Morning News: June 5, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 5th, 2024 at 7:06 am

Colombian Companies Face Energy Crunch as Gas Reserves Plunge

India’s Dysfunctional Power System Is a Threat to the Next Five Years

Biden Says Trump Left Him ‘No Choice’ as He Moves to Seal Border

Australia’s Economy Barely Registers Pulse in First Quarter

China Caixin PMI Signals Fastest Services Activity Growth in 10 Months

Europe Has Fallen Behind the U.S. and China. Can It Catch Up?

U.S. and Europe Are on the Same Economic Track After All

Europe’s Fed Problem

E.C.B. Is Likely to Leapfrog the Fed on Interest Rate Cuts

Bond Traders Pile Into Fresh Bets on Faster Pace of Fed Cuts

New Texas Stock Exchange Takes Aim at New York’s Dominance

Private Equity’s Latest Move to Gin Up Cash: Borrowing Against Its Stock Holdings

Elliott Pushes SoftBank to Buy Back Shares After Taking Stake

Can Bill Ackman Cash In on His Growing Fame?

Goldman Family Office Clients Eye Exotic Puts as Election Hedge

The New ‘White Fortress’ Cities of the American South

A Year and $2 Trillion Later, Nvidia Stock Remains Irresistible

OpenAI Insiders Warn of a ‘Reckless’ Race for Dominance

SAP to Acquire WalkMe in $1.5 Billion Deal

Amazon Drone Delivery Plans Move a Small Step Forward

China Is No Longer an Open Road for German Carmakers

The Case Against Elon Musk’s $46 Billion Pay Deal

Dollar Tree Considering Sale, Spinoff of Family Dollar Unit

McDonald’s Chicken ‘Big Mac’ Trademark Axed in EU

Judge Cuts Bayer $2.25 Billion Roundup Verdict to $400 Million

Baseball Star Ohtani’s Ex-Interpreter Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

CWS Market Review – June 4, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 4th, 2024 at 5:18 pm

(This is the free version of CWS Market Review. If you like what you see, then please sign up for the premium newsletter for $20 per month or $200 for the whole year. If you sign up today, you can see our two reports, “Your Handy Guide to Stock Orders” and “How Not to Get Screwed on Your Mortgage.”)

Trading Glitch Rocks Wall Street

Yesterday, shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) dropped 99.97%. I realize this news may have given some of you a panic attack, but I’m happy to report that the stock was the victim of a trading glitch.

Fortunately, the glitch was quickly repaired, and the stock is back to its normal range. Yesterday, the NYSE sent out a message declaring “all systems are currently operational.”

Whew! Here’s a High-Low-Close chart you don’t see every day:

That’s good news that everything’s back to normal, but still, how exactly does this happen? In an instant, one of the largest companies on Wall Street was trading at less than one-three-thousandths of its correct price. We’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars vanishing in an instant. It wasn’t just Berkshire either. The trading glitch impacted a few dozen stocks.

The NYSE busted all trades for Berkshire between 9:50 am ET and 9:51 am ET. The exchange confirmed that it wasn’t a cyberattack, but that makes it even more worrisome. At least with a cyberattack, we know there’s an enemy. With this, we don’t know. The NYSE claimed it was a “technical issue” and it caused trading halts in about 40 NYSE-listed stocks.

It didn’t take long for a blame game to get started. The trading glitch was apparently due to a problem with the trading bands, meaning the triggering prices that can instigate a trading halt. The NYSE said they don’t control that but rather, it’s due to Consolidated Tape Association’s (CTA) Security Information Processor (SIP).

The CTA said this happened during a software update. They were able to use a backup system that runs on different software. Trading on the Nasdaq wasn’t impacted.

It gets even stranger because this glitch comes at the same time that Wall Street is moving to one-day settlement, otherwise known as T+1. That these changes happened at the same time appears to be a coincidence, but some traders aren’t buying the NYSE’s story:

Joe Saluzzi, co-founder of Themis Trading, told CNN that the NYSE’s explanation is hard to square with the bizarre trades that hit the tape.

