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
Fortune (March 23)
“Foreign businesses’ direct investment into China last year increased by the lowest amount since the early 1990s, underscoring Beijing’s challenges to spur its economy. It also has to contend with a steadily accelerating outflow of manufacturing as Apple and other American brands begin to position new capacity in countries from India to Southeast Asia to mitigate risks from US-China tensions.”
Tags: 1990s, Accelerating, Apple, Beijing, Brands, Capacity, Challenges, China, Economy, FDI, India, Investment, Manufacturing, Mitigate, Outflow, Risks, U.S.
Institutional Investor (March 12)
“Sixty-eight percent of U.S. institutional investors do not use ESG in their portfolios.” They’ve been abandoning ESG as it “has become politicized, leading to state legislation banning the practice, lawsuits, and reputation concerns.” Elsewhere, in contrast, ESG investment is “forging ahead”. A recent global survey of 310 institutional investors, showed that “94 percent of European respondents have incorporated ESG into their investment process…. Within Asia, that portion is 86 percent.”
Tags: Banning, ESG, Global, Institutional investors, Investment, Lawsuits, Legislation, Politicized, Portfolios, Reputation, Survey Europe, U.S.
New York Times (February 16)
“BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase and State Street are quitting or scaling back their ties to an influential global investment coalition.” The former reduced its ties with “Climate Action 100+, a global investment coalition that has been pushing companies to decarbonize” while the latter two outright quit the coalition. “All told, the moves amount to a nearly $14 trillion exit from an organization meant to marshal Wall Street’s clout to expand the climate agenda.”
Tags: $14 trillion, BlackRock, Climate Action 100+, Climate agenda, Coalition, Decarbonize, Global, Investment, JPMorgan Chase, Quitting, Scaling back, State Street, Wall Street
Markets Insider (February 8)
“The takeover of passive and algorithmic trading has made value investing significantly harder, with overvalued stocks now more likely to win out.” The shift from actively managed investment has “led to fewer investors trading on the merits of individual stocks, making it harder… to find undervalued companies that will eventually close the gap between them and the rest of the market.”
Tags: Actively managed, Algorithmic trading, Investment, Investors, Market, Overvalued, Passive, Stocks, Takeover, Undervalued, Value investing
