The Times (May 27)
“Corporate leaders who think decades ahead in business become incredibly short-sighted in advocacy, financing ideas that become roadblocks to innovation and growth.” Big Tech is currently finding out about the phenomena that Milton Friedman dubbed “the suicidal impulse of the business community.” For years, Big Tech “helped fund climate activism,” but they now face “backlash as AI data centres drive demand for energy and infrastructure growth.”
Tags: AI, All-time highs, Earnings, Economy, Equities, Fears, Fed, Goldman Sachs, Inflation, Interest rates, Investors, Nervous, Numerous, Oil prices, Risk, Stock prices, Stocks
Barron’s (May 5)
“Bad news for investors: Another major disruption to global shipping may be on the horizon. There has been a spate of attacks on ships near the Horn of Africa in recent weeks, raising fears of a resurgence in Somali piracy 15 years after the peak of a multiyear crisis that leveled a heavy cost on the global economy.”
Tags: Bad news, Cost, Crisis, Fears, Global economy, Global shipping, Horn of Africa, Investors, Major disruption, Peak, Resurgence, Somali piracy, Spate of attacks
Barron’s (March 26)
“The war in Iran and consequent blockage of the Strait of Hormuz offer a stark reminder of a different geopolitical risk, one lurking in tech-heavy global portfolios that are betting on artificial intelligence: Taiwan.” 75% of global foundry revenue originates in the island nation. “Investors often put Taiwan in the ‘too big to fail’ bucket, meaning China wouldn’t dare attack anytime soon because of the cascading ramifications…. But the far-reaching ripples from Iran’s attacks on the Strait of Hormuz, itself once thought to be in the unlikely bucket, is a reminder of the risks to global chokeholds and the potential spillover from geopolitical conflict.”
Tags: AI, Attack, Cascading, China, Foundry, Geopolitical risk, Global chokeholds, Hormuz, Investors, Iran, Ramifications, Revenue, Spillover, Taiwan, War
Auto Wire (March 17)
”For decades Porsche has been one of the most profitable car companies on the planet. That reputation just took a staggering hit” as it “reported operating profit of just €90 million for 2025 — a jaw-dropping collapse from €5.3 billion the previous year.” The 98% drop “immediately rattled investors and sent the company’s stock sliding…. Behind that collapse is a combination of strategic missteps, geopolitical pressures, and brutal new competition reshaping the global car market.”
Tags: €5.3b, €90m, 2025, Brutal, Car companies, Collapse, Competition, Geopolitical pressures, Investors, Jaw-dropping, Operating profit, Porsche, Profitable, Rattled, Reputation, Sliding, Staggering, Stock, Strategic missteps
Barron’s (March 12)
“Wall Street is becoming increasingly worried” with the escalating war in Iran. Investors fear the war “could lead to a stagflationary environment where the Federal Reserve can’t step in to boost the economy due to stubborn price growth. Odds of no rate cut in 2026 surged to 46.1% on Thursday.” The odds had stood at just 5.1% a month ago.
Tags: 2026, 46.1%, Economy, Escalating, Fear, Fed, Investors, Iran, Odds, Price growth, Rate cut, Stagflationary, Wall Street, War, Worried
Fortune (March 2)
“S&P 500 futures were down 1.22% this morning as part of a broad global selloff in the stock markets triggered by the conflict between Iran and the U.S. and Israel.” Uncertainty prevails amid efforts to assess the likely severity of the conflict, which “could be serious enough to push oil over $100 per barrel.” For now, investors have “entered a worldwide ‘risk-off’ phase.”
Tags: $100 bbl, Conflict, Futures, Global selloff, Investors, Iran, Israel, of Oil, S&P 500, Severity, Stock markets, U.S., Uncertainty
OilPrice.com (February 16)
“For decades, oil prices could swing wildly on even the distant prospect of war in the Middle East. As U.S. shale now accounts for a significant share of the global market, analysts and investors appear to have grown complacent. It is widely assumed, that “anything short of an oil blockade in the Strait of Hormuz will leave oil cold—and such a blockade is highly unlikely. This, however, is a false sense of security. Geopolitics can still flip the script on oil bears.”
Tags: Analysts, Bears, Blockade, Complacent, False, Geopolitics, Global market, Investors, Middle East, Oil prices, Security, Strait of Hormuz, Swing, U.S., War, Wildly
Fortune (February 16)
“Investors wobbled last week as they worked through the disruption AI is likely to cause across global industries, with further hiccups potentially bubbling through this week.” The rout spread from software to “the legal, IT, consulting and logistics sectors,” with $2 trillion “wiped off software market caps alone.” Investors appear to be abandoning “broad-stroke arguments that the efficiencies offered by AI will result in wins for the vast majority of companies.”
Tags: $2 trillion, AI, Consulting, Disruption, Efficiencies, Global industries, Investors, IT, Legal, Logistics, Market caps, Rout, Software, Wobbled
The Economist (February 10)
A “deep freeze” seems to have overtaken crypto assets. At least that’s how it may feel to investors. “The value of a bitcoin has dropped from $124,000 in early October to around $70,000 today, and the market value of all cryptocurrencies has dropped by more than $2trn. Though the asset class has slumped before, its boosters now seem more despondent than ever.”
Tags: $124k, $2trn, $70k, Asset class, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, Deep freeze, Despondent, Dropped, Investors, Market value, Slumped
Reuters (February 9)
“Sanae Takaichi has curb-stomped the competition. Her Liberal Democratic Party took 316 out of 465 seats…delivering the arch-conservative prime minister her country’s first post-war single-party supermajority.” While “investors may hope the ruling party’s historic comeback relieves pressure to cooperate with a fiscally profligate opposition,” that is unlikely. Her desire to revive “the heavily indebted $4 trillion economy” and return to fiscal stimulus will prove costly. Her “desire for a regular army makes expensive militarisation look more certain.” All of these “stated ambitions” augur “more turmoil for markets.”
Tags: Army, Conservative, Curb-stomped, Economy, Expensive, Fiscal stimulus, Hope, Indebted, Investors, Japan, LDP, Militarisation, Prime minister, Supermajority, Takaichi, Turmoil