“I’m not buying that explanation. That doesn’t make any sense to me,” said Saluzzi, a market structure expert and author of “Broken Markets.”

Trading data provided by Refinitiv shows that Berkshire Hathaway changed hands at $620,700 as of 9:44:32 on Monday morning. And then, without any explanation, the stock crashed to just $185.10.

“All of a sudden, there was a $185 print. But there was nothing to take it down level by level, which you would expect to see,” said Saluzzi. “It makes no sense.”

What’s especially troubling is that this is the third trading disruption in the past week. On Thursday, there was no live pricing for the S&P 500 for more than an hour.

This isn’t the first time Wall Street has been the victim of computers and big data. In fact, getting fast, accurate pricing has been an important driver in the technology behind markets.

The Rothschilds famously used carrier pigeons to get the news from Europe that Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo. It’s a great story but it’s most likely a myth.

In the 1860s, the first ticker-tape machines came about. In 1869, Thomas Edison developed his own version when he was just 22. (Edison didn’t precisely invent the ticker tape as is sometimes claimed, but he added important improvements.) The inexpensive tape soon became part of American culture when heroes were feted with ticker-tape parades.

At the same time as the first ticker-tape machines, engineers had laid a trans-Atlantic cable. Now, information could be transmitted quickly between London and New York. One of the first uses for the cable was transmitting financial prices. This was so important that even today, the Dollar/Pound exchange rate is known as “cable.”

The Titanic had a wireless radio on board and passengers could place stock trades from the comfort of first class.

In the go-go 1960s, trading volume surged, and the back offices couldn’t handle the flood of orders. Clerks had to stay long after closing to properly settle all the trades. For several months, the NYSE was closed on Wednesdays so the back-office people could catch up.

Some firms started to buy these newfangled computers, but they were expensive and hard to use. The back-office work was so unyielding that organized crime moved in and looted hundreds of millions of dollars.

In 1969 and 1970, trading volume plunged, and one-sixth of brokerages either merged or went out of business. The industry responded, and in 1971, the National Association of Securities Dealers started the Nasdaq and in 1975, the NYSE finally ditched fixed commissions.

Wall Street has always been a place of technological innovation. As we learned this week, that change isn’t always so smooth.

The Upcoming Jobs Report for June

The next test for the stock market will come this Friday with the May jobs report. While the unemployment rate has been below 4% for several months, the pace of new job creation has slowed. Earlier today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that in April, the number of job openings fell to 8.1 million.

For Friday, Wall Street expects to see job gains of 190,000. That would be an increase over April’s gain of 175,000. Wall Street also expects the unemployment rate to stay at 3.9% and for average hourly earnings to increase by 0.3%.

Yesterday, the ISM Manufacturing report for May was 48.7. That was below expectations of 49.6. The Census Bureau said that construction spending fell by 0.1% in April.

I doubt the jobs report will have a major impact on the Fed. The FOMC meets again next week and it’s very unlikely that they’ll raise interest rates. The earliest a rate cut would come is probably September.

In last week’s issue, I talked about how Growth stocks have been outpacing Value stocks. Nice timing. Right after I said, Value went on to cream Growth for two days in a row.

Each day, trading usually leans one way or the other regarding Growth versus Value. Lately, however, the market has very strongly leaned in one direction or the other. Value has had several false starts in the last year, but this latest bit of outperformance could last for some time.

Stock Focus: Oil-Dri Corporation (ODC)

Here’s a neat one. Are you familiar with Oil-Dri Corporation of America (ODC)?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Based in Chicago, Oil-Dri is leading maker of “specialty sorbent products for the pet care, animal health and nutrition, fluids purification, agricultural ingredients, sports field, industrial and automotive markets. Oil-Dri’s largest principal product is cat litter.”

Within the United States, Oil-Dri is the leading manufacturer of lightweight cat litter in units and the largest producer of private label coarse litter in both units and dollars.

Oil-Dri has 884 employees and a market value of $610 million. Last year, the company had revenues of $413 million and net income of $28 million. Oil-Dri has increased its dividend each year for the past 20 years.

