Tech Review (TR 2018-12-01)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) China's Tech Megacity,
2)Music Industry Renaissance,
3) Investing: US Stocks Surge, Notes: US, China, UK, EU, Italy, Cryptocurrency, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Amazon AWS, Disney, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Personal Tech.
1) China's Tech Megacity
Shenzhen, China, has been dubbed the Silicon Valley of hardware. If you own a smartphone or computer, odds are parts of it came from here. In 30-years the city has grown from a town into a megacity of over 12 million people. Welcome to Shenzhen, the manifestation of China’s economic miracle. Bloomberg.com video published Nov 21, 2018.
The other side of the China story:
2) Music Industry Renaissance
Today’s renaissance in the music industry, driven in large part by the continued success of paid streaming services, is leading to a surge in transaction activity across sectors, explains Aaron Siegel of Goldman Sachs Investment Banking. “Investors have caught on to the growth and recovery and the value of these businesses,” explains Siegel, who attributes the pickup in transaction activity to four factors, such as paid streaming subscription services, an uptick in smart speaker devices and the opening up of new markets, such as China and India. “China today represents a low single-digit percentage of global music revenues, but represents 20 to 30 percent of global film box office and global video game revenues,” Siegel says. “There is enormous upside for the music industry as China continues to grow.” GoldmanSachs.com video above published Nov 12, 2018. Read more
here.
3) Investing
The Week: NASDAQ Composite +5.6% |
S&P 500 Index +4.9% |
DJIA +5.2%
U.S. stocks surge on Friday amid G-20 talks and cement best week for S&P 500, NASDAQ in about 7 years--marketwatch.com
Wall Street's Charging Bull
Investing Notes:
US & China: all eyes on Buenos Aires as high-stakes summit between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump could have as many as six aides each joining them at the December 1 dinner after the G20 forum--
scmp.com.
Trump is surprisingly popular in China--
reuters.com.
China cross-border e-commerce shrunk by 16.2% in Q3 2018--
chinainternetwatch.com. Also China’s state-owned companies are run for-party, not for-profit--
ft.com.
EU & UK: Remaining in the EU would come at a
big price--
spectator.co.uk. See also
Britain has nothing to fear from no deal by Tony Abbott:
"It’s pretty hard for Britain’s friends, here in Australia, to make sense of the mess that’s being made of Brexit ...." Editor's note: UK Prime Minister Theresa May has warned lawmakers if they reject her "deal" with the EU, the world’s fifth largest economy may have to leave
without an agreement a/k/a "hard Brexit."
The House of Commons vote is scheduled for
December 11.
EU & Italy: European Commission Begins Budget Battle With Italy--
forbes.com. Meanwhile the
eurozone recovery continues to falter--
ft.com.
Eurozone's Days are Numbered--Mike Ingram, chief market strategist at WH Ireland is calling time on the eurozone, saying it is fundamentally “dead” (although it could take decades to disband)--
morningstar.co.uk.
Bitcoin Plunges to $3,738; Whole Crypto Scam Melts Down, Hedge Funds Stuck ... $714 billion gone up in smoke--
WolfStreet.com.
Virtual currencies have been in a steep downtrend since the beginning of 2018, amid increased regulatory scrutiny and thefts at crypto exchanges. Chief economic adviser at Allianz,
Mohamad El-Erian:
cryptocurrencies are
commodities,
not currencies,
“They don’t have the intrinsic attributes of a currency. It is not going to replace money.” Though there are now more than 2,000 different cryptocurrencies in circulation, the total value of all coins has crashed--
reuters.com.
4) ICYMI Tech News:
Amazon AWS introduces its own custom-designed Arm server processor, AWS Graviton Processor, claims 45% lower costs for some workloads--
Geekwire.com. A summary of AWS launches, previews, and pre-announcements from AWS re:Invent 2018--
aws.amazon.com.
Disney $DIS and
Google $GOOG $GOOGL expand strategic relationship: Disney will bring its entire global digital video and display business onto the
Google Ad Manager, which will serve as its core ad technology platform--
blog.google.
Microsoft $MSFT stock market value, a/k/a market capitalization, "catches up" with
Apple $AAPL.
Nvidia $NVDA to provide
AI platform for Chinese EV start-ups--
reuters.com.
GM: The bottom line is Mary Barra is preparing GM for not only Tesla, but BMW and Mercedes and Uber … She’s doubling-down on
electrics and
driverless to win in the future, to EXIST in the future.--
Lefsetz.com.
Personal Tech: Live on campus or in a city where there is plenty of free wi-fi for internet, texting & voice via apps? You may only
need a wireless carrier plan of 30 minutes of talk, 30 texts, or any combination of minutes and texts that add up to 30, for only
$3/month. Additional minutes and texts are only $0.10/each. Pay only for what you use (add 4G LTE data when needed, per day or week)--
prepaid.t-mobile.com.
Editor's note: just remember to turn off your smartphone's cellular network connection when not needed.
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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