The Week (April 29)
“Sometimes booms go bust. That may be happening with artificial intelligence.” OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and other tech companies “have unveiled gaudy new products with fanfare,” but AI hasn’t revolutionized the way people live, work or communicate. Profits are also “turning out to be elusive.”
Tags: Artificial intelligence, Booms, Bust, Communicate, Fanfare, Gaudy, Google, Live, Microsoft, OpenAI, People, Products, Profits, Revolutionized, Tech companies, Work
Wall Street Journal (April 27)
Exxon and Chevron “are still printing big profits, but their postpandemic run of record earnings is slowing down.” After gyrating with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “oil-and-gas supplies have largely stabilized… and analysts say companies such as Exxon—the western world’s largest oil refiner—will have to prove it can keep costs down and production up if the benefits of external market forces continue to ebb.”
Tags: Analysts, Chevron, Costs, Earnings, Exxon, Gas, Gyrating, Invasion, Oil, Postpandemic, Production, Profits, Record, Refiner, Russia, Stabilized, Supply, Ukraine
Institutional Investor (April 26)
“This may have been the first presidential primary debates season where BlackRock’s investment strategy was a talking point! Twenty-two states have introduced some form of ‘anti-ESG’ regulations, with more than 75 bills pending in various legislatures…. Prominent hedge fund managers, amid very public social media meltdowns, are waging war against diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Tags: Anti-ESG regulations, BlackRock, Debates, DEI, Hedge-fund, Investment strategy, Legislatures, Meltdowns, Prominent, Social media, War
Investment Week (April 26)
“Managers have expressed confidence in the performance of sterling and its future potential, but the uncertainty surrounding the UK and global economies, as well as the upcoming general election, could pose headwinds to the asset’s performance.”
Tags: Asset, Confidence, Future, General election, Global economies, Headwinds, Managers, Performance, Potential, Sterling, UK, Uncertainty
Investment Week (April 25)
In the U.S., “sustainable funds suffered their “worst-ever quarter” for redemptions, shedding a record $8.8bn in the first quarter of 2024…. This marked the sixth consecutive month of outflows… and was over five-fold the withdrawals from Japanese sustainable funds, the only other region to record overall redemptions.” The ongoing politicization of ESG investing in the U.S. was among the drivers of the outflows.
Tags: $8.8bn, Japan, Outflows, Politicization, Q1, Redemptions, Suffered, Sustainable funds, U.S., Withdrawals, Worst-ever quarter
Foreign Affairs (April 24)
Assuming Peak China has arrived is “both ill advised and premature.” Chinese President Xi Jinping “still believes China is rising, and he is acting accordingly.” He remains determined to achieve his “China Dream” by 2049. In fact, Xi and most Chinese elites “believe it is the United States that is in terminal decline. For them, even if China is slowing down, the power gap between the countries is still narrowing in China’s favor.”
Tags: 2049, Dream, Elites, Ill advised, Narrowing, Peak China, Power gap, Premature, Rising, Slowing down, Terminal decline, U.S., Xi
Wall Street Journal (April 22)
Giant investment companies like Blackstone, Franklin Templeton, BlackRock and KKR “are taking over the financial system.” They now “control sums rivaling the economies of many large countries. They are pushing into new businesses, blurring the lines that define who does what on Wall Street and nudging once-dominant banks toward the sidelines.” Their outsize roles are, according to investors, creating “risks markets have never encountered before.”
Tags: Banks, BlackRock. KKR, Blackstone, Blurring lines, Countries, Financial system, Franklin Templeton, Investment, Investors, Markets, Risks, Sidelines, Wall Street
The Hill (April 22)
“Anyone doubting that China is well on its way to a Japanese-style lost economic decade has apparently missed the bursting of its massive housing and credit market bubble and the souring of U.S. and European trade relations with that country.” Make no mistake, China’s fall “would constitute a major headwind for world economic recovery.”
Tags: Bubble, Bursting, China, Credit market, Europe, Fall, Headwind, Housing, Japan, Lost decade, Trade relations, U.S., World
New York Times (April 21)
“The mundanity of the courtroom has all but swallowed Donald Trump, who for decades has sought to project an image of bigness and a sense of power…. For the next six weeks, a man who values control and tries to shape environments and outcomes to his will is in control of very little.”
Tags: Bigness, Control, Courtroom, Environments, Mundanity, Outcomes, Power, Project, Shape, Swallowed, Trump
Washington Post (April 19)
“Earth’s record hot streak might be a sign of a new climate era.” Existing models are coming up short as scientists struggle “to explain how the planet could have exceeded previous temperature records by as much as half a degree Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) last fall.” Efforts over the next quarter or so may determine “whether Earth’s climate has undergone a fundamental shift — a quantum leap in warming that is confounding climate models and stoking ever more dangerous weather extremes.”
Tags: Climate, Climate models, Confounding, Dangerous, Earth, Era, Existing models, Hot streak, Quantum leap, Records, Scientists, Struggle, Temperature, Warming, Weather extremes
