Financial Times (April 19)
“India’s currency has swung from emerging market leader to laggard as the country battles a ferocious wave of coronavirus infections, prompting concerns among global investors that a nascent economic recovery will crumble.” During Q1, the rupee was “the only emerging market currency to gain ground on the dollar.” Since April, it has plummeted 3%, “the worst performance” of its peers.
Tags: Coronavirus, Currency, Dollar, Economic recovery, Emerging market, Ferocious, India, Infections, Investors, Laggard, Leader, Nascent, Rupee, Worst
Wall Street Journal (April 13)
“The great car-chip shortage is bad for the auto industry, but only temporarily. The real losers are consumers who need wheels to get back to work.” Investors remain unfazed. “Investors can afford to remain relaxed about the chip shortage… there is an offset for manufacturers: Those cars they do ship this year could carry unusually high margins.”
Tags: Auto industry, Cars, Chip shortage, Consumers, Investors, Losers, Manufacturers, Relaxed, Work
Financial Times (April 3)
“Trading by amateur US investors has ebbed as popular bets stumble and vaccine programmes prompt consumers to focus on holidays and big purchases rather than have-a-go market speculation.”
Tags: Amateur, Bets, Consumers, Ebbed, Holidays, Investors, Market speculation, Popular, Purchases, Trading, U.S., Vaccine
Financial Times (March 18)
“A long-awaited showdown between Toshiba and its two largest investors has ended in embarrassment for the conglomerate and an unprecedented show of shareholder strength in Japan. The landmark vote in favour of a probe into Toshiba’s conduct follows five years of increasingly confident shareholder activism against the conservative bastion of corporate Japan.”
Tags: Activism, Conduct, Confident, Conglomerate, Conservative, Corporate Japan, Embarrassment, Investors, Japan, Landmark vote, Showdown, Strength, Toshiba, Unprecedented
Financial Times (February 13)
“Investors poured a record $58bn into stock funds this week while slashing their cash holdings, in the latest sign of the fervor sweeping global financial markets…. Historically low interest rates and expectations for a big rebound this year in global economic growth have whet investors’ appetite for riskier assets,” but this is creating unease among some that “asset prices have become overextended.”
Tags: Assets, Cash holdings, Economic growth, Expectations, Fervor, Financial markets, Interest rates, Investors, Rebound, Riskier, Stock funds
The Economist (November 28)
“Investors are turning one eye away from the immediate struggle of coping with the pandemic and looking instead at the longer-term competitive picture. Who has won and who has lost? Like viruses, recessions usually come for the weakest first. Companies with sickly balance-sheets or frail margins quickly succumb. As promising startups become crushed closedowns, it is often the incumbents that have the resources to wait it out.”
Tags: Balance sheets, Companies, Crushed closedowns, Incumbents, Investors, Margins, Pandemic, Promising, Recessions, Resources, Startups, Succumb, Weakest
Wall Street Journal (October 31)
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined Friday, closing out its worst week and month since March in the final lap of the presidential race. Volatility reigned” as “investors have been spooked by a record high in coronavirus infections in the U.S., fresh lockdowns in Europe that threaten economic growth and a mixed bag of earnings report from big technology companies.”
Tags: Big tech, Coronavirus, Declined, Dow Jones, Earnings, Economic growth, Europe, Investors, Lockdowns, March, Presidential race, Spooked, Threaten, U.S., Volatility, Worst
Wall Street Journal (September 24)
“Finance chiefs and investors are trying to figure out how to account for coronavirus-related expenses as the pandemic transforms how companies operate in ways that may become a permanent cost of doing business.” The effects of COVID-19 are now expected to last for months, if not years, but “some companies continue to treat virus-related costs as special, one-time items, which can give the impression that a business’s costs are lower than they actually are,” boosting, for example, adjusted Ebitda. Some professionals believe it is now time for “treating these items as regular costs of doing business as they close the books for the third quarter and not adjust their non-GAAP earnings.”
Tags: Account, Adjusted Ebitda, Coronavirus-related expenses, COVID-19, Finance, Investors, Non-GAAP earnings, One-time items, Pandemic, Permanent cost, Q3
Investment Week (September 14)
The “Next Generation EU” deal provides ESG investors with much to watch. The €550bn “centerpiece of the stimulus” focuses on fighting climate change through “expenditures earmarked for promoting energy efficiency and developing renewable energy resources, emission-free vehicles, and sustainable transport, alongside other measures of environmental protection designed to help meet Europe’s 2050 climate neutrality pledge.”
Tags: 2050, Climate change, Climate neutrality, Efficiency, ESG, EVs, Investors, Next Generation EU, Renewable energy, Stimulus, Transport
Investments & Pensions Europe (August Issue)
“Credit investors would be wise to reflect upon the growing debt burden weighing on the global economy.” Debt has surged since the pandemic and it was already at high levels. “Global debt rose by $10trn (€8.9trn) in 2019 to $255trn. At the end of last year, global debt stood at 322% of global GDP, or 40% higher than before the 2008 financial crisis.”
Tags: 2008, 2019, Burden, Credit, Debt, Financial Crisis, GDP, Global economy, Investors, Pandemic, Reflect, Surged
