Tech Review | China Bridges The Gap To Hong Kong, Greater Bay Area

Tech Review (TR 2018-07-14)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1)  China Bridges The Gap To Hong Kong, Greater Bay Area, 2) The Hottest Tech IPOs in the Pipeline (podcast), 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) China Bridges The Gap To Hong Kong, Greater Bay Area

Hong Kong's financial markets, Shenzhen's technology and Guangdong's manufacturing have the potential to turn the Greater Bay Area of China into an economic powerhouse according to FT.com in the video above published Jul 5, 2018.

Editor's note: Hong Kong is being subsumed into mainland China.

Greater Bay Area of China

Hongkong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) | wikipedia.org CC BY-SA 4.0

2) The Hottest Tech IPOs in the Pipeline


Tech IPOs, especially in the enterprise space, have had strong showings so far this year, paving the way for more to come. TheStreet.com’s Eric Jhonsa, Annie Gaus and Nelson Wang look at some of the most highly-anticipated new issues, from Sonos and Tanium to Uber and Airbnb. Podcast published July 12, 2018.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +1.8% | S&P 500 Index +1.5% | DJIA +2.3% --Editor's note: the NASDAQ closed the week at a new record high, with large-cap tech stocks leading the market rally:

NASDAQ Composite

“In the absence of a recession, which still appears to be more than a year away (if not 2-3 years), the most important thing for investors to focus on is corporate earnings, which are set to increase by approximately 20% over last year”--Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer, Independent Advisor Alliance (independentadvisoralliance.com).

Wall Street's Charging Bull

Investing Notes:

The U.S. is 'winning' the trade war, says Mohamed El-Erian--CNBC.com: Mohamad El-Erian, chief economic advisor at Allianz, says the U.S. "will win the trade war" adding "one of the upside risks, is that you may end up changing, the global landscape in a way that favors the U.S." and:

"When people realize that at the end of the day, the US will prevail, because [China] is a less open economy, because [the US] is a more dynamic economy, that ultimately you may end up in a situation where the US' position in global economic terms is better off."

Safe Haven Asset: “The U.S. dollar is now the most popular safe-haven asset” says Cheuk Wan Fan, head of investment strategy for Asia at HSBC Private Bank. US$-based money market funds  now offer rates of about 2 percent, a level above seven-year Treasuries last September--Bloomberg.com 5 Jul 2018. Axios.com: Since the middle of June, China’s currency (RMB) has fallen more than 3% against the dollar, and the Chinese government has intervened to "limit the fall."

US Stocks: Freight Transportation Services Index is booming — and that’s bullish for US stocks, "signaling that the stock market and the U.S. economy are just fine"--Marketwatch.com. It’s time to go full MAGA in your stock picks, says Deutsche Bank--Marketwatch.com 10 Jul 2018. Five ‘mega trends’ are producing soaring stocks regardless of  'trade tariffs fears': Artificial Intelligence, E-commerce, Mobile Payments, Biotechnology, Gaming. 

Italian Bank Stocks Tumble as Savona warns of Euro break-up--zerohedge.com 10 Jul 2018.

Data & Stats: zombie stores in zombie malls are not being counted as “vacant” retail space because "they’re no longer being marketed as retail space" and presto! the square footage disappears from vacant retail space stats--WolfStreet.com.

Cryptocurrency: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized reports bloomberg.com.

Politics & Finance: Scaramucci Says His Political Foray ‘Cost Me a Lot’--bloomberg.com--now aspires to double the assets at his SkyBridge Capital to $20 billion in the next five years.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Amazon Prime Day 2018 | Amazon.com/PrimeDay starts July 16 at 3pm EDT.
• CO2 Emissions Hit 67-Year Low In Trump's America, As Rest-Of-World Rises--zerohedge.com 10 Jul 2018.
• Google may face a new record penalty this month from EU and have to respond with big Android changes; sources: fine expected to range into billions of dollars--WashingtonPost.com.
• IP Theft: former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang charged by FBI with alleged theft of trade secrets related to Apple's autonomous car efforts--macrumors.com.
• Paypal to spend $3 billion a year on M&A-reuters.com
• Xiaomi closed below the IPO price on the first day of trading in Hong Kong after pricing IPO at the bottom of the range at $2.17/share and raising $4.7B--cnbc.com.  
• Apple Music had ~21.5M US subscribers as of last week while Spotify had ~22.5M; Apple's service growing faster than Spotify's in UK and Canada--ft.com.
• Privacy: Congress asks questions--Android (pdf) and iOS (pdf)--about smartphone software.
• The Future of Retail: 2018 and beyond--ZDnet.com.
• CRM: Add 'Reply' To Your Mass Emails--campaignsandelections.com.
• Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2018: Watch the livestream of  Fortune.com's annual technology conference, July 16 to 18, from Aspen, Colorado--Livestream | fortune.com.
• Personal Tech: The latest Linux Mint desktop is still the best desktop around--ZDnet.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Xiaomi on Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Trading Expected July 9

What is Xiaomi?