The stock has been a huge winner. In 2002, ODC was going for less than $6 per share. Today it’s at $83 per share. Including the dividend, the stock has soundly beaten the market. Since late 2000, the S&P 500 Total Return Index is up 481% but ODC (with divs) is up 2,486%.

Did I mention this was kitty litter?

Given the success of Oil-Dri, you might guess that lots of Wall Street analysts follow it. Or, if you’ve been a reader of mine for any amount of time, then you probably know: Oil-Dri isn’t followed by a single Wall Street analyst.

Who knew kitty litter could be so profitable?

That’s all for now. I’ll have more for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review.

– Eddy

Morning News: June 4, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 4th, 2024 at 7:01 am

Norway Gas Scare Puts European Market on Edge

Moving to Renewables Will Mean Using Less Energy Overall

India Stocks Post Biggest Loss in Four Years on Tight Vote

The Dollar Is at Its Strongest Since the 1980s. Can It Last?

Wall Street Is Having Trouble Getting ‘Too Excited’ About the US Economy

Global Bond Rally Wavers With Jobs Data Next Hurdle for Fed Path

Trading Glitch Sends Some Shares on a Wild Ride

NYSE Fixes Issue That Showed 99% Drops, Triggered Trading Halts

Short Sellers in Danger of Extinction After Crushing Stock Gains

Deutsche Bank Ties Up with Bitpanda in ‘Cautious’ Crypto Shift

Swiss Financial Regulator Wants to Be Able to Name and Shame Banks

Majority of Middle-Class Americans Say They Struggle Financially

As China’s Internet Disappears, ‘We Lose Parts of Our Collective Memory’

The Goal for China’s Chip Giant: Cut Out the U.S.

Nvidia’s Pitch in AI Chips Holds Echoes of Apple and iPhones

Intel CEO Fires Back at Nvidia in Battle for AI Chip Leadership

Roaring Kitty’s Reddit Post on GameStop Signals a $289 Million Paper Fortune

Car Deals Vanished During the Pandemic. They’re Coming Back

Electric Cars Are Suddenly Becoming Affordable

Tesla China’s Sales Rose in May Amid EV Demand Recovery

Japanese Officials Inspect Toyota Headquarters Over Safety Certification Scandal

Maersk Lifts Guidance Again on Surging Freight Rates

Costco Hot Dogs Have Cost $1.50 Since the 1980s. Here’s Why Prices Aren’t Changing

How Birkenstock Became an Improbable Luxury Empire

British American Tobacco Backs Guidance, But Expects Weaker First Half on U.S. Softness

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Morning News: June 3, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 3rd, 2024 at 7:05 am

OPEC+ Says Goodbye to Its $100-a-Barrel Oil Quest

OPEC+ Oil Deal’s Real Winner Once Again Is the UAE

Why Saudi Aramco Stock Is a Tough Sell on Wall Street

Abnormally Dry Canada Taps U.S. Energy, Reversing Usual Flow

It’s Crunchtime for a New Generation of Climate Startups

Cost Pressures Cast Shadow Over Asia’s Fledgling Manufacturing Recovery

Krugman Says China Is ‘Bizarrely Unwilling’ to Boost Demand

India Stocks Hit Record, Rupee Gains as Polls Predict Modi Win

Mexican Peso Extends Loss to 2% After Landslide Election Win

Cut Rates – Then What? Five Questions for the ECB

Digital Bank Monzo Posts First Full Year of Profit After More Than Doubling Revenue

The Budget Geeks Who Helped Solve an American Economic Puzzle

Mnuchin Chases Wall Street Glory With His War Chest of Foreign Money

Private Credit, Wall Street’s Hottest Trade, Has an Ugly Moment

Pershing Square Sells 10% Stake for $1.05 Billion Ahead of IPO

GameStop Shares Double as Gill Post Shows $116 Million Bet

Crypto Bull MicroStrategy and Its Founder to Pay $40 Million in Tax Fraud Lawsuit

