New York Times (July 11)
“A deal to ensure that data from Meta, Google and scores of other companies can continue flowing between the United States and the European Union was completed on Monday, after the digital transfer of personal information between the two jurisdictions had been thrown into doubt because of privacy concerns.” It may ultimately prove a temporary patch, but the E.U.-U.S. Data Privacy Framework marks “the final step in a yearslong process,” resolving “a dispute about American intelligence agencies’ ability to gain access to data about European Union residents.” Guard rails will now allow some data collection, but the subjects will be able to object and challenge the collection.
Tags: Collection, Data, Deal, Digital transfer, Dispute, E.U.-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, Google, Guard rails, Intelligence agencies, Jurisdictions, Meta, Object, Personal information, Privacy
Seeking Alpha (May 7)
“Berkshire Hathaway holds $130 billion in cash. That is over 18% of the company’s market cap. Clearly, management is not confident in the near term outlook of U.S. equity markets” in light of “the increasing preponderance of data that supports lower growth and lower earnings. The U.S. has certainly experienced an incredible period of growth and profits over the last 3 years. That phase is coming to an end.”
Tags: $130 billion, Berkshire Hathaway, Cash, Confident, Data, Earnings, Equity markets, Lower growth, Management, Market-cap, Near term, Outlook, Profits, U.S.
WARC (April 13)
“Search marketing is on the cusp of its most consequential transformation since Google first introduced its sponsored keyword search auction over 20 years ago, and the more recent introduction of the use of data and algorithms to provide greater personalisation in search results.” As we move into the Search 3.0 era, it will be “defined as much by image or video as text, and by artificial intelligence and natural language processing, in which marketers shift from targeting keywords to targeting intent and context.”
Tags: AI, Algorithms, Auction, Consequential, Data, Google, Image, Intent, Keywords, Marketing, Natural language processing, Personalisation, Search 3.0, Transformation, Video
New York Times (February 2)
The “disconnect” between cautious Fed statements and “investor expectations” is rooted in the tension between current data and projections. “Many forecasters expect the labor market, as well as inflation in many kinds of services, to weaken this year as the full effect of the Fed’s rate moves plays out; the Fed, on the other hand, is waiting for clearer signs in the data.”
Tags: Data, Disconnect, Expectations, Fed, Forecasters, Inflation, Investor, Labor market, Projections, Rates, Services, Tension
Institutional Investor (August 29)
“Now that investors can get factor-based funds on the cheap, they’re pushing quants in new directions.” This presents new challenges. “One is a move away from a heavy reliance on decades of historical data and back tests to tying this in-depth research to the realities of the current economic and market environment.” Another challenge is “getting the right people” to do this. “Many quant managers historically hired people with expertise in data,” but “now it’s the background in economics and finance that’s become critical.”
Tags: Back tests, Challenges, Cheap, Data, Economic, Economics, Factor-based funds, Finance, Historical data, Investors, Managers, Market, Quants, Realities, Reliance, Research
WARC (April 14)
Marketing spend is set to grow across all 15 major types of media. “Social media sees the largest net budget increase, at +53%, while print and AM/FM radio see the smallest net budget increase, but still at +13%.” Taken as a whole, “WARC Data forecasts global advertising spend to grow by 12.5% this year.”
Tags: Advertising, AM/FM, Budget, Data, Forecasts, Global, Increase, Marketing, Media, Print, Radio, Social media, Spend, WARC
USA Today (November 30)
“People are in for an anxious couple of weeks as data is collected, patient records are scoured, hospitalizations are tracked and blood samples are tested. Only then will we know whether this is another delta variant, fast-moving and highly contagious, or something like a gamma, which appeared, sputtered out and quickly disappeared.”
Tags: Anxious, Contagious, Data, Delta, Disappeared, Fast-moving, Gamma, Hospitalizations, Patient records, Sputtered, Tested, Tracked, Variant
Wall Street Journal (August 12)
“The rapidly-spreading coronavirus Delta variant and its impact on the global economy mean the world will consume less oil this year,” Lowering its forecast, the IEA’s latest market report notes that “the worsening of the pandemic, as well as revisions to historical data, mean its global oil demand outlook has been “appreciably downgraded,” with some of this year’s forecast recovery shifted to 2022.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Data, Delta variant, Demand, Downgraded, Forecast, Global economy, IEA, Impact, Oil, Outlook, Pandemic, Recovery, Worsening
Institutional Investor (February 2)
“What happens when a company gets an A from one ESG rater and an F from another? With the explosion of ESG data and ratings, there’s little agreement on what makes a company good or bad.”
Los Angeles Times (November 27)
“A lack of data hides the pandemic’s true toll on American main Streets because many small businesses simply board up without going through Bankruptcy Court.” Vaccines promise hope, but more immediately these businesses face uncertainty and hardship. “As virus cases soar, small businesses at the heart of communities ponder their survival.”
Tags: Bankruptcy Court, Data, Hardship, Hope, Pandemic, Small businesses, Survival, Toll, Uncertainty, Vaccines, Virus