CNBC International video above published Jun 28, 2018: Xiaomi became one of the world's largest smartphone makers in just four years. CNBC's Uptin Saiidi explains how the tech titan came to be called "China's phoenix."

We just announced details of our global offering and our proposed listing on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited during the past weekend. The trading is expected to commence on 9 July 2018. Thank you all for your continuous support! https://t.co/54AakTRAgI

— Xiaomi USA (@XiaomiUSA) June 26, 2018

Domain: mi.com

source: Statista.com

source: Statista.com

Tweets by XiaomiUSA

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Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Xiaomi, Four Chinese Tech Giants

The Tech Giants Growing Behind China's Great Firewall:

Courtesy of: VisualCapitalist.com

Chart: China's Amazon Is Not Quite Amazon Yet | Statista.com

Chart: Online games account for lion's share of Tencent's revenue | Statista.com

Chart: How China's Social Media Giant Compares to Facebook | Statista.com

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Tech Review | Big Tech's First Quarter 2018: $AMZN $FB $GOOG $AAPL

Tech Review (TR 2018-05-05)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Big Tech's First Quarter 2018: $AMZN $FB $GOOG $AAPL, 2) Right Time For T-Mobile & Sprint Merger?, 3)Investing: The Week, Investing Notes a. Bitcoin & Stocks, b. EU Stalling, c.Buffett & Munger Saturday, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Big Tech's First Quarter 2018: $AMZN $FB $GOOG $AAPL
Amazon caps a blow-out quarter for Big Tech

Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Apr 26, 2018: Platform power supercharges growth at Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet (Google), as big tech companies double down on investment.

Apple announces $100bn share buyback plan

Financial Times (ft.com) video published May 2, 2018: Apple issued a confident outlook for iPhone sales, in spite of concerns of a slowdown.

See also:

• Apple Earnings Show Growing Immunity to Smartphone Malaise | Bloomberg.com: "CEO cooks up new services, raises prices" as smartphone market slows.
• Apple $AAPL Q2 FY18 Results LIVE Webcast May 1

• Apple Shares Hit Record After Buffett [Berkshire Hathaway] Increases Investment | Bloomberg.com

• Apple iPhone X Becomes World's Best-Selling Smartphone Model in Q1 2018 | strategyanalytics.com: 345M smartphones shipped in Q1 2018, down 2.4% YOY; iPhone X was world's best-selling smartphone with 16M units shipped this quarter.

2) Right Time For T-Mobile & Sprint Merger?

CNBC.com video above published Apr 30, 2018: Adonis Hoffman, former FCC chief of staff, and Nick Economides, NYU Stern School of Business professor, discuss the likelihood the $26-billion deal between T-Mobile and Sprint will go through.

T-Mobile (t-mobile.com) (NASDAQ: TMUS) and Sprint (sprint.com) (NYSE: S) have agreed to merge (subject to regulatory approval), valuing Sprint at ~$26B; merged firm will keep T-Mobile name and Legere as CEO--Bloomberg.com. Ownership: Deutsche Telekom 42%, SoftBank 27%. Deutsche Telekom will control the Board of Directors, nominating nine of the 14 directors. An all-stock transaction, fixed exchange ratio of 0.10256 T-Mobile shares for each Sprint share (or 9.75 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile US share). [Editor's note: T-Mobile gets Sprint's customer base and network assets including spectrum, Sprint is the "loser" here--I expect $TMUS CEO John Legere to absorb Sprint into the successful T-Mobile juggernaut that the 'Legere Team' has been building. Yes, the merger will go through.] See also T-Mobile adds to record M&A spree | Reuters.com.

3) Investing 

The Week: NASDAQ Composite | S&P 500 Index | DJIA--For the week, the Dow was down 0.2%, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and the NASDAQ was UP by 1.2%--Stocks end sharply higher as Dow notches best day in three weeks | MarketWatch.com 4 May 2018.

