New York Times (July 28)
“Chipmakers are taking a hit” on a number of fronts. “Investors worry that Big Tech’s extravagant artificial intelligence spending isn’t delivering real profits yet.” Moreover, “powerful open-weight models are making A.I. cheaper to run, raising questions about whether companies need to keep buying such expensive tech, including chips.” The chipmakers still have “huge long-term investment build-out commitments from major tech players,” which raises a major question. “Is this just a healthy reset for a hot market, or the start of a bigger slowdown?”
Tags: AI, Big tech, Build-out commitments, Cheaper, Chipmakers, Expensive, Extravagant, Hit, Investment, Investors, Market, Open-weight models, Profits, Reset, Spending, Worry
Wall Street Journal (November 23)
“Fear of bursting investment bubbles. Concern the economy is slowing. Pressure on investors to cash in profits. These forces are colliding in markets, leading to the sharpest intraday swings for stocks in months and leaving investors bracing for more.” Already, the S&P 500 is down 3.5% in November.” Not to be outdone, the “Nasdaq composite has slid more than 6%” during the same period.”
Tags: Bubbles, Bursting, Cash, Colliding, Concern, Economy, Fear, Intraday swings, Investment, Investors, Markets, Nasdaq, November, Pressure, Profits, S&P 500, Stocks
Bloomberg (November 22)
“The American consumer is limping into the holiday season. That was the upshot from a week of big-box retailer earnings that came with signs of caution among shoppers increasingly worried about a softening job market and persistent inflation.” Target and Home Depot are struggling, while “even Walmart Inc., the belle of the retailer ball with huge profits and a rosy forecast, sent an economic warning of sorts” since its growth “came largely from groceries and mid-tier customers looking for bargains — both signs of skittishness among consumers.”
Tags: Bargains, Big-box, Caution, Earnings, Economic warning, Forecast, Holiday season, Job market, Persistent inflation, Profits, Retailer, Shoppers, Skittishness, Struggling, U.S., Upshot, Walmart, Worried
New York Times (July 23)
“G.M. was the second automaker this week to show the toll that the Trump administration’s trade policies are taking on the industry. Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram vehicles, said on Monday that it lost 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in the first half of the year partly because of tariffs and other Republican policies.” Automakers employ roughly “one million manufacturing workers. Eroding profits will make it harder for them to invest in new technologies to withstand growing competition from Chinese automakers that have been expanding abroad.”
Tags: $2.7 billion, Automakers, China, Chrysler, Competition, G.M., Industry, Invest, Jeep, Manufacturing, Profits, Stellantis, Tariffs, Technologies, Trade policies, Trump, Withstand, Workers
The Economist (November 23)
Across Asia a surprising and unwelcome phenomenon is arising: middle-class stagnation. Over the past three years, for example, 6 million Indonesians fell “into the ‘aspiring middle class,’” and are now “a stone’s throw away from poverty.” The nation’s middle-class population share dropped “to 17% from 22% before the pandemic.” This “middle-class malaise” is not restricted to Indonesia and may “shake up everything from profits to politics” throughout Asia.
Tags: 17%, 6 million, Asia, Aspiring, Indonesians, Malaise, Middle class, Pandemic, Politics, Population, Poverty, Profits, Stagnation, Surprising, Unwelcome
Market Watch (July 26)
“The selloff in U.S. semiconductor and megacap stocks has sucked up most of investors’ attention over the past couple of weeks. But they aren’t the only momentum trades that have stopped working. Across financial markets, bets that had reliably minted profits all year have come undone in July.”
Tags: Bets, Financial markets, Investors, July, Megacap, Momentum trades, Profits, Selloff, Semiconductor, Stocks, U.S., Undone
The Week (April 29)
“Sometimes booms go bust. That may be happening with artificial intelligence.” OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and other tech companies “have unveiled gaudy new products with fanfare,” but AI hasn’t revolutionized the way people live, work or communicate. Profits are also “turning out to be elusive.”
Tags: Artificial intelligence, Booms, Bust, Communicate, Fanfare, Gaudy, Google, Live, Microsoft, OpenAI, People, Products, Profits, Revolutionized, Tech companies, Work
Wall Street Journal (April 27)
Exxon and Chevron “are still printing big profits, but their postpandemic run of record earnings is slowing down.” After gyrating with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “oil-and-gas supplies have largely stabilized… and analysts say companies such as Exxon—the western world’s largest oil refiner—will have to prove it can keep costs down and production up if the benefits of external market forces continue to ebb.”
Tags: Analysts, Chevron, Costs, Earnings, Exxon, Gas, Gyrating, Invasion, Oil, Postpandemic, Production, Profits, Record, Refiner, Russia, Stabilized, Supply, Ukraine
Wall Street Journal (October 9)
“Investors worried about the recent pullback in stocks are counting on the coming earnings season to give them something to get excited about. For much of 2023, U.S. stocks roared higher despite lackluster corporate profits. But an accelerating selloff in bonds has pushed longer-term yields near their highest levels in more than a decade, denting enthusiasm for stocks.”
Tags: 2023, Bonds, Earnings season, Investors, Lackluster, Profits, Pullback, Selloff, Stocks, U.S., Worried, Yields
Council on Foreign Relations (August 25)
“American homeowners already coping with extreme weather now face a new risk: disappearing property insurance. Private companies have increasingly reduced coverage, concluding that the risks—and potential losses—threatened by climate change outweigh probable profits. As of now, this primarily affects a handful of coastal U.S. states, including California. In other states, insurers have substantially increased the price of property insurance.”
Tags: California, Climate change, Coastal, Coverage, Extreme weather, Homeowners, Potential losses, Private companies, Profits, Property insurance, Risks, U.S.
