Financial Times (June 10)
“The depth of collusion between Toshiba, the Japanese government and the former investment head of the world’s biggest pension fund to influence board nominations last year has been laid bare by an independent probe” and “represented an attempt to unfairly restrict the exercise of shareholder rights.”
Tags: Board, Collusion, Depth, Exercise, Fund, Government, Independent, Influence, Investment, Japan, Nominations, Pension, Probe, Restrict, Shareholder rights, Toshiba, Unfairly
Reuters (June 9)
“Like the banking system, the internet looks simple from the outside but is really an elaborate patchwork. Tuesday’s outage involving Fastly (FSLY.N), a so-called content delivery network, is a reminder for people with their lives in the cloud that pieces of the puzzle can fail. And unlike with banks, there’s little government oversight and no backstop, so it’s good for users to be reminded that instant online gratification is not guaranteed.”
Tags: Banking system, Cloud, Content delivery, Elaborate, Fastly, Government, Internet, Network, Outage, Oversight, Patchwork, Simple
USA Today (June 8)
“The struggles of many long-term unemployed Americans… may be starting to ease. Last month, the number of people unemployed six months or longer fell by 431,000—the second-largest decline on record—to 3.8 million…. Even with that drop, though, the number remains historically high and has tripled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Tags: COVID-19 pandemic, Decline, Drop, Ease, High, Long-term unemployed, Struggles, U.S.
Boston Globe (June 7)
“There are now twice as many nights when temperatures don’t drop below 70 degrees” in Boston and the heat will get worse “even under best-case scenarios for global warming.” At the end of the last century, “from 1971-2000, Massachusetts logged an average of four days above 90 degrees” per year. Looking ahead, annual 90-degree scorchers are projected to range from 10 to 28 days by mid-century, before reaching 13 to 56 days by 2099.
Tags: 70 degrees, Best case, Boston, Global warming, Massachusetts, Nights, Scenarios, Temperatures, Worse
Financial Times (June 6)
“The Japanese AGM season will provide rapidly digestible evidence of three things: how empowered activists feel, how awkward the big institutions feel about backing them, and how threatened managements feel by both of those.” The results are unlikely to show real change. “Despite the appearance of change, half of Japanese stocks still trade below book value and carry not just a record value of cash as a proportion of equity, but the largest such ratio in developed markets.”
Tags: Activists, AGM, Appearance, Awkward, Book value, Cash, Change, Empowered, Evidence, Institutions, Japan, Managements, Stocks, Threatened
Wall Street Journal (June 4)
“Investors have piled into new carbon-credit-trading funds, helping make the upstart market one of the best-performing commodities-related investments of the past year.” In Europe, the trading price for carbon credits “has jumped 135% over the past 12 months and recently hit a series of records as economic activity rebounded from pandemic lockdowns. Only lumber, driven higher by the housing boom, has proved a better commodities investment.”
Tags: Best-performing, Carbon credits, Commodities, Europe, Funds, Housing boom, Investments, Investors, Lockdowns, Lumber, Market, Pandemic, Rebounded, Records, Trading, Upstart
New York Times (June 3)
The movie theater chain AMC “has soared far higher and faster than GameStop and other meme stocks. AMC’s stock nearly doubled yesterday alone; it’s now worth nearly eight times its prepandemic high, a heady valuation for a business that was flirting with bankruptcy not long ago.” The meme stock frenzies may not be “one-off” events and, by eroding trust in the market, they “could have long-term implications beyond what happens with AMC, GameStop or any other stock in the headlines.”
Tags: AMC, Bankruptcy, Chain, GameStop, Heady, Meme stocks, Movie theater, One-off, Prepandemic, Soared, Trust, Valuation
WARC (June 2)
“Sponsors that made a relatively sound bet on one of the major global sporting events could not have foreseen the pandemic. Now, with the games an increasingly controversial topic, sponsors are navigating negative public opinion.” As they “worry about the risks of sponsoring an event opposed by a majority of the country” and focus on avoiding negative exposure, some Olympic sponsors have given up on recouping their investments.
Tags: Controversial, Doubts, Exposure, Foreseen, Negative, Olympics, Pandemic, Public opinion, Risks, Sponsors, Sporting events, Worry
Philadelphia Inquirer (June 1)
“After a year stuck at home, consumers who can afford it are ‘revenge spending’ – splurging on items and experiences they were deprived of during the pandemic…. More than half of U.S. consumers expect to spend extra by treating themselves, with higher-income millennials intending to spend the most.” It already shows. “Consumer spending is above pre-pandemic levels across the Philadelphia region and nation.”
Tags: Afford, Consumers, Deprived, Experiences, Home, Income, Millennials, Pandemic, Revenge spending, Splurging, U.S.
Seattle Times (June 1)
The cannabis industry “had a breakout moment during the pandemic. Legal cannabis sales in the United States passed $17.5 billion in 2020, a 46% increase over sales in 2019. For many Americans, stocking up on marijuana was as essential as stocking up on toilet paper. And the industry found a way to get it to them.”
Tags: Breakout moment, Cannabis, Essential, Increase, Industry, Legal, Pandemic, Sales, Stocking up, Toilet paper, U.S.