Investing Notes
a. Bitcoin and Stocks:

We recently refreshed the math on price return correlations between the S&P 500 and #bitcoin. There’s a lot of chatter about the idea that $BTC is some kind of “Tell” about the direction of US #stocks. It isn’t. Not even close...

— DataTrek Research (@DataTrekMB) April 29, 2018

b. EU Stalling: Are European Companies Ready for Life Without Draghi? | WolfStreet.com: "Not going to be easy, especially for “zombie” companies."  See also BillBlain.wixsite.com: "... what about Europe, where the numbers seem to suggest the European Economic Miracle has stalled. Oops. I read the spread between US and German bonds has never been so wide. QE into infinity? Rates to remain low for ever? ... I harbour deep doubts Europe will ever really grow – its tired, exhausted, riven by rising bureaucracy and handicapped by ECB austerity that simply keeps the south from ever recovering."

c. LIVE Saturday, May 5, 2018, starting at 9:45 am EDT on Yahoo Finance

Berkshire Hathaway 2018 Annual Shareholders Meeting LIVEstream | yahoo.com: Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and his right-hand man Charlie Munger share their unscripted views on the company, the markets, the economy, corporate governance, and a lot more. More info here (pdf), and visitors guide (pdf), and at berkshirehathaway.com.

Annual Meeting (times are CDT): a) Company Movie 8:30 am; b) Q&A  9:15am – 3:30 pm; c) Business Meeting  3:45 – 4:30pm (approximation).

See also:

• Here’s how Warren Buffett’s stock picks for Berkshire Hathaway have performed in 2018 | MarketWatch.com
• Apple hits record high after Buffett's Berkshire increases stake--Reuters.com
• The Warren Buffett Empire in One Giant Chart | visualcapitalist.com

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• GDPR: Publishers rebuke Google's interpretation of EU privacy law | Reuters.com. 

• Facebook bids to keep data privacy case from EU's top court | Reuters.com but loses.

• AT&T: "AT&T has quickly fallen out of the market’s favor"--SeekingAlpha.com. But see also AT&T: Benefit From The Irrationality | Seeking Alpha: "AT&T is not a growth stock but it is a solid income play and is worth adding to whenever shares dip ..."  
• Google Pay rolling out on the web through desktop browsers and iOS | 9to5Google.com

• Uber & Lyft Crush Rental Cars and Taxis in U.S.--WolfStreet.com.

• The Pentagon Could Get Self-Driving Vehicles First | Bloomberg.com

• NordVPN.com advanced VPN | YouTube.com

• Qualcomm | SeekingAlpha.com: Qualcomm extended the acquisition agreement with NXP to July 25, 2018, and is working for pending Chinese competition authority approval.
• China asks U.S. to amend ZTE business ban - sources | Reuters.com

• Xiaomi IPO: Xiaomi applies to raise funds in Hong Kong, giving city the pole position in 2018 global IPO race | South China Morning Post | scmp.com: Xiaomi files for an IPO in Hong Kong; reportedly the Beijing-based company seeks to raise $10B at a valuation of $100B. See also How Xiaomi staged a comeback that has led to an IPO at a $100B valuation by investing in retail stores, focusing on India, and diversifying its product range--Bloomberg.com.
• New York Times Co. Reports Revenue Growth as Digital Subscriptions Rise | NYTimes.com [Editor's note: here's the problem--as legacy publishers impose subcription-required paywalls, digital subscribers will rise at first (25.5% YoY to 2.8M), BUT total revenue went up only 3.8% YoY to $414M, AND digital ad revenue fell 6% while print ad revenue fell 2%. Long term problem: ad revenue will continue to fall as non-subscribers abandon the New York Times as a "news source," and digital subscriber revenue increases won't offset those losses. As an example, I have already "blocked" the Washington Post in my news.google.com settings. I encountered too many paywalled WaPo stories (and I was also tired of the Post's TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) bias which infects almost all of WaPo's "news" coverage). I much prefer mobile.reuters.com and the twitter.com platform as my 24x7 news sources. Which is also why Twitter would be a lot more successful if it embraced the mobile web and stopped requiring people to "install the app" and "sign in"--the Twitter platform and business model need to become more like YouTube ("mobile web friendly") and less like Facebook ("app trapped").

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Tech Review | Big Tech Five Too Big, Too Dominant? (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-03-10)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Big Tech Five Too Big, Too Dominant? 2) Are Google and Apple Good Value Stocks? 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Big Tech Five Too Big, Too Dominant?
Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft

Alphabet $GOOGL, Amazon $AMZN, Apple $AAPL, Facebook $FB, Microsoft $MSFT--the five most valuable companies in the U.S. They've been called the Big Five or the Frightful Five and a few other names. Bloomberg QuickTake looks at how these tech companies have developed their huge market shares. Is it time to break them up? Bloomberg.com video by Henry Baker and Madeline Quinn published Feb 28, 2018.