How Billionaires Bought 70% of Detroit’s Offices and Transformed the City

The U.S. Gave Chip Makers Billions. Now Comes the Hard Part

Nvidia and AMD Square Off in Fight to Take Control of AI

Apple, Samsung Focus on AI Misses the Mark for Smartphone Buyers

Waves of Chinese Electric Vehicles Are Pouring Into Brazil

Toyota and Other Japanese Carmakers Say They Mishandled Safety Tests

Atos Assessing Two Revised Rescue Bids

Becton Dickinson to Acquire Edwards Lifesciences’ Unit for $4.2 Billion in Cash

Waste Management Near Deal to Buy Stericycle

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Morning News: May 31, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 31st, 2024 at 7:04 am

OPEC+ Set to Extend Oil Cuts in Another Virtual Meeting

Saudi Arabia to Kick off Aramco Stock Sale of Up to $12 Billion

China Home Sales Slump Eases After New Government Support

China Securities Regulator Fines Evergrande Unit $580 Million

China’s Strategy to Use Factories to Revive Growth Begins to Show Cracks

Wall Street Lands on India, Looking for Profits It Can’t Find in China

Japan Spent Record $62 Billion to Prop Up Yen in Past Month

Inflation Ticks Up in the Eurozone

Banks Funnel Billions More Into Private Credit as Frenzy Spreads

Deutsche Bank Sees Slightly Lower Fixed Income Revenue in Q2

UBS Reaches Milestone in Credit Suisse Absorption as Parent Companies Merge

Higher for Longer Rates Mean No Escape From the Debt Squeeze

Robust Economy Can’t Shield Biden From Blame for Higher Prices

Wall Street Billionaires Are Rushing to Back Trump, Verdict Be Damned

Trump Media Stock Falls After Guilty Verdict

Ackman Plans Pershing Square IPO as Soon as 2025, WSJ Reports

How Rage, Boredom and WallStreetBets Created a New Generation of Young American Traders

American Express Zooms Ahead as Gen Z Gets Hooked on Card Rewards

Amazon’s Original Rivals Throw a Twist Into FTC Antitrust Case

Intel Betting on AI Well Beyond Data Centers

TikTok Pauses E-Commerce Push into Europe to Focus on US

Price Pack Architecture

Costco Q3 Earnings Beat All Key Metrics After Shares Closed at an All-Time High

Why Big Luxury Brands Are Rushing to Make Fine Jewelry for Men

Gap’s Look Is Finally Back on Point

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Morning News: May 30, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 30th, 2024 at 7:07 am

A ‘Lost Decade’ Threatens Economy of Wartime Israel

Turkey Close to Exiting Global Watchdog’s Illicit Finance List

Eurozone Unemployment Hits Record Low

Tariffs Are More Than Just Taxes. They Are a Tool of Geopolitics

Throwing in the Towel on Rate Cuts Everywhere

The Fed Thinks It’s Fighting Inflation. Think Again

Fed’s Bostic Says Many Inflation Measures Moving to Target Range

Can Billions in New Subsidies Keep Family Farms in Business?

Traders Are Bracing for a Record-Smashing Summer That Will Shake Up Commodities

The People in Finance to Watch in 2024

UBS Splits Wealth Management Role as Part of Executive Reshuffle

Tesla Blasts Glass Lewis for Advising Against Elon Musk’s Pay Package

The People Running Elon Musk’s Companies as Tesla Spirals

American Air Fired Commercial Head After Sales Strategy Alienated Corporate Clients

China to Impose Export Controls on Aviation Equipment, Technology

The World’s Top Miner Abandoned Its Proposed Megadeal. Here’s What Could Be Next for BHP

Big Oil’s Latest Megadeal Shows Industry’s US Premium

The Solar Breakthrough That Could Help the U.S. Compete With China

Designer of World’s Tallest Building Wants to Turn Skyscrapers Into Batteries

Short on Curbside Chargers, New York EV Drivers Are Improvising

The Secret Ozempic Recipe Behind Novo’s Race to Boost Supplies

McDonald’s Just Wrote an Open Letter to Millions of Americans. The Very Last Line Mattered Most

Once a Sheriff’s Deputy in Florida, Now a Source of Disinformation From Russia

Disney Is Banking On Sequels to Help Get Pixar Back on Track

Golden Goose, Maker of Super-Star Sneakers, to IPO in Milan

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Morning News: May 29, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 29th, 2024 at 7:02 am

