CWS Market Review – February 14, 2023
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 14th, 2023 at 7:23 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.”)

January Inflation Was Slightly Higher Than Expected

Today was the day of the big inflation report, and numbers came in slightly higher than expected. This morning, the government said that inflation rose by 0.5% in January. Economists had been expecting an increase of 0.4%. Over the last 12 months, inflation has increased by 6.4%. That was 0.2% above expectations.

The 12-month inflation rate ending in January was a teeny tiny bit lower than the 12-month rate for December. That means we can technically say that year-over-year inflation has declined for seven months in a row. Inflation peaked last June at 9.1%.

The core rate, which excludes food and energy prices, rose by 0.4% in January. That was 0.1% higher than expected. Over the last 12 months, core inflation is running at 5.6%. While the core rate has been lower than the headline inflation, it’s been tougher to bring down. The 12-month core rate peaked in September at 6.6% and has now declined for four months in a row.

Rising shelter costs accounted for about half the monthly increase, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in the report. The component accounts for more than one-third of the index and rose 0.7% on the month and was up 7.9% from a year ago. The CPI had risen 0.1% in December.

Energy also was a significant contributor, up 2% and 8.7%, respectively, while food costs rose 0.5% and 10.1%, respectively.

Rising prices meant a loss in real pay for workers. Average hourly earnings fell 0.2% for the month and were down 1.8% from a year ago, according to a separate BLS report that adjusts wages for inflation.

The takeaway is that inflation continues to fade, but it’s taking its time. The battle to beat inflation won’t be a quick one.

Today’s inflation report didn’t have much of an impact on today’s trading. The S&P 500 fell by a minuscule amount. The real action was in the futures pits where traders bet on what the Fed will do. Traders think the Fed will now be more aggressive with its interest rate hikes.

We can look at the price for interest-rate contracts to find the implied probability of what the Fed will do. It doesn’t mean the market is right, but it gives us a sense of what the market is thinking. Until today, the market had been thinking that the Fed was all talk.

Right now, futures traders still think there’s a very high probability of another 0.25% rate hike next month, but traders also see another 0.25% rate hike coming in May. The odds of a May rate hike are now up to 85%.

After that, it starts to get interesting. Thanks to today’s inflation report, traders now expect an additional rate hike in June. One month ago, the implied odds of a 0.25% rate hike in June were 6%. Now those odds are 55%. That’s all due to today’s report. Going out a few months, traders think there will be a rate cut by December. Previously, the market had been expecting two rate cuts before the end of the year.

In plain English, today’s inflation report gives Jerome Powell and his friends at the Fed more cover to keep raising interest rates. The idea that the economy is about to tip over into a recession seems just a tad less likely. Or it may happen, but not quite so soon. A few months ago, Wall Street was expecting the Fed to pivot. Now, not so much.

Here’s a look at the complete Treasury yield curve. I plotted every single outstanding U.S. Treasury which is over 300 securities. Note how after a short-term increase, interest rates are expected to fall rapidly.

The International Monetary Fund just raised its estimate for U.S. economic growth this year to 1.4%. That’s not a lot, but it’s better than a recession.

What’s interesting is that many stock markets around the world are outpacing the U.S. market. Some are doing it by a lot. From 2008 to last year, the American stock market was the place to be. That came to an end last October. Since then, stock markets in countries such as Poland and Hungary have soared. Even China is doing well amid its lockdowns.

This Has Been a Crummy Earnings Season

We’re now heading into the closing part of Q4 earnings season. Frankly, this has been a disappointing season. Jonathan Golub, who is the Chief U.S. Equity Strategist at Credit Suisse, said that excluding recessions, this has been the worst earnings season in 24 years.

So far, 69% of companies have reported results. Of those, 69% have beaten estimates. That’s below the five-year average of 77%. It’s weaker than that considering how much analysts lowered their estimates prior to earnings season.

Overall, 69% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported actual results for Q4 2022 to date. Of these companies, 69% have reported actual EPS above estimates, which is below the percentage of 70% at the end of last week, below the 5-year average of 77%, and below the 10-year average of 73%.

Earnings are coming in at 1.1% higher than estimates. That’s not that good. The five-year average is 8.6%. Q4 earnings are tracking a decline of 4.9% compared with Q4 2021. If that holds up, it will be the first overall earnings decline since Q3 2020.

So far, 63% of the earnings reports have beaten their revenues estimates. That’s below the five-year rate of 69%. The S&P 500 is on track to report revenue growth of 4.6% compared with Q4 2020.

