Investment Week (April 26)
“The gold price – which is often seen as a measure of how anxious investors are feeling – has hit 25 record highs already this year, ranking 2025 third in terms of total of gold price spikes since 1968…. This means that in less than four months, investors have sought out ‘safety’ at a lightning-fast pace.” While some investors are cheered by the recent market respite, they should not pin “their investment case on the ‘hope’ that Trump reneges on his plans just because that seems like the sensible thing to do when we have been shown, repeatedly, that just because the market wants it, it does not mean it will be so.” Investors will likely “have to deal with four more years of paper-thin reliability when it comes to the US.”
Tags: Anxious, Deal, Gold, Investment, Investors, Lightning-fast, Market, Pace, Record highs, Reliability, Reneges, Safety, Sensible, Spikes
Time (March 15)
“Amid widespread economic turmoil, the price of gold has soared to levels never seen before,” with Gold futures exceeding $3,000 per troy ounce. Prices for this safe haven investment “are spiking higher now as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have kicked off an international trade war that has roiled financial markets and threatened to reignite inflation for families and businesses alike.”
Tags: 000 oz t, 3%, Economic, Gold, Inflation, Investment, Markets, Price, Roiled, Safe haven, Soared, Spiking, Tariff policies, Trade war, Trump, Turmoil, U.S., Widespread
The Guardian (January 30)
“Whatever the truth about DeepSeek, China’s tech sector is light years ahead on strategy and investment.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise. “China took a strategic view of the industries in which it wanted to be competitive, invested heavily to get them established, protected them when they were in their infancy, and waited patiently for the results.” China had more patent filings in 2023 that the rest of the globe combined. It graduates double the number of STEM PhDs as the U.S. And it “is already the biggest exporter of electric vehicles.” Even without DeepSeek, “the west is already losing the AI arms race.”
Tags: AI arms race, China, Competitive, DeepSeek, EVs, Invested, Investment, Losing, Patent filings, PhDs, Protected, STEM, Strategy, Tech sector, U.S.
Foreign Affairs (January 14)
“America’s China strategy is incomplete.” Success will require “a full suite of economic incentives, public-private partnerships, and investment and trade deals to reduce the United States’ and its partners’ reliance on China.” The good news is that U.S. partners are “concerned about Chinese influence themselves” and “eager to work with Washington.” This means Trump’s second term could potentially “supercharge the global shift away from dependence on Chinese supply, bolstering the U.S. economy and enhancing U.S. national security” if he can effectively leverage “economic tools beyond tariffs.”
Tags: China, Eager, Economic incentives, Global shift, Influence, Investment, National security, Public-private partnerships, Reliance, Strategy, Tariffs, Trade deals, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (September 8)
Amidst the flood of steel from China, “Nippon Steel was well advised to look for ways to strengthen its hand” while “the U.S. Steel board of directors was free to approve the $14.9 billion acquisition offer, as they did in April.” Nippon Steel believes “the investment will revitalize American steel manufacturing and pay dividends in further industrial cooperation, and most economists, liberal and conservative, agree.” Unfortunately, the merger is being uprooted by politics.
Tags: $14.9 billion, Acquisition, Approve, China, Dividends, Economists, Investment, Manufacturing, Merger, Nippon Steel, Politics, U.S. Steel
WARC (May 24)
“Social media is now the largest channel worldwide by ad investment, having seized the crown from paid search…. Global social media ad spend is forecast to total $247.3bn in 2024, up 14.3% year on year, a slight deceleration from +16.0% in 2023. The growth is more pronounced in Western markets: growth across five leading Chinese social platforms (Duoyin, Weixin/QQ, Kuaishou, Weibo and Zhihu) analysed by WARC is set to reach only 4.6% next year.”
Tags: $247.3bn, 2024, Ad, Channel, Duoyin, Growth, Investment, Kuaishou, Paid search, Social media, Spend, Weibo, Weixin/QQ, Western market, Worldwide, Zhihu
South China Morning Post (May 17)
“A larger fall of property investment and a slowdown of consumption continued to haunt China’s economic activities in April, despite Beijing having stepped up actions to boost consumer goods sales, upgrade equipment and solve the widely watched property slowdown.”
Tags: April, Beijing, Boost, China, Consumer goods, Consumption, Economic activities, Equipment, Fall, Haunt, Investment, Property, Sales, Slowdown
The Economist (May 11)
“The prioritisation of national security above unfettered investment is reshaping the movement of capital across borders. Global capital flows—especially foreign direct investment (fdi)—have plunged, and are now directed along geopolitical lines.” This benefits non-aligned countries, who “play both sides.” Ultimately, however, “as geopolitical blocs pull further apart, it is likely to make the world poorer than it otherwise would be.”
Tags: Borders, FDI, Geopolitical, Geopolitical blocs, Global capital flows, Investment, National security, Non-aligned countries, Plunged, Poorer, Prioritisation, Reshaping, Unfettered
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
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
