Tech Review (TR 2019-03-09)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) 5 Myths About 5G, 2) Alibaba $BABA in the U.S., 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: US stocks, Eurozone, China, Brexit, Data & Narratives & "News", 4) ICYMI Tech News: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Huawei, JD.com, Facebook, Reddit, One Web, and Acquisitions.
1) 5 Myths About 5G
There are a lot of myths about what
5G, the fifth generation of wireless connectivity, can and can't do. WSJ.com's Spencer Macnaughton debunks five common 5G myths.
2) Alibaba $BABA in the U.S.
Why
Alibaba $BABA hasn't won over U.S. consumers and how it has focused on attracting U.S. businesses: Alibaba is China's largest e-commerce platform. In its latest earnings report, Alibaba disclosed having 636 million annual active consumers on its China retail marketplaces. That's almost double the entire population of the United States.
Alibaba's reach today expands far beyond e-commerce. Its realm now covers cloud computing (Alibaba Cloud), digital media and entertainment, (Youku, Alibaba Pictures, Damai, Alibaba Music, Alisports.com) and logistics services (Cainiao). Alibaba is also part owner of financial services company Ant Financial. Despite its enormous Chinese following, Alibaba is still not a well known brand to many Americans. CNBC.com video above published Mar 5, 2019.
3) Investing
The Week: NASDAQ Composite -2.4% |
S&P 500 Index -2.2% |
DJIA -2.2%
Stocks record five-day losing streak as global growth concerns rise--marketwatch.com
Investor Notes:
US stocks have what it takes to hit new peaks, says JPMorgan strategist--
“Our key theme remains that the current market backdrop has similarities to ’15-’16 mid cycle correction episode, and not to the end of the cycle”--Mislav Matejka, head of global equity strategy at JPMorgan Chase & Co., in a Monday report (4 Mar 2019)--
marketwatch.com.
Eurozone: Germany's top central banker warns against bringing back stimulus in Europe--
cnbc.com. See also:
"This Is Bad" - European Banks Tumble As ECB Unveils Massive Easing: Here's Why It's Not Working--
zerohedge.com.
“New Economic or Financial Crisis” could start in
Italy: French government frets--
French banks are heavily exposed to Italy--
wolfstreet.com.
Euro: “The problems with the euro are problems with governance. It has been deeply flawed from the outset. It doesn’t look like a very safe haven to go to from the U.S. dollar.”--Catherine Schenk, an economic historian at the University of Oxford--
NYTimes.com.
Four Manufacturing Giants,
China, U.S., Japan, and
Germany, account for 58% of global manufacturing value added, but three of the four,
Germany, Japan, and
China are getting hit.--
wolfstreet.com.
China: an auto industry running at 50% capacity, car sales hugely negative Y/Y
"and China is about to halt state subsidies for Electric Vehicle production: why wouldn’t Beijing encourage foreign capital when they are bleeding like that? It also doesn’t sit well with China shooting down a mild WTO report stressing China needs to reform its SOEs"--
zerohedge.com. See also
Trade Isn't China's Only Worry.
Exports from China in February were horrible, falling 20.7% year-over-year, compared to an expected 5% decline, but it’s
not just exports, as February auto sales also fell by 18.5% from a year ago to 1.19 million units, the eighth consecutive drop.
Don't blame Trump--"the United States imported a record number of products, including from China, widening the deficit to $891.3 billion"--
NYTimes.com citing figures for 2018, adding
December "was the highest monthly trade deficit since 2008, when the American economy was mired in recession."
Brexit: Bentley (video),
is prepared for a
hard Brexit. Brexiteers urge May to pursue a
no-deal Brexit, arguing that even if Parliament voted for an
extension to negotiations, it wouldn’t be binding on the government--
bloomberg.com. Carmaker
Rolls-Royce says a short Brexit delay would make things worse--
reuters.com. Any
Brexit extension could be challenged in EU courts--
reuters.com.
Data & Narrative: don’t frame the data to the narrative.
"The data-mining trap is easy to fall into"--10 Rules for Forecasting: | cfainstitute.org.
News Narratives, Mainstream Media Bias & Credibility: Americans'
trust in
mainstream media hits
rock bottom--
Gone are the days when US consumers looked to the nightly [TV] news and print media [newspapers, magazines] as trusted sources of information according to the Columbia Journalism Review--see here and here. Editor's note: so what is their function in society today? To serve as
echo chambers reflecting the respective
biases of each media "news" organization and their respective "target audiences."
Beware the "
news narratives" of your favorite "news sources."
The "narrative" or even "consensus narrative," is often misinformed, incomplete, or outright wrong. Aware of this, bold
investors and
speculators have made
$Billions on
Wall Street.
4) ICYMI Tech News:
Apple's China Woes: $AAPL core strategy is to provide high-quality products at a premium price, which has helped the company sell billions of dollars worth of iPhones since its introduction more than 10 years ago. However, the Chinese smartphone market does
not have the Apple fanaticism that is so popular in the US and brand value is less likely to be a major decision driver."--
--seekingalpha.com
At
Google,
men are
more frequently
underpaid for doing the
same job as a female engineer--
zerohedge.com.
Microsoft Built a Bot to Match Patients to Clinical Trials--
bloomberg.com. See also Microsoft says it will first offer
quantum computing via
Azure, debuts the
Microsoft Quantum Network, a network of partners collaborating on quantum innovations--
microsoft.com.
Huawei to be arraigned in U.S. fraud case in New York on March 14--
reuters.com.
Chinese e-commerce company
JD.com launches store on
Google shopping site--
reuters.com.
Facebook $FB Backfire: Facebook’s global lobbying against data privacy laws revealed, including against the EU's
GDPR--
theguardian.com.
Reddit announced a $300 million funding round last week, giving it a
$3 billion valuation. With 330 million monthly active users and
reportedly revenue of about $100 million,
Reddit.com is generating an estimated $0.30 per user (ARPU), much less than Twitter: ~$9.48, Facebook: $7.37, Pinterest: ~$2.80, and Snap: $2.09.
Editor's note: think monetization.
OneWeb's first six satellites have launched, part of a planned constellation of 650 to provide global internet access, after four years and $2B+ in funding--
techcrunch.com.
Acquisition? “
Don’t do it ... If you look at the collective evidence across acquisitions, this is the
most value destructive action a company can take”--
Aswath Damodaran.
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
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