Washington Post (October 29)
“China’s conduct in recent days in the South China Sea seems neither accidental nor unintentional.” President Xi Jinping may be trying to divert “his people’s attention from growing domestic problems — a faltering economy and a leadership crisis.” Regardless of China’s motives, “it’s imperative that the administration send constant reminders to Beijing and to America’s allies in the region that the United States is a Pacific power and can deal with multiple crises at once.”
Tags: Accidental, Allies, Attention, China, Conduct, Divert, Domestic problems, Faltering economy, Leadership crisis, Motives, Reminders, South China Sea, U.S., Unintentional, Xi
Euromoney (October 30)
“There comes a point when investors cannot ignore the E, the S and the G in their investment strategies because there will be companies, business models and even entire industries that will no longer function if global temperatures exceed1.5 degrees over preindustrial levels, or if socio-political crises escalate, or if corporate mismanagement scandals multiply.”
Tags: 1.5 degrees, Business models, Companies, Corporate mismanagement, Crises, ESG, Industries, Investment strategies, Investors, Preindustrial, Scandals, Socio-political, Temperatures
Bloomberg (October 27)
“The VIX is at 20, stocks are on the brink of their worst October in five years, and every other day the bond market throws a fit. For equity bulls conditioned to dive in at any sign of weakness, it’s getting to be too much. Across investor categories, they’re pulling money out” and moving to a defensive posture.” But “from a contrarian standpoint, all the gloom is a positive, suggesting latent buying power should sentiment ever flip.”
Tags: Bond market, Buying power, Contrarian, Defensive posture, Equity bulls, Fit, Gloom, Investor, Latent, October, Positive, Sentiment, VIX, Weakness, Worst
Institutional Investor (October 26)
“Since the inception of Institutional Investor’s Canada Research Team, RBC has captured the No. 1 spot in the ranking of the country’s providers of equity research. Amid a challenging year in the Canadian stock markets, the firm earned 16 total first team positions, while runner-up BMO Capital Markets clocked in with 14. Looking further down the leaderboard, some of the inroads made by bulge-bracket firms in 2021 and 2022 reversed.
Tags: BMO Capital Markets, Bulge-bracket firms, Canada, Challenging, Equity research, Inception, Institutional Investor, No. 1, RBC, Research, Runner-up, Stock markets
Wall Street Journal (October 26)
“The U.S. economy keeps on growing, and in the third quarter it positively boomed. This is good news by any measure, though it’s striking how few economists think it can keep going. Let’s hope they keep being wrong.”
Financial Times (October 25)
“Japan’s biggest automotive trade show acts as a gauge of how hard the country’s once unstoppable carmakers are ready to fight for survival. Increasingly it looks like an industry waiting for a miracle. The trillion-dollar question is whether solid-state batteries — a technology that promises greater range and safety than lithium-ion ones, and which Toyota has indicated it is near to mass producing — can be that miracle.”
Tags: Automotive, Carmakers, Industry, Japan, Lithium-ion, Miracle, Range, Safety, Solid-state batteries, Survival, Toyota, Trade show, Unstoppable
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
New York Times (October 24)
“To oil analysts and investors, Chevron’s $53 billion takeover of Hess confirmed that there’s a new cycle of consolidation in the industry, coming less than two weeks after Exxon Mobil’s $59.5 billion bid for Pioneer Natural Resources.” In spite of “pressure from climate-minded policymakers, investors and activists to embrace greener energy,” the majors are “instead focusing on getting bigger. That could create a larger gap in the industry between those who have the firepower and freedom to buy rivals, and those who, because of politics or finances, do not.”
Tags: Activists, Analysts, Chevron, Climate-minded, Consolidation, Exxon Mobil, Firepower, Freedom, Greener energy, Hess, Investors, Majors, Oil, Pioneer, Policymakers
The Guardian (October 23)
“Accelerated ice melt in west Antarctica is inevitable for the rest of the century no matter how much carbon emissions are cut,” according to recent research. The “dire” implications “mean some coastal cities may have to be abandoned.” Complete loss of the west Antarctic ice sheet “would push up the oceans by 5 metres” and the new study suggests “even drastic emissions cuts in the coming decades will not slow the melting.”
Tags: Emissions cuts
Fortune (October 21)
“After a long, hot summer that saw mortgage rates creep ever higher, October has brought an early winter for the housing market. Existing-home sales dropped a stunning 15% in September on a year-over-year basis to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.96 million transactions.” This marks the worst performance since the economy “was struggling to pull out of the Great Financial Crisis.”
