3) Investing
The Week: NASDAQ Composite -3% |
S&P 500 Index -3% |
DJIA -3%
Investor Notes:
US: the earnings yield on US stocks as an asset class has further widened its gap to bond yields. If today's low inflation is
not transitory, the
U.S. stock market multiples may be way too low. "What can drive [bond] yields higher? Inflation, which nobody in the investing universe believes is an actual ‘thing’ anymore," Nomura’s Charlie McElligott wrote last week.
China: US-Traded Chinese Stocks & ADRs
Totally Crushed--many by 50% or 60% or more.
See also Which Chinese Banks Will Fail Next?
Eurozone: haggling over who will succeed Mario Draghi begins--the
process to replace ECB president comes under scrutiny as region faces economic and political turmoil.
German Unemployment Explodes Most Since Financial Crisis, Sending
Bund Yields Near Record Lows.
Gundlach: Deutsche Bank "price action looking pretty scary"and
Soc Gen "heading straight south yet again"--
UK: May Ends In June--UK Prime Minister Theresa May has been a
dismal failure--
"She's no Lady Thatcher." Boris Johnson, Conservative Party MP, former UK Secretary of State, and former Mayor of London (2008-2016),
likely to succeed Theresa May as Prime Minister.
The Brexit Party's
rising star is
Annunziata Rees-Mogg,
newly elected MEP:
4) ICYMI Tech News:
Facebook expects to launch
cryptocurrency ‘GlobalCoin’ in Q1 2020, as a stablecoin pegged to a basket of fiat currencies, and is spending significant time with officials from
both the
US Treasury and the
Bank of England. Facebook is also talking with money transfer firms including
Western Union, clearly intending to compete with
Paypal’s Venmo and
Square’s CashApp, and become one of the world’s leading digital wallets.--
Ark-Invest.com.
Quantum computing could help companies address problems as huge as supply chains and climate change.
IBM, Google, Microsoft, and others are
racing to bring the tech from theory to practice.
Nvidia bringing pro-level Quadro RTX GPUs
to laptops--the Quadro RTX 5000 series is now available in mobile form.
See also:
Nvidia unveils its first AI platform for edge devices--
Nvidia EGX, compatible with AWS and Azure IoT offerings; launch partners include Cisco, HPE, and Lenovo.
For
Uber,
autonomous vehicles can't come soon enough--
Uber loses $1 billion in quarter as
costs grow for
drivers, food delivery.
Huawei: court documents, government and industry sources detail decades of Huawei's alleged IP theft, from the science behind 5G to phone accessory designs--
channelnews.com.au. The fallout of the US Commerce Department adding
Huawei to its “Entity List,” could be
profound. President Trump's offhand remarks that Huawei was banned because it is a
security threat yet the ban could be lifted as part of a trade deal,
makes no sense except as a taunting negotiating ploy.
Huawei smartphones rely on ARM-based CPUs and Google’s Android operating system. An export ban on these technologies
effectively freezes Huawei’s product roadmap. Huawei will have to find alternatives to ARM-based mobile chips and a non-Google version of Android, a nearly impossible task. Likewise,
Huawei’s 5G equipment requires components and intellectual property (IP) from US companies such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, and others. Building a full 5G product stack, without access to US tech, is
likely impossible.
Rare Earths: China supplies around 80% of world's rare earths, crucial for electronics, but
not effective for retaliation over the Huawei ban--
despite the name, rare earths just aren't that rare.
Malinvestment: Tech Unicorns Are Just Like China's "Ghost Cities."
Congratulations to companies in
South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and other Southeast Asia countries--
"You did nothing, but you are all winners. Don't forget to send a thank you note to Mr. Trump, for all the new jobs he's about to create in your countries."--
Likely Winners In The U.S.-China Trade War.
Google to invest 600 million euros in
Finland data center.
Note also: concerns rise about Google's ~121K temporary and contract workers globally, compared with
just ~102K full-time staff.
Japan to limit
foreign ownership of firms
in its IT, telecom sectors,
Alibaba plans second listing in Hong Kong
to raise $20 billion. China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC),
delists from the
NYSE.
IKEA to
revamp app--the world’s biggest furniture retailer is shifting its business model away from brick-and-mortar suburban stores towards making shopping easier online.
Disruptive Innovation (smartphones)
: Digital Camera Sales Dropped 84% Since 2010.
Crypto: up to 86% of total reported
cryptocurrency trading volume is likely fake, according to analysis of exchange website visits--
theblockcrypto.com,
Amazon interested in
buying Boost from
T-Mobile, Sprint.
AT&T: CEO Randall Stephenson is "taking on Netflix and Comcast simultaneously. It won't be easy."--a look at AT&T's "grand vision" of transforming into a “modern media” company spanning multiple content networks, distribution channels, and customer data streams--
fortune.com.
Editor's note: my gut feel is that
"it will all end badly." AT&T can't compete with
Netflix, Amazon, Disney, et al. Who are they (
$T management)
kidding?
Apparently, Wall Street is not impressed! The only thing
AT&T has is a
sweet dividend (for now).
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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