ConocoPhillips to Acquire Marathon Oil in $17 Billion Deal

Anglo Won’t Extend BHP Deadline, Threatening $49 Billion Bid

Chevron’s $53 Billion Oil Deal Is Backed by Hess Shareholders

World’s Largest Nuclear Plant Sits Idle While Energy Needs Soar

Saudi Arabia Eyes a Future Beyond Oil

BYD Launches Hybrids With 1,300-Mile Driving Range

Most EVs in the US Are Still Being Shipped to the Same Few States

Toyota’s Engine Decision Shows How Hard Making Money in Cars Will Become

Southeast Asian Exports Seen Surging Through 2030

IMF Raises China Economic Growth Forecasts

Bank of Japan Reports Record Stock Gains for Last Financial Year

June ECB Rate Cut a Done Deal, Majority Expects Cuts in Sept, Dec Too: Reuters Poll

Fed in a Bind As Consumers Stay Upbeat

This Is the Word of the Summer on Wall Street

What’s a Carry Trade Again? And When Is It Not a Moneymaker?

Goldman Racks Up $21 Billion for Its Largest Private Credit Pool

BMO Misses Estimates on Higher-Than-Expected Provisions

In China’s Tech Sphere, Everything Eventually Descends Into a Price War

‘Not Gonna Be Pretty:’ Covid-Era Homebuyers Face Huge Rate Jump

Store Brands Are Filling Up More of Your Shopping Cart

How America Lost Its King Crab Supremacy

How A.I. Made Mark Zuckerberg Popular Again in Silicon Valley

Samsung Union Plans First-Ever Strike

Dick’s Sporting Surges After Boosting Outlook on Robust Demand

Its Future in Doubt, the Freewheeling ‘Inside the NBA’ Is on Edge Instead

Leslye Headland Hopes the Force Is With ‘The Acolyte’

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

CWS Market Review – May 28, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 28th, 2024 at 8:37 pm

(This is the free version of CWS Market Review. If you like what you see, then please sign up for the premium newsletter for $20 per month or $200 for the whole year. If you sign up today, you can see our two reports, “Your Handy Guide to Stock Orders” and “How Not to Get Screwed on Your Mortgage.”)

This week, the stock market looks to close out a strong May. This is very much welcomed after a relatively poor April. Earlier today, the Nasdaq closed above 17,000 to reach a new high. That’s a 10-fold increase in 15 years.

We have a decent earnings season to thank for May’s rebound. The overall earnings results weren’t spectacular, but they were much better than what had been expected. As always, what matters on Wall Street is how well one does compared with expectations.

Wall Street isn’t much bothered by Armageddon, as long as it’s unfolding better than their models told them it would.

Historically, the early part of summer has been a mildly positive time of year for stocks. Since 1957, the S&P 500 has gained an average of 2.28% from May 25 to July 17. That’s about one-fifth of the index’s average annual capital gain. After that, however, the market hasn’t gotten moving again until late October.

Growth Is Leading Value

I like to keep an eye on how well Growth stocks are doing versus Value stocks. This is a quick and easy way to read the mind of the market. If Wall Street starts to get nervous, then Value stocks tend to do well, but if Wall Street is feeling optimistic, then Growth stocks take charge.

Lately, I’ve been impressed by how well Growth stocks are doing. Shares of Nvidia (NVDA), the growthiest of all, got another 7.1% boost today. That’s a gain of $180 billion.

The Growth/Value tradeoff tends to be cyclical. In plain English, once Growth starts beating Value, or vice versa, you can expect that to last for several months, or even several years. When Value leads Growth, it tends to be swift and sharp; but when Growth leads, it tends to be long and steady.

Here’s the S&P 500 Value ETF (in black) and the S&P 500 Growth ETF (in blue) since the early part of this year:

Last year, Growth stocks did very well against Value stocks, except for the last part of the year when Value started to shine. Since the start of this year, Growth has gotten its groove back, especially in the last few weeks. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 Growth ETF (SPYG) outpaced the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) for the sixth day in a row.

