2019-05-18

Tech Review | What the Uber IPO Says About Investors State of Mind

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2019-05-18)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Feature • 1) What the Uber IPO Says About Investors State of Mind, 2) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: Macroview | EU Elections, 3) ICYMI Tech News:  Apple & Antitrust, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, China, and more.

1) What the Uber IPO Says About Investors State of Mind 

Financial Times (ft.com) U.S. managing editor Peter Spiegel and markets reporter Nicole Bullock discuss why Uber's stock traded below the $45 IPO price at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, May 10, 2019. Video above published May 11, 2019.

Stock Exchange & Symbol: NYSE: UBER:
$UBER
See also:
  • Uber’s Future Looks Troubling: "Uber’s current $70 billion valuation seems difficult to justify. To reach profitability, both Uber and Lyft probably will be forced either to raise prices or to increase the cut they take from their drivers ... its core riding hailing business is faltering. Having faced a number of setbacks, Uber also is lagging in the longer term race to develop autonomous technology ..."
  • Uber’s "adjusted net revenue has started to decline.This points to a fundamental challenge with Uber’s business model that it has not yet figured out: How to keep prices low enough to attract riders while paying drivers enough to keep them from defecting — and still make a profit. Competition from Lyft, which is willing to suffer similar losses, makes this particularly hard."--cnbc.com.

2) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite -1.3% | S&P 500 Index -0.8% | DJIA -0.7%
U.S. stocks bounced back from deep losses Friday but still closed lower as trade-related jitters overshadowed strong economic data--MarketWatch.com.
U.S. consumer sentiment rose to a 15-year high of 102.4 in May, well above the 97.1 expected by economists polled by MarketWatch.com and April’s reading of 97.2, according to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index.
The Conference Board’s estimate of leading economic indicators for the U.S. (pdf) rose for the third straight month in April to 112.1, up 0.2% from March. The survey of economic conditions is a collection of forward-looking data that attempts to predict future economic growth.
"We think that China represents 15% of global GDP, yet less than 1% of all cross-border currency settlement is in their currency. It's important for us to realize that the joke is on us--if they were to open their capital account and let Chinese invest abroad--their [China's] currency would depreciate 40% in a day. I think we're making the right moves here in taking a little bit of market pain to maintain our national security in the long run. Just so you can hear from me, I don't have a vested interest in China's currency any more. It's such an important moment in time for US national security that most of my interest has been moving toward the political sphere. If you can get over the fact that there's no rule of law there, and they don't respect human rights ... then maybe you should invest money in China."--Kyle Bass
Shocked Traders Respond To Trade War--"The biggest problem is the huge disconnect with what markets have been hoping for and what is transpiring now. Markets had priced the best-case scenario and odds are shifting towards the worst-case scenario."--zerohedge.com May 13, 2019
Long View
Trendline (graphic) ©2018 DomainMondo.com
Investor Notes: Macroview | EU Elections (May 23-26):

Brexit Party Surges: after parting ways with the increasingly irrelevant UK Independence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage co-founded the Brexit Party [domain: thebrexitparty.org], which is now polling above the Labour and Conservative parties put together ahead of the European Parliamentary elections May 23rd:
source: statista.com
France: "The 'yellow vest' demonstrations against Macron are basically the demonstrators who, more or less, voted for Trump here [U.S.]. It’s people coming from small cities, from rural areas, lower-middle-class, saying, 'We have been left behind.' And, on the right, our conservative party is moving in the same direction as the Republicans are here."--Gérard Araud, French Ambassador to the U.S., from 2014 until retiring 19 Apr 2019.
European Elections 2019:
source: europarl.europa.eu
Editor's note: the Brexit Party also has Annunziata Rees-Mogg (twitter: @zatzi). Watch her in this YouTube video. She is the sister of well-known Conservative Party Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg. For the Conservative Party, the problem is Theresa May: "For the Conservatives to go into a General Election without having delivered Brexit and with Theresa May as leader would be electoral suicide."

3) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Apple $AAPL move downward accelerates after losing SCOTUS antitrust case:
$AAPL
Apple and tech-industry allies said before the ruling that a decision allowing the lawsuit could lead to expensive antitrust claims against other companies that run online marketplaces, potentially affecting Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. See also: Apple Releases iOS 12.3 With New TV App and Channels Feature--macrumors.com.

Will Amazon Put UPS Out Of Business?--zerohedge.com. See also Amazon Butts in on Google-Facebook “Duopoly” in the Huge Business of Internet Advertising. Publishers Hung Out to Dy--wolfstreet.com.

Microsoft or Google? $MSFT "has a bigger share in my portfolio ... because of its dividends, growth in cloud, improving margins, visionary leadership, and the improving FCFs"--seekingalpha.com.

Oracle is shutting down its R&D arm in China, laying off 900+ employees--zdnet.com.

Online markets have grown 10X in the last two decades, more $1B-$10B+ software startups will exist, and startups can grow faster than ever--blog.eladgil.com.

Quicktakes:
  • Italy's watchdog investigates Google for alleged antitrust abuse;
  • Amazon backing for UK food app Deliveroo;
  • Samsung Electronics undecided on further investment in its China NAND plant.
  • German finance minister expects OECD deal on digital tax in 2020;
  • Consumer bodies seek to force Alibaba portal to honor EU shoppers' rights;
  • Baidu swings to net loss for first time since listing, shares fall;
  • Nvidia revenue forecast beats as demand for gaming chip rises

Personal Tech: Death by PowerPoint: the slide that killed seven people.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

Domain Mondo archive