Tech Review: 1) Apple's Core Problems, 2) High Tech Wars of the Future

Tech Review (TR 2018-11-24)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Apple's Core Problems,  2) High Tech Wars of the Future, 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes,  4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Tech Share Rout: Apple's Core Problems

The iPhone maker, Apple (apple.com) $AAPL, has been hit as investors worry over sales and US-China tensions. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Nov 21, 2018.

NASDAQ: AAPL:

2) High Tech Wars of the Future

U.S. scientists prepare for high-tech wars of the future: the U.S. is investing in robotics and artificial intelligence as it races against China to develop the weapons of the future. The FT.com’s US foreign policy and defense correspondent Katrina Manson visits the US Army Research Lab to meet the scientists working on the latest tech developments. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Nov 16, 2018.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite -4.3% | S&P 500 Index -2.8% | DJIA -4.4%

Headwinds   ©2018 DomainMondo.com

Investing Notes:

The forward 12-month P/E ratio for $SPX is 15.6. This P/E ratio is below the 5-year average (16.4) but above the 10-year average (14.5). https://t.co/7jjo6kg2yS pic.twitter.com/Sn372WU04z

— FactSet (@FactSet) November 19, 2018

• Jim Chanos's Kynikos Associates LP buys Vanguard S&P 500, Vanguard Value, iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth--gurufocus.com
• EU troubles: Eurozone, Italy, Immigration, and Brexit--Editor's note: why invest in someone else's mess?
• China: more nations voice concerns over Chinese investment--'here, borrow some money from us'--chinaeconomicreview.com. Editor's note: a/k/a the Chinese "Extortionate Debt Trap."
• Bitcoin hit its lowest level in more than a year on Monday, falling under $5,000, while the entire cryptocurrency market cap lost about $40 Billion in the prior week--cnbc.com. Editor's note: until such time as Bitcoin, or some other crypto, becomes "legal tender" in a respected jurisdiction (sorry Venezuela doesn't qualify), the entire market is pure speculation subject to multiple scams. The U.S. government (CFTC) treats cryptocurrencies as commodities and the IRS taxes them as "property" Have you reported your crypto holdings and transactions, paid applicable property taxes on your holdings, and applicable income taxes? Oh, and by the way, the U.S. government does not accept any crypto as payment for taxes.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

Not All Clouds Are Equal: Key findings of the 2018 ThousandEyes Public Cloud Performance Benchmark Report: "Architectural differences between providers impacts service delivery: AWS (Amazon) sends traffic over the Internet for the majority of the service delivery path, whereas GCP (Google) and Azure (Microsoft) do not, instead using their own backbone networks. Increased exposure to the Internet means there is greater operational risk and impact on performance predictability ..." Learn more: Download the 2018 ThousandEyes Public Cloud Performance Benchmark Report; also Register for the webinar, "Cloud Wars: Performance Benchmarking AWS, GCP and Azure," taking place December 6, 2018 at 10:00 AM PST.

Apple CEO Tim Cook: new regulations on the tech industry ‘inevitable’--"Generally speaking, I am not a big fan of regulation," Cook told Axios on HBO. "I'm a big believer in the free market, but we have to admit when the free market is not working. And it hasn't worked here." See also Washington pummels Facebook: ‘Big tech can no longer be trusted’--recode.net.

US-based Kroger and UK-based Ocado to build first robotic warehouse in Cincinnati in a joint effort to dominate the U.S. grocery delivery business--reuters.com.

US tops world in internet development, with China in second place, said China's Academy of Cyberspace Studies, an institute affiliated with the Cyberspace Administration of China, in its second annual World Internet Development Report. According to the report, the US leads in innovation, industry development and security. Also four U.S. companies, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft and Qualcomm, were the only non-Chinese companies receiving special mentions at China's recent World Internet Conference 2018 in Wuzhen, along with eleven Chinese companies--scmp.com.  

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Tech Review | Reinventing Air Conditioning & Cooling (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-07-07)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Reinventing Air Conditioning & Cooling, 2) Fintech: Finn by Chase, 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: Focus on  China, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Reinventing Air Conditioning & Cooling (video)

Bloomberg.com video above published Jun 26, 2018: The starry night sky seems remarkably distant from the topic of air conditioning, but it’s revolutionizing the field in quite an unexpected way. In this episode of Bloomberg's "The Spark," watch how scientists from across the globe are harnessing natural phenomena to drastically redesign this century-old technology.

2) Fintech: Finn by Chase ℠ - Your New All Mobile Bank ℠

Introducing Finn by Chase℠ -- "a new all mobile bank that helps you stay in control of your money. It gives you all of the classic bank stuff, plus some new features that let you see your spending differently, so you can use your money better." More info: https://www.chase.com/personal/finnbank
(finnbank.com).