Value stocks also tend to do well when short-term interest rates are going down. While that’s not happening at the moment, there’s a good chance rates will start to come down before the end of this year.

Are Growth stocks telling us to be optimistic? Could be. Today’s consumer confidence report was unexpectedly strong. For May, the Consumer Confidence Index rose to 102. This was the first increase in four months. The reading for April was revised higher to 97.5.

Despite today’s report, consumer confidence has generally been dour in recent months. This has perplexed some analysts because the overall economic performance hasn’t been so bad. Kyla Scanlon has dubbed this effect the “vibe-cession.”

I suspect that certain problems in the economy have an outsized impact on the public’s perception of the economy. Inflation is a good example, particularly car insurance costs.

Since December 2021, car insurance costs are up by 45.8%. Consumers are very sensitive to these costs even though car insurance makes up less than 3% of the CPI. Consumers “feel” that increase more than they do other prices. Since 2019, the price of a Big Mac has doubled.

On Thursday, the government will release its first revision to Q1 GDP. The initial report said that the economy grew in real annualized terms of 1.6% for the first quarter of this year. That’s not that great and it’s down from some strong numbers for the second half of last year. Wall Street thinks the government will revise Q1 GDP down to 1.2%.

Elliott Looks to Shake Up Texas Instruments

This morning, Elliott Investment Management sent a letter to the board of directors of Texas Instruments (TXN) recommending some major changes.

Elliott is a well-known activist hedge fund. By activist, I mean a fund that takes a large position in a stock and then advocates for some important changes in the hopes of giving the stock a boost. Oftentimes, this means paying out a dividend or boosting capital expenditures.

Activist funds are a controversial topic and I can easily see both sides of the debate. Critics say that activist funds are out to make a quick buck (or several billion bucks) and are willing to sacrifice the long-term financial stability of the company to get the share price moving.

Activist defenders claim they’re merely defending shareholders and protecting them from sclerotic management. I won’t settle the debate here, but it’s been going on since the days of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.

Elliott now owns $2.5 billion of Texas Instruments stock. TXN used to be a very good stock until about three years ago. It’s been lagging badly since then. In 2022, TXN made $9.41 per share. This year, it’s expected to make $5.16 per share.

According to Elliott, TXN can vastly improve its free-cash flow. Elliott thinks TXN can deliver free-cash flow of $9 per share by 2026. That’s 40% above what Wall Street currently expects.

As much as the activists are criticized, I have to concede that they often make good points. From CNBC:

Elliott believes Texas Instrument’s rigid adherence to a capital expenditure plan put in place in 2022 has eviscerated shareholder returns by greatly reducing a metric by which TI has always asked to be judged – free cash flow.

Citing the reduction of free cash flow from $6.40 a share in 2022 to an expected $1.83 a share this year Elliott maintains that TI has alienated investors who might otherwise gravitate to its dominant position in serving the automotive and industrial complexes with analog chips. Its stock price, Elliott insists, has suffered as a result, trailing its peer group by substantial margins over the last two, four, six and ten year periods.

The focus of Elliott’s letter is the 2022 capital expenditure plan which called for TI to ramp its Capex spending to a high of $5 billion a year from 2023-2026 bringing that spending to as much as 23% of revenues from what had been capex spending of roughly 5% revenues over the preceding decade.

This morning, the shares opened 3.4% higher and touched a new 52-week high. If the market responds that way, it’s difficult to say that activists aren’t serving the needs of shareholders.

As far as these letters go, Elliott was much friendlier than most. Still, Elliott can easily be ignored. Even a large firm like Elliott owns a little over 1% of the outstanding shares. These activist moves always make me wonder if they truly want changes or if they are only interested in the one-day rally on the news that an activist fund is getting involved.

A similar event happened recently to one of our Buy List stocks. I’ve long been a fan of Miller Industries (MLR), and it’s done well for us this year.

In March, an activist fund that owns 3.25% of Miller sent a letter to Miller’s board recommending several changes. The firm criticized Miller’s executive pay and suggested a share buyback and a dividend hike.