2) Are Google $GOOGL and Apple $AAPL Good Value Stocks? Yes, says Joel Greenblatt

Gotham Asset Management (gothamfunds.com) managing principal Joel Greenblatt characterizes the backdrop for investing at the stock market’s current levels. Fox Business video above published Mar 2, 2018.

3) Investing

The Week: S&P 500 broke above its 50-day moving average in intraday trading on Friday.

Nonfarm payrolls increase by 313,000 in February vs. 200,000 est. | cnbc.com: "... unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent, the lowest since December 2000 ... average hourly earnings up 2.6 percent on an annualized basis ... Stock market futures surged following the Bureau of Labor Statistics report."

Wall Street's Charging Bull: The current bull market marked its ninth birthday on Friday

Investing Notes:

• Brexit: A year to go before Brexit, U.S. investment banks still bet on London | Reuters.com. See also UK Prime Minister Theresa May wants financial services to be included in a free trade deal--Reuters.com.

• Trade: Elon Musk tweets at Trump to push China on car tariffs | TheVerge.com: The Tesla CEO says high tariffs on U.S. cars exported to China, as well as manufacturing rules there, have made things ‘very difficult’ for the company.

• Eurozone inflation falls again despite decade-high growth | washingtonpost.com: the rate of unemployment across the eurozone stands at 8.8 percent, around double the rate in the U.S. See also Don’t put the blame on me: How different countries blamed different actors for the Eurozone crisis | lse.ac.uk.

• Europe's "Zombies" Brace For Mass Extinction In 2019 | ZeroHedge.com: "... completing the "zombie trifecta" ... quasi-insolvent companies one year ahead, in a world in which the ECB's bond buying is a thing of the past: Although some months away, 2019 will be the first time in four years that European markets will have to manage without the helping hand of ECB asset buying." See also ECB To Phase Out QE With €10Bn In Monthly Purchases By End Of 2018: Report | ZeroHedge.com.

• Lame Duck: Weakened Merkel has her work cut out to make [German political] coalition last | Reuters.com

• EU / Greece: How Europe’s Band-Aid Ensures Greece’s Bondage by Yanis Varoufakis | project-syndicate.org Feb 26, 2018: "All the happy talk about impending “debt relief” and a “clean exit” from Greece’s third “bailout” obscures an uglier truth: the country’s debt bondage is being extended to 2060. Worse, by ossifying Greece’s insolvency, while pretending to have overcome it, Europe’s establishment is demonstrating its refusal to fix the eurozone’s flaws." See also Reform key to smooth Greek market return says Europe's rescue fund | Reuters.com

• European Court of Justice Deals Heavy Blow to “Corporate Sovereignty Clause” | WolfStreet.com: "In recent years, ISDS [Investor-State Dispute Settlement] has become such a toxic concept that even Beltway institutions such as the Cato Institute have called for its purging from future trade agreements — an idea that appears to be supported by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer​ and could even be applied to a newly negotiated NAFTA agreement."

• Initial Coin Offerings Likely Need to Follow Bank Secrecy Rules | Bloomberg.com: "some ICOs have already registered with FinCEN in anticipation of the requirement, many haven’t. Violating the requirement could be a felony, punishable with up to five years of jail time."
• Nearly Half Of All ICOs Last Year Have Already Failed... And That's A Good Thing | ZeroHedge.com.

• Corporate Bond Market Gets Ready for Big Reset | WolfStreet.com: "The Fed will succeed in tightening financial conditions. It always does. And when this starts to click, the adjustment will be sharp and possibly harsh for those companies that have relied on cheap and easy money to fund their operations. But for now, investors are still blithely oblivious to the coming reckoning in the corporate bond market."  See last week's noted Buffett says 'terrible mistake' for long-term investors to be in bonds | Reuters.com.

• Investors flee Fidelity | thomsonreuters.com

• 18 Cognitive Bias Examples Show Why Mental Mistakes Get Made | visualcapitalist.com

• Common Trading Mistakes Investors Must Avoid | ZeroHedge.com

• Who Is Nassim Taleb? Antifragile Thinking for a Fat-Tailed World | fs.blog: "My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves and the quality of their knowledge too seriously."