With an all mobile-banking service like Finn, it's like having a bank in your pocket, but lighter! Feel free to reach out to let us know what's #Weighing you down! ^OP

— Finn Support (@FinnSupport) June 29, 2018

See also: "JPMorgan Chase takes smartphone account 'Finn' nationwide"--Reuters.com.Jun 28, 2018.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +2.4% | S&P 500 Index +1.5% | DJIA +0.8%

"Strong U.S. jobs growth helps Wall Street overlook trade worries"--Reuters.com 6 Jul 2018.

NASDAQ Composite

• The U.S. labor market continues to power forward, adding another 200,000 jobs in June according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS also revised upwards April’s new jobs from 159,000 to 175,000 and May’s from 223,000 to 244,000, a total of 37,000 more than originally stated.
• A small increase in the unemployment rate to 4%, up from 3.8%, came as a result of a rise in the labor participation rate, which increased 0.2 percentage points to 62.9 percent as 601,000 people came off the sidelines and re-entered the labor force. Average hourly earnings increased 2.7% year over year. 
• According to the U.S. Commerce Department, the May 2018 trade deficit – the difference between what the U.S. exports to, and imports from, foreign markets – fell 6.6 percent to $43.1 billion, the smallest deficit since October 2016. U.S. exports increased 1.9% to a record $215.3 billion. Imports increased only 0.4% to $258.4 billion.

Wall Street's Charging Bull:

Investing Notes: Focus on China

Shanghai Composite

a. Global central banks are not enthusiastic about China's renminbi, and they are not dumping US-dollar-denominated assets from their foreign exchange reserves, nor euro-denominated assets either. US-dollar-denominated assets in foreign exchange reserves were $6.5 trillion, or 62.5% of “allocated” reserves in Q1 2018--WolfStreet.com. [Editor's note: The renminbi is the official currency of the People's Republic of China. The yuan is the basic unit of the renminbi, and also used to refer to the Chinese currency generally--official website: pbc.gov.cn; Symbol: ¥.]

b. China: Jim Chanos & James Grant video | vimeo.com--"China is the most extraordinary living laboratory of credit formation and credit abuse the world has ever seen ... China has been creating credit at twice the growth (or greater) of its economic growth ... Bank credit compared to GDP is far greater than anywhere else in the world, if there are no consequences, the world has truly been remade ... Non-chinese investors have no recourse in the Chinese legal system. Alipay was removed from Alibaba (BABA) without compensation and put into the private holding company of its Chinese owners." 

c. Alibaba $BABA: "Almost all of Alibaba's competitive advantages have some linkage back to the license to operate provided to them by the Chinese (PRC) government"--Not So Hidden Risks With Chinese-Based Companies--SeekingAlpha.com.

d. China now set to become the epicenter of the next Emerging Market turmoil--zerohedge.com.

e. Goldman: "We Met With Chinese Investors And The Tone Remains Very Negative"--zerohedge.com 6 Jul 2018: "Investors continue to have a long list of worries. Similar to the feedback from our recent trip to Beijing, most investors are worried about the trade war, defaults, and credit crunch, with particular concerns about liquidity in the LGFV and property sectors. After the sizeable RMB depreciation in recent days, we noted increased worries about policymakers' stance towards the RMB, and concern that further RMB depreciation would trigger capital outflows. Overall, investor sentiment remains very cautious, and are meaningfully more bearish than offshore investors." (emphasis and links added)

f. Who China Has Trade Disputes With:

source: Statista.com

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Amazon AWS: Google, Microsoft, Oracle et al Gang Up on Amazon for $10Bn Pentagon Prize--WolfStreet.com
• Uber: Con artists are fleecing Uber drivers--cnet.com
• IBM wins AU$1B (US$740 million) contract to be central technology partner to Australia's government for the next five years, including automation and blockchain services--Bloomberg.com.
• Amazon's logistics network expands via small businesses operating 20 to 40 vans each--zdnet.com.
• Reddit — one of the world's most popular websites — is trying to cash in through advertising--CNBC.com.
• Lyft buys Motivate (motivateco.com) the largest provider of bike-sharing services in the United States--NYTimes.com.
• Tech’s ‘Dirty Secret’: The App Developers Sifting Through Your Gmail--wsj.com.
• Kroger, largest supermarket chain in the U.S., is launching a fully driverless delivery service by teaming up with Nuro (nuro.ai) a startup founded by two veterans of Google’s self-driving team--TheVerge.com.
• Cyber Command moves closer to a major new weapon--FifthDomain.com.
• ‘Hot’ money is flowing into Netflix, Facebook and Amazon again--Marketwatch.com.
• Amazon Vs. Alibaba: Which Is Riskier?--SeekingAlpha.com.

Viewsroom: Is Silicon Valley getting nervous yet?

The tech hub is getting squeezed by new policy restrictions amid a looming trade war between the U.S. and China. How is the Valley holding up? Plus: India's state lenders are losing CEOs. Is running these banks into the ground part of the plan? Release date: 3 July 2018.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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