Miller said that the fund’s letter was “a self-serving and short-sighted public complaint, with spurious allegations and no credible path for long-term value creation.” Still, a few days later, Miller announced a $25 million share buyback. For the most part, boards should be focused on growing the business and should be neutral on a company’s share price.

That’s all for now. I’ll have more for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review.

– Eddy

Morning News: May 28, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 28th, 2024 at 7:08 am

Russia’s Seaborne Crude Exports Drop Ahead of OPEC+ Meeting

Big Oil’s Winning Streak Forces Activist Investors to Regroup

Carbon Offsets, a Much-Criticized Climate Tool, Get Federal Guidelines

‘Overcapacity’ Is the New Buzzword to Whack China

Business-First Hong Kong Now Comes With a Catch: Beijing Politics

London Moves to Revive Its Reputation as a Financial Hub

Meet the Shirt Maker Who Loves U.S. Tariffs

Wall Street Moves to Fastest Settlement of Trades in a Century

The ‘Everyone Wins’ Stock Market Is Dead — Ask Target

What JPMorgan Can Learn From Morgan Stanley and Manchester United

For Private Credit’s Top Talent, $1 Million a Year Is Not Enough

Riot Platforms Pursues Takeover of Rival Bitcoin Miner Bitfarms

Slow-Moving Property Crisis Means Averting a Greater One

Mortgages Stuck Around 7% Force Rapid Rethink of American Dream

Why a California Plan to Build More Homes Is Failing

The Slowdown in US Electric Vehicle Sales Looks More Like a Blip

Toyota to Develop New Engines That Run on Carbon-Neutral Fuels

OpenAI Says It Has Begun Training a New Flagship A.I. Model

If A.I. Can Do Your Job, Maybe It Can Also Replace Your C.E.O.

PayPal Is Planning an Ad Business Using Data on Its Millions of Shoppers

GameStop Shares Rise 26% In Premarket Trading After $933 Million Stock Sale

Apple’s China iPhone Shipments Up 52% as Rebound Gains Steam

T-Mobile to Buy Most of US Cellular

Asahi Kasei Makes $1.1 Billion Bid For Swedish Calliditas Therapeutics

Moderna Makes Big Play for Big Tech Talent

Streaming Bundles Are Here, and You May Need a Ph.D. to Navigate the Options

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Morning News: May 27, 2024
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 27th, 2024 at 7:04 am

How China Pulled So Far Ahead on Industrial Policy

BOJ Signals Room for Interest Rate Hikes After Price Norm Shift

ECB’s Lane Says Way Is Clear for Rate Cuts, With Inflation and Wage Rises on Downward Trend

Dollar Bulls Retreat as US Economic Print Cools, CFTC Data Show

Some Good News for Bond Traders Stuck in Fed Waiting Game

Crypto Traders Eye Ether Record, Rising Volatility From US ETF Hype

‘Bond King’ Bill Gross Warns Trump Would Worsen Deficits And Be ‘More Disruptive’ For The Bond Market Than Biden, Report Says

China Creates $47.5 Billion Chip Fund to Back Nation’s Firms

France Envisions AI Tent Big Enough for US, China and French Startups

Musk’s xAI Raises $6 Billion in Bid to Challenge OpenAI

Tesla Shareholders Advised to Vote Against Elon Musk’s Pay Package

Another Roadblock to the EV Transition: Personal Politics

Shares of China Evergrande’s EV Unit Soar After Liquidators’ Stake Sale Deal

An Oil-Patch Brawl Over a $53 Billion Megadeal Entwines the Legacies of Three CEOs

Vedanta Is Said to Weigh $1 Billion Share Sale as Soon as June

Lendlease Quits International Construction to Free $2.98 Billion

Why a California Plan to Build More Homes Is Failing

Astra, Daiichi Drug Extends Lives of Some Lung Cancer Patients

What Happened to Our Ad-Free TV?

The NCAA Has a $15 Billion Problem. Private Equity Can Help.

Reebok Isn’t a ‘Hobby’ for Shaquille O’Neal

Sneaker Rivals Race to Find the Next Super Foam

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.