The overall picture is that revenues are slightly higher while earnings are slightly lower. That means that profit margins are under pressure. That often happens late in an economic cycle. Wall Street expects earnings to decline for Q1 and the entire year.

As we discussed before, on Wall Street, stocks are expected to beat expectations. Some companies are experts at guiding Wall Street analysts to believe that earnings will be a few pennies per share less than where they really are. This lets companies pretend that they beat expectations when that’s not really the case.

John Butters with FactSet noticed something interesting about this earnings season. Companies that have beaten expectations are getting a larger bump than normal while companies that miss expectations are getting a smaller ping than normal.

It’s as if Wall Street is onto the analysts this time. As a result, traders are taking the earnings misses in stride.

I should point out that our Buy List is having a much better performance. Of our 16 earnings reports so far, 14 beat estimates, one missed and one met expectations.

Stock Focus: Investors Title

I like to use this space to tell you about stocks that few people know about. I figure that it’s not hard to find someone to tell you what they think about Tesla or Facebook. Not many people will let you know about U.S. Lime and Minerals (USLM). Well, I’m happy to do that. (By the way, USLM hit another new 52-week high yesterday.)

This week, we’re going to look at Investors Title (ITIC). As you might guess, ITIC is a title insurance company based in Chapel Hill, NC. Title insurance protects homeowners against competing claims for their property. It’s not a very big outfit. ITIC only has about 500 employees and a market cap of $300 million. Over the last 33 years, ITIC has returned 4,800%. I suppose it’s a good business when homeowners are forced by law to buy it.

Would you like to guess how many analysts follow ITIC? If you’ve been around here, you probably know the answer. Zero. Not a single analyst bothers to follow this stock.

Another neat aspect of ITIC is that it occasionally pays out special dividends Sometimes these have been quite large. The current regular dividend is 46 cents per share. Last year, ITIC paid out a special dividend of $3 per share. In 2021, it was $18 per share. In the three years prior to that, ITIC paid out dividends of $15, $8 and $11 per share. This is on top of the regular dividend.

Here’s an interesting historical tidbit for you: Title insurance played an important role in the history of our two greatest presidents. In the 1750s, Lord Fairfax, the only peer living in North America, asked a young man named George Washington (a distant relative) to survey some of his land in the western part of Virginia. Fairfax owned some five million acres. Earlier, the Virginia House of Burgesses tried to do what governments like to do, claim some of his land for itself.

About 60 years later, and not that far away, a Virginia-born farmer named Thomas Lincoln bought a small farm in Kentucky. At this time, this was frontier country. He built a log cabin there and soon, he and his wife had a son. Then along came a man with a competing claim to the farm and the court ruled against the Lincoln family. They had to move and the legal costs were a great hardship to the young family. They were able to lease another farm and soon, the same things happened again.

Thomas Lincoln was fed up with Kentucky and moved to Indiana which had recently been surveyed by the Federal government, so land claims were more secure. Shortly after the family got in Indiana, Thomas’ wife Sarah died. The whole episode left a great impression on Abraham Lincoln, and it may have led him to study surveying and the law.

This morning, Investors Title reported Q4 earnings of $3.97 per share. That’s terrible compared with one year ago, but that’s due to the Fed and the housing market. Real estate is cyclical. Quarterly revenues were down 28%. For the year, ITIC made $12.59 per share.

ITIC is a tough stock to own when rates are rising, but once you sense the Fed will soon start cutting, ITIC could be a very attractive buy.

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

– Eddy

P.S. If you want to learn more about the stocks on our Buy List, please sign up for our premium service. It’s $20 per month, or $200 per an entire year.

Morning News: February14, 2023
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 14th, 2023 at 7:03 am

Lael Brainard Set to Lead White House National Economic Council

Kazuo Ueda, Tapped as Bank of Japan Chief, Is Seen as Pragmatic Insider

Packed With Tourists, Japan Returns to Economic Growth

TikTok’s Talks With U.S. Have an Unofficial Player: China

Beijing Urges Rural Officials to Hire Humans—Not Machines

Inside the Gray Market Keeping Cisco Tech in Stock in Russia

Russia’s Grip on Nuclear-Power Trade Is Only Getting Stronger

EU Lawmakers Back Deal to Ban New Combustion-Engine Cars by 2035

New Cars Are Only for the Rich Now as Automakers Rake In Profits

Ford Will Build a U.S. Battery Factory With Technology From China

Ferrari Heir Races Onto World’s Richest List With 400% Stock Boom

What Layoffs? Top Wall Street Traders Score Giant Paydays

The Countries With the Longest — and Shortest — Retirements

Food Prices Weigh on Seniors’ Savings, Health and Even Social Ties

Air India to Buy 250 Planes from Airbus as It Transforms Under Tata

Coca-Cola Revenue Rises in Fourth Quarter, Fueled by Higher Prices

How Nelson Peltz and Disney’s Marvel Chief Teamed Up in Proxy Fight

Bed Bath & Beyond’s Tough Challenge: Shutting Stores Without Paying a Fortune

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Stocks Up Ahead of Tomorrow’s CPI
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 13th, 2023 at 12:20 pm

The CPI report comes out tomorrow. The recent trend has been favorable so it will be interesting to see if that continues. Wall Street expects January inflation to come in at 0.5% and the core rate to be 0.4%.