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Silicon Valley Is Over, Says Silicon Valley | NYTimes.com: VCs who travel outside the Bay Area, including to Midwest, see downsides of Silicon Valley, even San Francisco has high levels of outward migration.
• Broadcom redomiciling into the U.S. from Singapore could be complete in mid-May which could ease concerns at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which has the power to stop the Qualcomm deal for national security reasons.

• GE hopes giant grid batteries can save the planet (and its fortunes) | MIT TechnologyReview.com: Competitors include Tesla and Siemens.
• Why Tencent likes the music streaming business--SeekingAlpha.com
• An executive’s guide to AI | McKinsey.com
• Google Fiber deployment slowed by high costs, politically-powerful incumbent ISPs, and the potential of next-gen wireless broadband--motherboard.vice.com.

• Sequoia Capital Goes on Fundraising Spree | WSJ.com: "More than $12 billion in capital is sought across seven new funds."
• News Corp. CEO Slams Facebook, Google for Not Sharing Enough Ad Revenue | Bloomberg.com: "‘Too many publishers have been patsies,’ Robert Thomson says. BuzzFeed CEO agrees that Facebook should share more ad revenue."
• The Oligopolization of Food Supply Hits a Snag | WolfStreet.com
• Amazon built the world’s most efficient warehouses by embracing chaos--qz.com.
• Xiaomi set to enter U.S. smartphone market as early as 2018--WSJ.com
• South Florida technology startup and 'unicorn,' Magic Leap, filed suit in Texas against its global security chief, a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, alleging he tried to extort millions of dollars from the company by threatening to falsely accuse it of stealing trade secrets from Microsoft Corp--bizjournals.com.

From the Reuters.com feed:

• France may probe Google and Facebook over online ad dominance

• Hold the iPhone! Amazon primed to be larger than Apple

• Caterpillar drives sales on China's new Silk Road

• China plans new share issue option to bring tech giants home

• Indefinite rule for China's Xi snuffs out rights activists' reform hopes

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Tech Review | Robot Revolution: A New Age of Manufacturing (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-02-03)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Robot Revolution: A New Age of Manufacturing, 2) China: Financial Risks, 3) Investing: The Week: SELL-OFF, Investing Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Robot Revolution: A New Age of Manufacturing (video)

Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) video above published Feb 1, 2018: Hundreds of millions of jobs affected. Trillions of dollars of wealth created. These are the potential impacts of a coming wave of automation. In this episode of WSJ's Moving Upstream, we see the next generation of industrial robots, what they're capable of, and whether they’re friend or foe to low-skilled workers.

2) China: Financial risks facing China worse than in US before global crash, former finance minister says | South China Morning Post | scmp.com 30 January, 2018.

• HNA to Face $2.4 Billion Liquidity Crunch This Quarter | Bloomberg.com: January 30, 2018 

• Chinese Stocks Tumble As Hong Kong Officials Monitor Surge In ATM Withdrawals | ZeroHedge.com Feb 1, 2018: "... when will China devalue again? it's already got the capital outflows anticipating it ..."
• Chinese Liquidity Crunch Begins As Stocks Sink: Bankers Begging Friends For Deposits On WeChat | ZeroHedge.com

• China’s HNA tries to navigate turbulent times | ft.com: Once the darling of Beijing’s overseas corporate expansion plan the group has fallen out of favour and faces a cash crunch.

• Cracks Are Showing in China's Shadow Banking Industry | Bloomberg.com: "Recent payment delays shake confidence of Chinese depositors"

3) Investing

The Week: SELL-OFF--

Why? Veteran Trader Art Cashin On Why Stocks Are Plunging | CNBC - YouTube.com: inflation fears, drama in D.C. [Editor's note: I'd add concerns over China (see above), and Fed Policy--interest rates and shrinking the Fed balance sheet--Fed’s QE Unwind Accelerates Sharply | WolfStreet.com.]

Investing Notes:

• ZeroHedge.com: "The Atlanta Fed's latest GDPNow forecast for Q1 economic growth has started at an impressive 4.2%..."
• Things are going GREAT in the eurozone, so why isn’t the ECB raising rates? | MarketWatch.com: "with rates this low [negative], the bank [ECB] essentially has exhausted its emergency tool kit in case of another, unexpected crisis."
• On the other hand, maybe things aren't so great in the eurozone: Bridgewater Triples Bets [short positions] Against Italian Firms to $3 Billion | Bloomberg.com ahead of elections in Italy on March 4, 2018. See also: Deutsche Bank posts third consecutive annual loss in 2017--reuters.com.

