Washington Post (July 4)
“Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index closed Thursday at a fresh record high of 40,913.65, pushing past its most recent record close set in March on heavy buying of automaker and technology shares…. Both foreign and domestic investors have piled into the Japanese market in recent months even as the economy has slowed.” The weak yen is “part of the attraction…. But changes to investment regulations have also lured many Japanese investors into the equity market.”
Tags: Automaker, Domestic, Economy, Foreign, Heavy buying, Investors, Japan, Market, Nikkei 225, Record high, Shares, Technology, Weak yen
Forbes (May 19)
“The Biden administration said this week the U.S will quadruple tariffs on Chinese EVs in a move aimed at protecting American workers and businesses from unfair Chinese trade practices.” Some think this will provide a lifeline, but at least one auto industry executive believes “the increase won’t help the long-term staying power of the industry or its jobs.” Instead, the “capitulation to the status quo” will “condemn” the U.S. auto industry “to a slow but certain death” as the rest of the industry moves “toward technology that doesn’t rely on oil.”
Tags: Auto industry, Biden, Businesses, Capitulation, China, EVs, Lifeline, Protecting, Status quo, Staying power, Tariffs, Technology, Trade practices, U.S., Unfair, Workers
Wall Street Journal (March 19)
“Foreign investors have increasingly shifted their investments to India from China in recent years, partly because of concerns over Beijing’s unpredictable policy moves and China’s sputtering economy.” The shift doesn’t necessarily shield them. “A recent clampdown on one of India’s biggest financial technology companies rattled investors and serves as a reminder that New Delhi can also make sudden moves with a hefty impact on companies and market value.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Clampdown, Concerns, Economy, Financial, Foreign, Impact, India, Investments, Investors, Shift, Shifted, Sputtering, Technology, Unpredictable
Deutsche Welle (February 2)
“EU member states on Friday finally came to agreement and approved new laws governing the safety and use of artificial intelligence, or AI…. The crux of the problem in finding unanimity came down to the balance between giving companies enough maneuvering room to make the development of AI products lucrative within the EU, while at the same time establishing rules for the use of a technology that is already affecting every aspect of society.”
Tags: Agreement, Approved, Artificial intelligence, Companies, EU, Lucrative, Rules, Safety, Society, Technology, Unanimity
Wall Street Journal (January 30)
“Logistics technology companies are cutting costs and slashing staff as a prolonged slump in freight stretches into 2024.” After soaring to “huge valuations during the Covid pandemic when a wave of consumer spending pushed freight volumes and shipping rates to record levels,” high interest rates and weak freight volumes are now “stretching some companies to their limit.”
Tags: Companies, Consumer spending, Costs, Covid, Freight volumes, Logistics, Pandemic, Prolonged, Shipping rates, Slashing, Slump, Staff, Technology, Valuations
MarketWatch (January 24)
“Megacap technology stocks have retaken leadership of the U.S. stock market as the S&P 500 continues to hit new record highs, defying hopes on Wall Street for a more broad-based rally.” Since January 1, “the so-called Magnificent Seven have gained a combined $540.7 billion in market capitalization, compared with a total market-cap gain of $802.5 billion for the S&P 500 SPX through Tuesday’s close.”
Tags: $540.7 billion, Broad-based, Magnificent Seven, Market-cap, Megacap, Rally, Record highs, S&P 500 SPX, Stock market, Stocks, Technology, U.S., Wall Street
Reuters (November 16)
“Restructuring a restructuring isn’t good news. Alibaba scrapped the spinoff of its prized cloud computing business, blaming U.S. curbs on advanced chips,” causing its shares over 10% lower. “The U-turn dashes market expectations of stability among technology companies after the end of Beijing’s years-long regulatory crackdown. The country’s weak economy and bad geopolitics mean the sector hasn’t yet hit a bottom.”
Tags: Alibaba, Beijing, China, Chips, Cloud computing, Economy, Geopolitics, Market expectations, Regulatory crackdown, Restructuring, Shares, Spinoff, Stability, Technology, U.S.
Institutional Investor (October 20)
“Out of 770 institutional investors around the globe that are collectively responsible for $34.7 trillion in assets, 52 percent said in June that as de-globalization accelerates they will try to invest in companies with more localized supply chains, according to an annual study by Schroders.” While “trade and technology continue to cross borders and, generally speaking, the world is still shrinking,” geopolitical tension and war have turned “de-globalization into a megatrend creating winners and losers in business.”
Tags: De-globalization, Geopolitical, Institutional investors, Invest, Localized supply chains, Losers, Megatrend, Responsible, Schroders, Technology, Trade, War, Winners
Institutional Investor (August 29)
“Ever since ChatGPT burst onto the scene last November…so-called “generative AI” has turned the markets on their heads.” Venture capitalists, “coming off the worst year in recent history,” have “redirected their dollars to AI upstarts. Meanwhile, the stock prices of the big tech names suspected to be the major beneficiaries of this often-called ‘revolutionary’ form of artificial intelligence have skyrocketed.” In 2023, “generative AI and machine learning start-ups raised about $39.4 billion.” The massive inflows are creating an ideal environment for fraudsters and critics “are starting to wonder whether the latest technology is really transformational or merely evolutionary.”
Tags: Big tech, ChatGPT, Critics, Evolutionary, Fraudsters, Generative AI, Machine learning, Markets, Revolutionary, Skyrocketed, Start-ups, Stock prices, Technology, Transformational, VC
WARC (July 24)
“Around the world, AI is developing and it is quickly reaching a point where it is speeding up human work to the point of replacing humans. This is a point in time for brands and agencies to really think about the technology and work out what ethical, responsible uses look like.” The rise of virtual influencers in China marks “one of the first instances of true competition between humans and machines for work and will be an important test case for the technology and the labour questions it raises.”
Tags: AI, Brands, China, Competition, Developing, Ethical, Humans, Replacing, Responsible, Technology, Uses, Virtual influencers, Work