Tomorrow’s CPI report will have a slightly different methodology. The categories’ “weights” will be redone and based off spending data from 2021. Owners equivalent rent will now be a little over 25%.

The stock market is up 0.93% at noon today. Once again, the High Beta stocks are leading the Low Volatility names.

Last week was the worst week for stocks this year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some pushback this week. We’re in the latter half of earnings season but there are still many reports left to see. Microsoft and Meta are having good days. Both stocks are up over 3%.

The U.S. shot down its fourth balloon, or whatever it is. The U.S. and China may be meeting later this week at the Munich Security Conference.

Jack Henry & Associates (JKHY), a stock I like to follow, raised its dividend today by 7% to 52 cents per share. This is its 34th consecutive dividend increase.

Morning News: February 13, 2023
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 13th, 2023 at 7:09 am

EU Is Set to Propose New Sanctions on Russian Tech and Vehicles

Ukraine’s Naftogaz Faces Opposition From Creditor Group on Latest Restructuring Plan

The US ‘Domain Awareness Gap’ Goes Way Beyond Balloons

Japan Says Sayonara to Idea of Central Banker as Rescue Hero

Inflation Is Falling, and Where It Lands Depends on These Three Things

Hard or Soft Landing? Some Economists See Neither if Growth Accelerates

Super Bowl XXI v. Super Bowl LVII: A Reminder That Today’s ‘Inflation’ Quite Simply Isn’t Inflation

Deutsche Bank Probe Says Employees Deliberately Mis-Sold Derivatives

India’s Adani Tries to Calm Investors as Market Rout Continues

Remote Work Is Costing Manhattan More Than $12 Billion a Year

Beyond Silicon Valley, Spending on Technology Is Resilient

Happiness or Success? Salesforce’s Marc Benioff Doesn’t Want to Choose

From Apple to VW, CEOs Gradually Returning to China After Its Reopening

Chevron Weighs Extending CEO Mike Wirth Past Mandatory Retirement Age

Ferrari CEO Moves Fast Like Elon Musk While Forging Own Path on EVs

De Beers Diamond Deal Threatened as Botswana Says It’s Ready to Walk Away

‘There’s No Spring Break Here’: Florida’s Gulf Coast Fights to Rebound After Hurricane Ian

Young, in Love and Figuring Out How to Talk About Money

Celia Cruz Will Be First Afro-Latina to Appear on the U.S. Quarter

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Morning News: February 10, 2023
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 10th, 2023 at 7:04 am

U.K. Economy Sputters and Barely Avoids a Recession

Russian Central Bank Holds Key Rate at 7.5%, Gives Hawkish Signal

Russia Retaliates for Sanctions By Announcing Oil Output Cut

Oil Prices Rise on Talk of Russian Output Cut

‘Who Is Kazuo Ueda?’ Rings Out Across Global Trading Floors

U.S. Poised to Further Tighten Technology Exports to China After Balloon Incident

U.S. Government Borrowing Costs Rise as Debt Ceiling Fuels Partisan Clash

Adani Crisis Deepens with Moody’s Downgrades and Index Weighting Cuts

Layoffs and Shutdowns Hit Biotech Industry in U-Turn

Apple Avoids Job Cuts Because It Didn’t Overhire Like Google and Amazon

A Waitlist of 60,000: Why Women Are Flocking to This Members-Only Club

Elon Musk’s First 100 Days at Twitter Defined by Rapid Change and Challenges

Activist Disney Investor Ends Battle for Board Seat

Robert Iger Shakes Up Disney’s Entertainment Operations, Rethinks Hulu Ownership

A Prince Bets His Family’s Money on a Nightmare Real Estate Deal

Brazil’s Richest Man Loses Billions as His M&A Machine Breaks Down

Floodgates Open for Beer Ads During Super Bowl

How M&M’s How M&M’s ‘Trendjacked’ the Super Bowl

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Morning News: February 9, 2023
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 9th, 2023 at 7:06 am

U.S.-China Tensions Are High. So Is Commerce Between the Nations.