• Massive Cryptocurrency Heist Spurs Call for More Regulation | Bloomberg.com: nearly $500 million theft of digital tokens from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc.
• Singapore Overtakes China as Largest Asian Investor in U.S. Property | Bloomberg.com: due to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund’s purchases, including its $988 million investment in 60 Wall St., New York.
• Why Warren Buffett Is Spot-On With His Vanguard Fund Advice | InvestorPlace.com

• Wall Street Can't Hold Back Vanguard's Low-Fee Ocean | Bloomberg.com: replicating investment styles used by Wall Street stock pickers "at a fraction of the cost"--"Wall Street will have to lower fees."
• This Week's Question: When does GE get kicked out of the Dow?

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Chasing Amazon, Google to Create a Cloud App Marketplace | Bloomberg.com

• Chasing Apple, Google completes its $1.1B deal to buy a chunk of HTC’s smartphone division | TechCrunch.com.

• Chasing Uber, Google confirms investment in Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek.

• Google Parent Alphabet and Aramco in Talks to Build Tech Hub in Saudi Arabia | WSJ.com: "Saudi giant has sought to wean itself off oil; a deal with the California tech behemoth would help."

• Facebook lost daily users for the first time ever in the U.S. and Canada | Recode.net

• Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase tackle health care costs--Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman--“The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy. Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable.”
• Apple Slashes iPhone X Production In Half After Disappointing Holiday Sales | ZeroHedge.com
• China smartphone growth ends--BBC.com, and Verizon Drops Plan to Sell Phones From China's Huawei,| Bloomberg.com: "Carriers pressured by U.S. government to avoid handset maker."
• Jackpotting: Hackers make ATMs spit out lots of cash--stltoday.com. 
• NYTimes.com: Devumi.com uses 3.5M+ automated Twitter accounts to sell followers and retweets to 200K+ customers. 
• Tech Companies Are Under Pressure Everywhere Except Where It Matters | theintercept.com: everywhere but the FTC. 

From the Reuters.com feed:

• Google, Tencent, Sequoia China join $15 million funding for pharma startup XtalPi which uses AI, cloud computing and quantum physics to improve drug design processes.

• Facebook makes privacy push ahead of strict EU law (GDPR)

• China's Xiaomi back to top five vendor as global smartphone market shrinks--the BIG 5: Samsung, Apple, Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi.

• Alibaba, Foxconn lead $350 million funding in Chinese electric car startup Xiaopeng Motors

• Alibaba-backed online lender MYbank owes cost-savings to home-made tech

• Japan's Fujifilm to take over Xerox in $6.1 billion deal, create joint venture

• Google's G Suite is no Microsoft killer, but still winning converts

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Tech Review | Cryptocurrency & Government Regulation (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-01-20)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Cryptocurrency & Government Regulation, 2) Tax Reform & Apple Investment in U.S., 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Cryptocurrency & Government Regulation

Capricorn Sees Cryptocurrency Declines Amid Regulatory Scramble: Emad Mostaque, co-chief investment officer at Capricorn Fund Managers (domain: capricornfundmanagers.com) discusses the value of cryptocurrencies and governments' attempts to regulate them. He speaks to Bloomberg's Anna Edwards on "Bloomberg Markets." Bloomberg.com video above published Jan 17, 2018.

See also: SEC says bitcoin funds raise 'investor protection issues' | Reuters.com

2) Tax Reform & Apple Investment in U.S.--Apple pledges to invest $30 billion and pay $38 billion tax bill:

Financial Times (ft.com) video published Jan 17, 2018: Apple has pledged to invest more than $30bn to expand its American operations in the wake of last month’s US tax reform bill, even as it makes an estimated $38bn one-off tax payment on the repatriation of its overseas profits.

Apple accelerates US investment and job creation | Apple.com: 

source: Apple.com

Apple plans a $350B “direct contribution” to US economy over next five years through repatriating overseas profits, new infrastructure projects, 20,000 new jobs--Apple to create 20K new jobs, citing Trump’s tax reform | YouTube.com (video).

3) Investing

The Week: S&P 500, Nasdaq end at records despite US shutdown risk | ChannelNewsAsia.com

• The Dow's 31% gain during Trump's first year is the best since FDR | cnbc.com: "The 30-stock index has surged more than 31 percent since Trump's inauguration. That marks the index's best performance during the first year of a president since Franklin Roosevelt. "You've got lower taxes, less regulation and confidence in the economy is high," said one investor. The S&P 500 has [also] surged 23 percent during Trump's first year in office."
• Fed Beige Book Report Shows Growth in Almost All Districts | YouTube.com.

