Reuters (November 4)
“Fears of a market bubble come as the benchmark S&P 500 continues its meteoric climb, repeatedly hitting record highs and evoking memories of the dot-com boom.” And on Tuesday, the chief executives of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs warned that “global equity markets could be heading towards a correction, underscoring a growing concern that investor optimism has driven valuations to sky-high levels.”
Tags: Boom, Concern, Correction, Dot-com, Equity markets, Executives, Fears, Goldman Sachs, Investor optimism, Market bubble, Meteoric, Morgan Stanley, Record highs, S&P 500, Valuations
Reuters (August 22)
The “boom-to-bust saga” of China Evergrande Group drew closer to the end with its formal “delisting from the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday,” which as the largest by market value and volume in recent years.” For investors, “the journey has been anything but grand.” After achieving a $9 billion market cap in its 2009 IPO, Evergrande rocketed ahead, growing “more than five-fold to $51 billion eight years later only to plummet to earth,” with it’s current value approximately $282 million and creditor claims of approximately $45 billion. “The company’s journey from stock exchange darling to a pariah in the financial markets is a cautionary tale of unbridled debt-fuelled expansion in the world’s second-largest economy.”
Tags: Boom, Bust, Cautionary tale, China. Evergrande, Creditor claims, Debt-fuelled, Delisting, Expansion, Hong Kong, Investors, IPO, Market value, Pariah, Stock exchange, Volume
Reuters (January 18)
The anticipated “mega-merger boom threatens a shareholder bloodbath.” As global conditions improve and central banks cut borrowing costs, mega-deals are expected to proliferate. An expected lighter regulatory touch will provide extra momentum. Based on past results, however, “when acquisitions reach $10 billion or more… the worst fears of shareholders are often confirmed.” Large acquirers generally end up trailing industry peers by 5% in median annualized total return.
Tags: Acquirer, Acquisitions, Bloodbath, Boom, Borrowing costs, Central banks, Expected, Fears, Lagging, Mega-merger, Momentum, Regulatory, Shareholder
Reuters (September 5)
“Global property markets, rattled by the steepest rise in interest rates in a generation, will get little relief from the gradual easing of borrowing costs, with scant hope of a return to the free money that fuelled a boom.”
Tags: Boom, Borrowing costs, Free money, Global, Gradual easing, Interest rates, Property markets, Rattled, Relief, Rise, Scant hope, Steepest
Wall Street Journal (July 17)
“A clearer outlook on interest rates is giving bankers hope that dealmaking is emerging from a two-year slowdown.” Though up about 8% from a year ago, Q2 global M&A volumes “are still below those of the deal boom coming out of the pandemic,” with M&A activity “unlikely to kick into full gear until interest rates come down.”
Tags: 8%, Bankers, Boom, Clearer, Dealmaking, Emerging, Interest rates, M&A, Outlook, Pandemic, Q2, Slowdown
Newsweek (March 9)
“America’s teenage population is expected to shrink in the coming decade, whilst the number of people aged 70 or over expands by 14.5 million” as the 70 or over senior population is expected “to boom from 40.8 million to 55.3 million by 2033.” In the two decades since 1971, the U.S. fertility rate fell by 27%. The average woman now bears only 1.66 children, down from 2.26 fifty years ago.
Tags: 1.66 children, 2033, 70 or over, Boom, Fertility rate, Population, Seniors, Shrink, Teenage, U.S., Woman
Washington Post (January 19)
“The S&P 500 hit an all-time closing high Friday.” Up over 1% from Thursday, the index closed at 4,839.81, “surpassing the previous closing record set in January of 2022.” Support stems from confidence in an economy that has averted a recession, apparently achieving an elusive soft-landing. Analysts also “point to an AI-driven frenzy on Wall Street that rivals the dot-com boom of the late ’90s, when investors sought to capitalize on the transformative gains brought by the early internet.”
Tags: AI, Analysts, Boom, Capitalize, Dot-com, Economy, Frenzy, Gains, High, Internet, Investors, Recession, Record Confidence, Rivals, S&P 500, Soft landing, Transformative, Wall Street
WARC (October 12)
“After a pandemic-driven boom, luxury sector growth rates are slowing and returning to something approaching the long-term norm.” Ultimately, a “slowdown had to come at some point – 20% growth rates are not sustainable for an extended period – but the question now being asked is how far the pendulum might swing in the opposite direction, especially as ‘aspirational’ buyers at the bottom end of the market cut back.”
Tags: Aspirational buyers, Boom, Cut back, Growth rates, Luxury sector, Pandemic, Slowdown, Sustainable
Reuters (June 13)
Despite tensions with the North, things are “upbeat” in Seoul. “Compared to pre-pandemic times, the capital city feels richer and more vibrant. A recent boom in local stocks, cryptocurrencies and real estate have spurred the city’s elite, unable to travel, to flex their wealth at home…. Luxury sales topped $14 billion in 2021, making South Korea one of the few markets worldwide to surpass 2019 levels.”
Tags: Boom, Cryptocurrencies, Elite, Luxury sales, Markets, North Korea, Pre-pandemic, Real estate, Richer, Seoul, Stocks, Tensions, Travel, Upbeat, Vibrant, Wealth
Institutional Investor (April 7)
“Companies that have gone public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company have underperformed the S&P 500 by eighty percentage points since 2018.” Indeed, “at no time during the recent SPAC boom—except for a few days in early 2021—did these new listings beat the S&P.”
