese stock market resembles “the ghost ship Mary Celeste.” Strewn around the decks are signs that the ship should be hopping with activity: the Topix index at a 14-month high, identifiable value stocks in abundance, a comfortably-positioned yen, fresh legalisation of casinos in the bag and a run of record share buybacks…. And yet there is silence.” Volumes have been low during the last three weeks and “overseas investors have been net sellers…with up to Y78bn leaving the index.” This suggests little wind remains in the Abenomics sails and, quite possibly, that traders are cautious ahead of developments from the Federal Reserve and Donald Trump. But it could also mean that overseas investors have written “Japan off as a credible, reform-minded play on global growth and domestic reflation.”
Tags: Abenomics, Buybacks, Casinos, Fed, Investors, Japan, Mary Celeste, Reflation, Topix, Trump Growth, Value stocks, Volumes, Yen
Institutional Investor (January 9)
“Tiger-related funds are not celebrating the market’s 2016 surge.” While some “stock market investors have been whooping it up after the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index posted an unexpectedly strong 9.5 percent gain last year,” Tiger funds were left licking their wounds. Wrong-footed by the election of Donald Trump, many Tigers tumbled far into the red, undoing solid performance earlier in the year.
Tags: 2016, Election, Investors, Performance, S&P 500, Surge, Tiger funds, Trump, Wrong-footed