Investing Notes:

• Euro & Eurozone : Euro Frustrates ECB Policy Makers Amid Stimulus Debate | YouTube.com. “If there were to be an economic shock this year, many of our countries and the monetary union as a whole are not prepared”--former Dutch finance minister Dijsselbloem--ft.com. See also: The EU Should Let the City of London Thrive | Bloomberg.com.

• $$ & Commodities: The Fall In USD Is Just The Start Of A Multiyear Downtrend And The Start Of A Multiyear Uptrend In Commodities  | SeekingAlpha.com

• Data: We Used Broadband Data We Shouldn’t Have — Here’s What Went Wrong | FiveThirtyEight.com: "We were reminded of an important lesson: that just because a data set comes from reputable institutions doesn’t necessarily mean it’s reliable."

• Sam Zell Sees "Irrational Exuberance" In US Stocks | ZeroHedge.com: "In summary, now is a good time to hold cash. Wait for equity and real estate prices to plunge, and be ready to try and catch that falling knife."

• Cryptocurrency--Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You’re Not | NYTimes.com: The goal may be decentralization, but the money is extremely concentrated. Coinbase has more than 13 million accounts that own cryptocurrencies. Data suggests that about 94 percent of the Bitcoin wealth is held by men, and some estimate that 95 percent of the wealth is held by 4 percent of the owners. There are only a few winners here, and, unless they lose it all, their impact going forward will be outsize.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)--buzzfeed.com: Facebook Couldn't Handle News. Maybe It Never Wanted To; Facebook's New Mission May Be Impossible--Bloomberg.com.

• Facebook Is Profiting From China, Thanks To Alibaba--SeekingAlpha.com.

• Uber & Softbank: Ex-Uber CEO nets $1.4B as company closes Softbank deal | TheHill.com: SoftBank is now Uber’s largest investor, deal values the ride hailing company at $48 billion.

• IBM Revenue Grows for the First Time Since 2012 | WSJ.com: Q4 revenue of $22.5B (up 3.6% YoY) vs. $22.1B expected; $1.1B loss from one-time $5.5B tax reform charge.

From the Reuters feed:

• Xiaomi taps CLSA, Morgan Stanley, Goldman for IPO sponsor role: sources | Reuters.com

• Ford plans $11 billion investment, 40 electrified vehicles by 2022 | Reuters.com

• Real estate investing startup Cadre partners with Goldman Sachs | Reuters.com

• Standard Chartered creates fintech investment unit | Reuters.com

• EU antitrust regulators clear Qualcomm purchase of NXP | Reuters.com

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Tech Review | The Big Issues Affecting Tech and Global Economy 2018

Tech Review (TR 2017-12-30)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) The Big Issues Affecting Tech and Global Economy 2018: China, U.S., Brexit, EU, and the ECB, 2) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes, 3) ICYMI Tech News.

1) The Big Issues Affecting Tech and Global Economy 2018

a) China: defaults could be a real challenge for Xi Jinping and his one-party system that today claims legitimacy from its record of economic prosperity as a result of its decades-old "China First" policies (pdf):

• China's leaders fret over debts lurking in shadow banking system | reuters.com

• Reuters Investigates: Ghost collateral | reuters.com

• Property binge fuels mortgage fraud frenzy | reuters.com

But don't expect any changes in Chinese censorship and other policies that favor Chinese companies over foreign competition, require foreign companies to have local Chinese "partners" and mandate the disclosure of proprietary intellectual property so it can be co-opted by the government and Chinese competitors. China, thus far, has made a mockery (pdf) of WTO rules and fair free trade, and the EU and prior U.S. administrations did almost nothing about it. At least the Trump administration has brought it forward as an issue that must be dealt with.

b) U.S. 'inside the beltway' navel-gazing: Are you distracted or consumed by the endless, mostly useless Mueller investigation, the politicization, conflicts of interest, and corruption within the FBI, DOJ, the U.S. intelligence community, and bureaucratic Washington (including "holdovers" from the Obama administration), aided and abetted by a continual stream of misinformation and #FakeNews from mainstream media? (Whatever happened to checking your "facts" and "sources" or maybe there are no competent journalists and editors left anymore in U.S. media.)

