New York Times (April 4)
The importance of “a robust defense” is one clear takeaway from Disney’s success against activist investor Nelson Peltz. “Executives, led by the Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger, mapped out a series of bold initiatives last autumn, in part to blunt Peltz’s calls for change…. That included cost-cutting efforts, an investment in the video game giant Epic Games and a shake-up in the struggling movie division.”
Tags: Activist investor, Bold initiatives, Cost cutting, Disney, Epic Games, Iger, Investment, Movie division, Peltz, Robust defense, Shake-up, Struggling, Takeaway, Video game
Fortune (March 23)
“Foreign businesses’ direct investment into China last year increased by the lowest amount since the early 1990s, underscoring Beijing’s challenges to spur its economy. It also has to contend with a steadily accelerating outflow of manufacturing as Apple and other American brands begin to position new capacity in countries from India to Southeast Asia to mitigate risks from US-China tensions.”
Tags: 1990s, Accelerating, Apple, Beijing, Brands, Capacity, Challenges, China, Economy, FDI, India, Investment, Manufacturing, Mitigate, Outflow, Risks, U.S.
Institutional Investor (March 12)
“Sixty-eight percent of U.S. institutional investors do not use ESG in their portfolios.” They’ve been abandoning ESG as it “has become politicized, leading to state legislation banning the practice, lawsuits, and reputation concerns.” Elsewhere, in contrast, ESG investment is “forging ahead”. A recent global survey of 310 institutional investors, showed that “94 percent of European respondents have incorporated ESG into their investment process…. Within Asia, that portion is 86 percent.”
Tags: Banning, ESG, Global, Institutional investors, Investment, Lawsuits, Legislation, Politicized, Portfolios, Reputation, Survey Europe, U.S.
New York Times (February 16)
“BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase and State Street are quitting or scaling back their ties to an influential global investment coalition.” The former reduced its ties with “Climate Action 100+, a global investment coalition that has been pushing companies to decarbonize” while the latter two outright quit the coalition. “All told, the moves amount to a nearly $14 trillion exit from an organization meant to marshal Wall Street’s clout to expand the climate agenda.”
Tags: $14 trillion, BlackRock, Climate Action 100+, Climate agenda, Coalition, Decarbonize, Global, Investment, JPMorgan Chase, Quitting, Scaling back, State Street, Wall Street
Markets Insider (February 8)
“The takeover of passive and algorithmic trading has made value investing significantly harder, with overvalued stocks now more likely to win out.” The shift from actively managed investment has “led to fewer investors trading on the merits of individual stocks, making it harder… to find undervalued companies that will eventually close the gap between them and the rest of the market.”
Tags: Actively managed, Algorithmic trading, Investment, Investors, Market, Overvalued, Passive, Stocks, Takeover, Undervalued, Value investing
Financial Times (November 15)
“One of Asia’s sleepiest investment sectors has outperformed tech stocks.” Share prices have soared at Japanese banks and their earnings now “confirm the prescience of that rally…. Earnings at Japan’s five biggest banking groups rose 56 per cent to a record of about ¥2tn ($13bn).” Higher spreads and buybacks are part of the equation, “but the biggest driver of the rally has been rising hopes that the central bank may end its ultra-easy monetary policy soon.”
Tags: Asia, Banks, BOJ, Buybacks, Earnings, Investment, Japan, Outperformed, Rally, Share prices, Soared, Spreads, Tech stocks
Oilprice.com (October 24)
OPEC recently forecast “that demand for oil is going to continue rising at least until 2045.” In contrast, the just released Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency forecasts that “demand for oil, natural gas, and coal is set to peak before 2030, which undermines the case for increasing investment in fossil fuels…. While the agency does admit that investment in fossil fuels will remain necessary, it claims the growth era is over.”
Tags: 2030, 2045, Coal, Demand, Energy Outlook, Forecast, Fossil fuels, Growth era, IEC, Investment, Natural gas, Oil, OPEC, Over, Peak
Washington Post (September 12)
“After decades of relying on the U.S. security umbrella, many European policymakers are aware that an investment in Ukraine’s security is a down payment on their own. Their efforts are accelerating, but not fast enough to negate the potentially catastrophic fallout of a U.S. withdrawal.”
Tags: Accelerating, Catastrophic, Europe, Fallout, Investment, Policymakers, Relying, Security, Security umbrella, U.S., U.S. withdrawal, Ukraine
Reuters (June 23)
“Chinese faith in the economy is shaken…. Those who thought property was a one-way winning bet are rushing to pay down mortgages. With industrial profits plunging, companies are exhibiting similar conservatism.” Confronting this “double whammy of depressed consumption and investment is raising fears of long-term stagnation similar to Japan’s ‘lost decade’ in the 1990s.” Without successful countermeasures, “China risks slowly slipping into the same outcome.”
Tags: China, Depressed consumption, Double whammy, Economy, Faith, Fears, Investment, Japan, Mortgages, Plunging, Profits, Property, Shaken, Stagnation
The Economist (June 18)
“China’s economy is on course for a ‘double dip.’ The post-covid economy was meant to roar. But it is faltering again.” Since April, “retail sales, investment and property sales all fell short of expectations. And the unemployment rate among China’s urban youth rose above 20%, the highest since data began to be recorded in 2018.”
Tags: China, Double-dip, Economy, Expectations, Faltering, Investment, Post-Covid, Property sales, Retail sales, Unemployment rate, Urban youth
