Wall Street Journal (April 28)
“The Magnificent Seven drove the stock market’s bull run. Now, their bruising losses pose a new test for markets.” Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla “helped fuel a gangbusters rally that lifted stocks out of the 2022 bear market and toward dozens of all-time highs,” with their shares reaching “eye-popping levels.” Now, however, “the Magnificent Seven are off to their worst start to a year since the 2022 slide,” with each stock falling over 6.5%, collectively destroying “$2.5 trillion in market value.”
Tags: $2.5 trillion, 2022, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bear market, Bruising, Bull run, Eye-popping, Gangbusters, Losses, Magnificent Seven, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Rally, Stock market, Tesla, Value
Time (February 10)
Losses, estimated at $52 to $57 billion, from the LA fires are accelerating “an uninsurable future.” Many affected homeowners had already been dropped by private insurers because distorted risks from climate change made the policies unviable. Many were essentially “forced to obtain coverage from the state’s insurer of last resort, the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (CA FAIR) Plan,” but that plan’s exposure far outstrips its assets, placing all of the state’s insurance policyholders on the hook for additional levies. This situation is not unique to California and action is required. “What won’t work, experts say, is continuing with the same system and hoping that climate risk just goes away.”
Tags: $57 billion, CA FAIR, California, Climate, Climate change, Coverage, Homeowners, LA fires, Last resort, Levies, Losses, Private insurers, Risks, Uninsurable future
South China Morning Post (January 5)
“More than 30,000 car dealers in mainland China are facing another bleak year in 2025, with many turning from profit-generators into corporate failures in two years under a debilitating price war and an e-commerce onslaught.” Amid the switch to EVs, price wars “resulted in 177.6 billion yuan (US$24.3 billion) of losses between January and November” with the “financial squeeze” blamed for the closure of approximately 4,000 dealerships.
Tags: 2025, Bleak, Cars, China, Closure, Corporate failures, Dealerships, Debilitating, E-commerce, EV, Financial squeeze, Losses, Price war, Profit-generators
New York Times (December 22)
“An annual ritual is underway at the major Wall Street investment houses: predicting exactly where the S&P 500 will finish the next calendar year.” Since 2000, the Wall Street consensus has failed miserably at this fool’s errand, predicting only gains when there were seven years of losses. Their average “variance between actual annual performance and the prediction was huge — an average gap of 14.2 percentage points.”
Tags: 14.2 percentage points, 2000, Consensus, Fool’s errand, Gains, Investment houses, Losses, Performance, Prediction, Ritual, S&P 500, Variance, Wall Street
MSN (December 20)
“The smooth economy that Donald Trump was poised to inherit suddenly looks a bit rockier — with critics saying the president-elect is contributing to the uncertainty.” After 10 days of losses, the DJSI “essentially ended Thursday flat” and the Federal Reserve “has become cautious about further interest rate cuts planned for next year” amid persistent inflation.
Tags: Cautious, DJSI, Economy, Fed, Flat, Interest rate cuts, Losses, Persistent inflation, President-elect, Rockier, Smooth, Trump, Uncertainty
New York Times (June 6)
Office building losses are starting to “pile up, and more pain is expected.” The culprits? Weak demand for office space and interest rates and other costs that are higher than in many years. “The repercussions could extend far beyond the owners of these buildings and their lenders. A sustained drop in the value of commercial real estate could sap property tax revenue” that cities depend on and “hurt restaurants and other businesses that served the companies and workers who occupied those spaces.”
Tags: Cities, Costs, CRE, Culprits, Interest rates, Lenders, Losses, Office building, Office space, Owners, Pain, Pile up, Property tax, Repercussions, Restaurants, Weak demand
Financial Times (February 1)
“Mounting losses from banks in the US, Asia and Europe have rekindled concerns about weakness in the US commercial property market, a sector that has been under pressure from lower occupancy levels and higher interest rates.” This week New York Community Bancorp, Aozora Bank and Deutsche Bank each warned of related risks or recognized losses, which “mark the latest fallout from the… dual problems of fewer people working in offices since the pandemic and more expensive borrowing costs.”
Tags: Aozora Bank, Asia, Banks, Commercial property, Concerns, Deutsche Bank, Europe, Fallout, Interest rates, Losses, Occupancy, Offices, Pandemic, Pressure, Risks, U.S., Weakness
Bloomberg (January 11)
“Years of harrowing losses have left Chinese stocks with a diminished standing in global portfolios.” The trend is “likely to accelerate as some of the world’s biggest funds distance themselves from the risk-ridden market.” Furthermore, what began “as a performance-driven exodus now risks becoming a structural shift due to a toxic combination of doubts over Beijing’s long-term economic agenda, a prolonged property crisis and strategic competition with the US.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Competition, Diminished, Funds, Global portfolios, Harrowing, Losses, Property crisis, Risk, Stocks, Structural, Toxic
Wall Street Journal (August 8)
“July’s gains left hedge funds closing out so-called short positions and cutting risk at the fastest pace in years.” As they race to cover their shorts, they are “providing yet another tailwind for stocks, which have rallied this summer on optimism that a strong economy can withstand higher interest rates.” The rally caught many “short sellers off guard,” and as they “buy the shares back at a high price to limit further losses,” additional demand can drive “prices go even higher.”
Tags: Cutting risk, Gains, Hedge funds, Interest rates, July, Losses, Optimism, Rally, Shares, Short positions, Stocks, Tailwind
Markets Insider (June 27)
“The banking crisis that unfolded earlier this year isn’t over, and banks could be hit with losses akin to what was seen in 2008 if the Federal Reserve doesn’t get inflation under control.” In its annual report, the Bank for International Settlements called attention to the “lasting ramifications of 2023’s bank failures, starting with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in early March.”
Tags: 2008, 2023, Annual report, Banking crisis, BIS, Collapse, Failures, Fed, Inflation, Losses, Ramifications, SVB, Unfolded