U.S. Aims to Curtail Financial Ties With China

Where Can Europe Get the Gas to Fill Its Reserves This Summer?

Finance Chiefs Are Optimistic Any Recession Will Be Short, but Challenges Remain

No More “Deutsche Boerse, Who?”: CEO Receiving M&A Pitches

The Little Research Firm That Took On India’s Richest Man

Credit’s Steep Rally Is Worrying Once-Bullish Money Managers

Credit Suisse Trading Collapses as Global Ambitions Fade

Robinhood Accidentally Sold Short on a Meme Stock and Lost $57 Million

As Big Tech’s Growth and Innovation Slow, Its Market Dominance Endures

Bing (Yes, Bing) Just Made Search Interesting Again

Disinformation Researchers Raise Alarms About A.I. Chatbots

Pfizer, Novartis, Merck Executives Say They Are Hunting for Deals Again

Disney to Cut 7,000 Jobs as Bob Iger Seeks $5.5 Billion in Savings

Mattel Earnings Plunge as Sales Fell 22% in Holiday Period

Higher Prices Hit Demand for Unilever’s Soap and Ice Cream

PepsiCo Earnings Beat Expectations as Price Hikes Boost Snack and Beverage Sales

‘She Won’t Be Manageable’ They Said. Now She’s in Charge.

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Morning News: February 8, 2023
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 8th, 2023 at 7:05 am

China’s Bid to Improve Food Production? Giant Towers of Pigs

Joe Biden Pushes Economic Gains, Jousts With GOP in State of the Union Speech

Half of Americans Say They’re Worse Off, Most Since 2009

Fed’s Jerome Powell Braces for Longer Inflation Fight Amid Hiring Surge

Bull Case on a Stock Crash Sees End of Fed Gifts to One Percent

Wall Street Veteran Explains Why He’s Still All-In on US Housing

The Prophet of Urban Doom Says New York Still Has a Chance

Strong Dollar Still Rattles U.S. Multinational Corporate Earnings

BP, in a Reversal, Says It Will Produce More Oil and Gas

Wind Turbine Giant Says It Has a Solution That Will Keep Blades Out of Landfills

CVS Agrees to Buy Oak Street Health in $10.6 Billion Deal

A Tech Race Begins as Microsoft Adds A.I. to Its Search Engine

Apple Expands Testing of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Service to Retail Employees

TikTok’s Secret Sauce Poses Challenge for U.S. Oversight, Researchers Say

SocGen Reports 64% Slide in Annual Profits but Beats Market Expectations

Uber Reports Record Revenue as It Defies the Economic Downturn

Disney’s Earnings, Reorganization Represent Early Test for CEO Robert Iger

Bed Bath & Beyond Leads Meme-Stock Plunge as AMC and GameStop Also Tumble

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CWS Market Review – February 7, 2023
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 7th, 2023 at 7:18 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.”)

Friday’s Jobs Report Signals More Rate Hikes

The stock market got a nice 1.3% bounce today. This comes after losses on Friday and Monday. Once again, High Beta stocks did the heavy lifting. The S&P 500 High Beta Index was up over 2% today while the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index was up just 0.01%.

On our Buy List, shares of Fiserv (FISV) soared more than 8.3% thanks to a good earnings report. I’ll have more details on that and on other stocks on our Buy List in Friday’s premium issue.

Last Friday, the government reported that the U.S. economy created 517,000 net new jobs in January. This was a shock to Wall Street since economists had been expecting an increase of only 187,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4% which is the lowest since May 1969.

While certain sectors of the economy appear weak, the labor market continues to be remarkably strong. In previous cycles, there’s been talk of “jobless recoveries.” Now we appear to be experiencing “growthless hiring.” Of course, the pace of inflation may explain some of that.

We’ve heard news recently of layoffs in the tech sector, but those job cuts apparently haven’t had a major impact on the overall numbers. Last year, nearly five million new jobs were created. That includes 260,000 new jobs in December. In the January jobs report, the so-called U-6 rate, which is a broader measure of unemployment, increased to 6.6%, but that’s still quite good.

Americans are also seeing a little better pay. Wages rose by 0.4% last month. Over the past year, wages are up by 4.4%. Unfortunately, inflation continues to eat into wage increases. According to the government, there are still 11 million job openings which is about two for every unemployed person.

In previous jobs reports, there were hints that the labor market could be slowing down. For example, temporary hiring declined, but all those signs disappeared in the January jobs report.