What I can tell you is that outside the media circus centered in Washington D.C., and its echo chambers in  New York and Hollywood, no one is waiting "with bated breath" for Hillary to become President in 2020, or Chuck Schumer to become Senate Majority Leader, and most voters in Alabama voted against (50.1%) or reluctantly for Doug Jones. For the long view, the Brits and Michael Moore have probably got it right--Trump is headed for re-election in 2020.

In the meantime, Trump will continue to be the star, director, and producer of his own ultimate reality TV show "President of the United States of America" via multiple channels including Twitter, while the U.S. government's heavy machinery is ably run by Trump's Team: Pence (VP and all-around pinch hitter), Kelly (White House), Mnuchin (Treasury), Powell (Federal Reserve), Cohn (economic policy), Tillerson (State Department), Mattis (Defense), McMaster (national security), Ross (Commerce),  Lighthizer (Trade), etc... I think you get the drift. If not, read and watch this tweet from Thursday (Dec 28):

I've been saying it for a long, long time. #NoKo pic.twitter.com/LQl7tGhMdO

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2017

My recommendation: ignore the noise and misinformation, the tax reform bill and repatriation of billions of dollars now offshore should be a boost for the U.S. economy and tech industry in 2018.

c) Brexit, EU, and the ECB (European Central Bank): It's all a mess, and most of it will still be a mess a year from now--the fundamental flaws in the euro currency (pdf) and ECB policy (interest rates too low for too long), the dysfunctional EU (and I'll just leave it at that for now), and the messy divorce called Brexit (divorces do tend to be messy, and expensive).

Where the media gets it so wrong: the EU, specifically, Germany, has the most to lose, not the UK. Theresa May's objective should be to cut the best deal she can and get out quick, rather than be dragged down by maintaining ties to EU institutions and rules which the UK cannot control. Trump is ready right now to do a free trade deal with the UK, possibly including Canada and Norway, after Trump kills NAFTA outright, or essentially by renegotiating its terms.

Goldman Sachs denies moving operations from London to Dublin | CBSnews.com Dec 27, 2017: "As part of our Brexit planning we are considering options related to elements of fund administration within the EU," she said, emphasizing that changes to headcount would be small. The Financial Times reported earlier on Wednesday that Goldman would move its European asset management business, with about 20 employees, to Dublin.

Whatever the outcome, the hoped for windfall from the City of London financial centre to Frankfurt, Paris, Luxembourg, Dublin, or elsewhere within the EU, will be disappointing, to say the least.

2) Investing

The Week: U.S. Markets ended the week slightly down as investors closed their books for the year, and what a year it was--U.S. stocks mount milestone-shattering run in 2017: S&P 500 index gained 19.4 percent while Dow rose 25.1 percent | richmond.com.

Investing Notes:

• 2017 Reviewed: "... it is important to understand just how dramatically US equity markets have changed this year. Correlations for one key group – Technology – have declined by the same amount as during the bursting of the dot com bubble. Except unlike in 2000, markets have remained in rally mode ... This notable shift augurs well for 2018, as capital markets are finally functioning as they should."--DataTrekResearch.com

• How Does Value Investing Work In 2018? | SeekingAlpha.com

Two Investing Notes To Remember for 2018:

• The Quants Run Wall Street Now | WSJ.com: "For decades, investors imagined a time when data-driven traders would dominate financial markets. That day has arrived."

• Howard Marks: "There are old investors, and there are bold investors, but there are no old bold investors."

3) ICYMI Tech News:

• Valuing Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) | SeekingAlpha.com: Amazon does not defy laws of value investing.
• Tech's leaps, limps and likes: The 7 trends that defined 2017 | ZDNet.com
• India: "Young Indians are hooked to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. But for older Indians, WhatsApp is the ultimate social network."--WhatsApp has become the de facto social network for older users in India, where the app has more than 200M users--buzzfeed.com. But note "a secret unit of Facebook has helped create troll armies for governments around the world including India for digital propaganda to influence elections."--ZeroHedge.com.

From the Reuters.com feed:

• Apple, Epson face French legal complaints over allegedly shortening life of products--reuters.com and Apple faces lawsuits after saying it slows down aging iPhones--reuters.com.
• Apple, suppliers drop on report of weak iPhone X demand--reuters.com.
• Apple apologizes after outcry over slowed iPhones

• SoftBank succeeds in tender offer for Uber shares

• Hong Kong eyes blockbuster China tech IPO queue, led by Xiaomi

• India likens cryptocurrencies to Ponzi scheme, cautions investors

• China's Huawei flags slower smartphone and overall revenue growth

Wishing You a Happy New Year and Prosperous 2018!
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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