Wall Street Journal (June 22)
“Giant companies from McDonald’s Corp. to Intel Corp. are husbanding cash, cutting costs and tapping debt, all moves that bolster their resilience amid persistent uncertainty wrought by the new coronavirus.” Looking ahead, they are also trying to figure out “when it will make sense to economize less and spend more to avoid losing out to rivals once the recovery begins in earnest.”
Tags: Cash, Coronavirus, Costs, Debt, Economize, Intel, McDonald's, Recovery, Resilience, Rivals, Uncertainty
Financial Times (May 9)
“The grim picture of the US labour market in the midst of a lockdown that has choked economic activity will increase concerns that any rebound from the sudden deep recession could take longer than was expected just a few weeks ago.” With unemployment at 14.7%, “its highest level since the second world war,” any chances of a V-shaped recovery now look remote.
Tags: Economic activity, Grim, Lockdown, Rebound, Recession, Recovery, Remote, U.S., Unemployment, V-shaped
USA Today (April 12)
With the postponement of the Masters, Tiger Woods was “rewarded with another seven months to reign as the king of the green jackets.” But recovery time could be an even bigger benefit. “This long, uncertain break as the nation has shut down due to the pandemic has to be helping the oft-injured Tiger gear up for what very well could be the most bizarre golf season we have ever seen.”
Tags: Bizarre, Golf, Green jacket, Injured, Masters, Pandemic, Postponement, Recovery, Tiger, Tiger Woods
Seeking Alpha (April 6)
Recovery is not just a matter of overcoming the virus. In fact, the world faces an overhanging economic challenge. “We’re likely in the later stages of a global debt supercycle. The sheer amount of debt in the world makes temporary income disruptions a lot more financially impactful than they would be in a system with less leverage. As of 2019, global debt surpassed $250 trillion, which is more than 250% of the world’s GDP.”
Tags: Disruptions, Economic challenge, Global debt, Income, Leverage, Recovery, Supercycle, Virus
Reuters (October 18)
“The prospect of Aramco selling a piece of itself has had Wall Street on tenterhooks since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman first flagged it three years ago.” But it looks like the IPO will again be delayed, possibly until next year, to “bolster investor confidence” by reassuring them of the company’s recovery from recent attacks. The sought-after $2 trillion valuation remains in question as “countries have been accelerating efforts to shift away from fossil fuels to curb global warming.”
Tags: Aramco, Confidence, Fossil fuels, Investors, IPO, MBS, Recovery, Valuation, Wall Street
New York Times (November 9)
Brazil “had been on an upward trajectory, that seemed to have shaken off the legacy of instability.” Instead, it “suffered a terrible recession and is experiencing a very slow recovery.” The nation “appears to have been hit by a perfect storm of bad luck and bad policy: The global environment deteriorated sharply…. Domestic private spending also plunged… Policy, instead of fighting the slump, exacerbated it.”
Tags: Bad luck, Bad policy, Brazil, Instability, Perfect storm, Recession, Recovery, Spending
Barrons (December 30)
“Largely absent during the economy’s eight-year recovery from the financial crisis, inflation is on track to pick up in 2018—and it might just catch investors off-guard.” Even a return to modest inflation, e.g. 2.5%, would be a jolt that “could reshuffle the market.”
Time (November 22)
“The defection, subsequent surgeries and slow recovery of the soldier have riveted South Korea, but it will be a huge embarrassment for the North, which claims all defections are the result of rival Seoul kidnapping or enticing North Koreans to defect. Pyongyang has said nothing about the defection so far.”
Tags: Defection, Defections, Embarrassment, Kidnapping, North Korea, Recovery, Soldier, South Korea, Surgeries
Reuters (August 22)
Deflation “has hobbled Japan’s economy for nearly two decades, bedevilling policymakers despite drastic measures aimed at engineering a sustainable recovery.” For the sixth time, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has delayed its 2% inflation target. This time until March 2020. Still, two-thirds of respondents in an August 1-16 Reuters Corporate Survey “saw the inflation goal as unrealistic,” with many of their responses further illustrating the complexities involved in overcoming deflation.
Tags: BOJ, Complexities, Deflation, Delay, Economy, Hobbled, Inflation, Japan, Policymakers, Recovery, Respondents, Survey, Unrealistic
Fund Strategy (June 1)
“European sceptics are being forced to acknowledge the recovery in a region that they have failed to understand politically, as the eurozone enjoys positive PMIs and employment figures while rejecting populist politics…. April saw the fifth largest allocation shift from US to European equities since the start of the eurozone in 1999.”
Tags: Allocation, Employment, Equities, Europe, eurozone, PMIs, Populist, Positive, Recovery, Sceptics, US
