The Guardian (April 19)
“Ocean waves crashing on the world’s shores emit more PFAS into the air than the world’s industrial polluters, new research has found, raising concerns about environmental contamination and human exposure along coastlines.” Because PFAS “are powerful surfactants that concentrate on the surface of water, which helps explain why they move from the ocean to the air and atmosphere.” It’s likely that “the contaminated spray likely affects groundwater, surface water, vegetation, and agricultural products near coastlines that are far from industrial sources of PFAS.”
Tags: Air, Atmosphere, Coastlines, Environmental contamination, Exposure, Groundwater, Human, Industrial polluters, Ocean, PFAS, Research, Shores, Surfactants, Vegetation
Institutional Investor (January 22)
“Bloomberg terminal users got a research boost on Monday just in time for earnings season: summaries and analysis of company performance written by artificial intelligence.” From Monday, all users will be able to access generative AI summaries “designed to help analysts save time absorbing earnings data and transcripts by highlighting key points. They will be available immediately for companies in the Russell 1000 and the top 1000 companies in Europe.”
Tags: AI, Analysts, Bloomberg, Earnings season, Europe, Generative, Key points, Performance, Research, Russell 1000, Summaries, Time, Transcripts
Institutional Investor (October 26)
“Since the inception of Institutional Investor’s Canada Research Team, RBC has captured the No. 1 spot in the ranking of the country’s providers of equity research. Amid a challenging year in the Canadian stock markets, the firm earned 16 total first team positions, while runner-up BMO Capital Markets clocked in with 14. Looking further down the leaderboard, some of the inroads made by bulge-bracket firms in 2021 and 2022 reversed.
Tags: BMO Capital Markets, Bulge-bracket firms, Canada, Challenging, Equity research, Inception, Institutional Investor, No. 1, RBC, Research, Runner-up, Stock markets
Financial Times (February 26)
These are, according to Citigroup analysts, “distinctly echoey times.” Their “research suggests that, if it is not careful, China may be on track for a new wave of Japanification.” China is now remarkably similar to Japan’s post-property bubble era in, for example, demographics. China’s population is “now shrinking as Japan’s did years earlier… a reminder that after 1990, Japan’s housing price index fell as the 35- to 54-year-old cohort decreased.” These and other factors call for warnings about “the potential risks for China’s banking system.”
Tags: 1990, Analysts, China, China’s banking system, Citigroup, Demographics, Echoey, Housing price index, Japanification, Population, Property bubble, Research, Risks, Shrinking, Warnings
The Times (November 19)
“Middle-earning families will be nearly £20,000 worse off over the next six years,” according to “research carried out for The Times,” analyzing the tax impact of Jeremy Hunt’s new budget “on people’s incomes, as wages go up with inflation but tax thresholds remain frozen.”
Tags: £20 thousand, Hunt, Impact, Incomes, Inflation, Middle-earning families, Research, Succession, Taxes, Wages, Worse
Washington Post (October 9)
“Quantum research still has plenty of obstacles to overcome before it reaches widespread use. But banks, health-care companies and others are starting to run experiments on the quantum internet. Some industries are also tinkering with early-stage quantum computers to see whether they might eventually crack problems that current computers can’t, such as discovering new pharmaceuticals to treat intractable disease.”
Tags: Banks, Companies, Computers, Early-stage, Health care, Industries, Internet, Obstacles, Overcome, Quantum, Research, Tinkering
Institutional Investor (August 29)
“Now that investors can get factor-based funds on the cheap, they’re pushing quants in new directions.” This presents new challenges. “One is a move away from a heavy reliance on decades of historical data and back tests to tying this in-depth research to the realities of the current economic and market environment.” Another challenge is “getting the right people” to do this. “Many quant managers historically hired people with expertise in data,” but “now it’s the background in economics and finance that’s become critical.”
Tags: Back tests, Challenges, Cheap, Data, Economic, Economics, Factor-based funds, Finance, Historical data, Investors, Managers, Market, Quants, Realities, Reliance, Research
Institutional Investor (May 25)
“Managers that want to run fixed-income funds with a focus on environmental, social, and governance factors face larger research challenges than those in stocks. But the massive opportunity in bonds may make the uphill battle worth it.” Compared to equities, the “patchwork of standards” increases the “risks of ESG fixed income funds.”
Tags: Bonds, Challenges, Equities, ESG, Fixed income, Funds, Managers, Opportunity, Patchwork, Research, Risks, Standards, Stocks, Uphill
Washington Post (March 9)
“Stock analysts are riding with the bull despite rumblings from the bear.” On Monday, “U.S. stocks slumped the most in 17 months… but the ‘buy the dip’ mentality isn’t dead… and stock analysts are part of the reason it’s likely to stick around awhile. Research on individual stocks is as bullish as it has been in two decades by some measures.”
Irish Times (August 6)
“Ireland could have winters as cold as Toronto in Canada if a potential collapse in the Gulf Stream happens.” Recent research has found “the currents are already at their slowest point in at least 1,600 years” and “may be nearing a shutdown.”