Looking at the details of the jobs report, leisure and hospitality jobs increased by 128,000. That was the largest advance for any sector. Business services added 82,000. Government increased by 74,000. Health care added 58,000 jobs. Retail increased by 30,000 and construction added 25,000 jobs.

Here’s the major impact of Friday’s jobs report: it complicates the job for the Federal Reserve. The Fed has steadily increased interest rates to slow down the economy, and by extension, slow down inflation. While inflation appears to be improving, the labor market isn’t cooperating.

Prior to the jobs report, futures traders had saying been that there would be one more small rate hike next month. Since the jobs report, traders now see an additional 0.25% increase in May. That would bring the Fed funds target rate to a range of 5.00% to 5.25%.

According to futures prices from late this afternoon, traders set a 91% chance of a 0.25% rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting on March 22. That sounds right. Traders also see a 72% chance of another 0.25% hike at the Fed’s May meeting. That’s up from 35% one week ago.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell spoke today at the Economic Club of Washington. He said that the strong labor rate is a reason why the Fed thinks it faces a tough battle to defeat inflation.

I don’t think Wall Street is fully on his side. Many economists assume there’s a trade-off between employment and inflation (the Phillips Curve), but what if there’s not? Or maybe that relationship assumes other factors that may not be currently at work? We’re soon going to learn if disinflation can comfortably co-exist with a strong labor market.

Speaking of the jobs report, Powell said that it was “stronger than anyone I know expected.” Powell added, “It kind of shows you why we think this will be a process that takes a significant period of time.”

The C in FOMC stands for committee and so far, no one has broken ranks. The last policy statement was unanimous. That may soon change. Powell said, “So we think we’re going to have to do further [rate] increases, and we think we’ll have to hold policy at a restrictive level for some time.” I would not be surprised to see some Fed officials start to dissent from more rate hikes.

When the Fed updated its economic forecasts in December, not one member of the FOMC saw the Fed cutting rates sometime this year. Futures traders still think that’s a likely outcome later this year. In fact, a significant number of Fed members think short-term rates will rise above 5.25%.

One important event coming next week could tell us more about future Fed policy. Next Tuesday, the government will release the CPI report for January. A lot of folks quibble with the government’s numbers. I try to focus on the overall trend of inflation, and that’s been in the right direction. The year-over-year inflation rate has declined for the last six months in a row. I think there’s a good chance we’re going to see #7 next week.

Unfortunately, this has not been a good earnings season for Wall Street. According to the latest stats I’ve seen, half the companies in the S&P 500 have reported earnings. Of those, 70% have beaten estimates. That may sound good but it’s below the five-year average of 77%. Earnings are only 0.6% above estimates. The five-year average has been 8.6%.

For revenues, 61% of companies have beaten revenue estimates. The five-year average has been 69%. Total revenues are coming in 1.1% above estimates. For the entire earnings season, we’re on track for revenue growth of 4.3% and for an earnings decline of 5.3%.

This comes on top of pre-earnings season in which analysts already pared back their earnings estimates. In other words, companies are barely beating earnings which have already been lowered.

This may not be over. We’re now seeing analysts cut back on their estimates for Q1, and the quarter isn’t quite halfway over. Historically, the largest downward revisions come during the first month of the quarter. In January, analysts lowered their estimates by 3.3%. The consensus of Wall Street analysts is that the S&P 500 will report earnings of $52.41 per share. That’s down from $54.20 at the start of the year.

Stock Focus: UFP Technologies

Before I get to this week’s stock focus, I want to update you on some stocks we talked about recently. Two weeks ago, we looked at United States Lime & Minerals (USLM).

After the close on Friday, USLM reported very good earnings for Q4. Since no one follows the stock, I made a rough estimate for $1.60 per share. I wasn’t even close. As it turns out, US Lime made $1.90 per share for Q4, and $8 per share for the entire year.

This means the stock is going for less than 20 times trailing earnings. The shares rose 1.9% yesterday, and that’s on top of gains on Thursday and Friday. In the last five months, USLM is up 45%. It’s hard for me to believe that Wall Street continues to ignore stocks like this.

Another stock we discussed was Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL). I highlighted the stock on January 17. I said that it was due to report earnings on February 1, and Wall Street was expecting $2.68 per share. I wrote, “I think Old Dominion can beat that.” Well, I got that one right. The company earned $2.92 per share, and the shares jumped more than 10% on the day of the earnings report. ODFL is up nearly 30% this year.

Now let’s turn to this week’s stock which is UFP Technologies (UFPT). In a little over 20 years, the stock has increased nearly 150-fold. That’s enough to turn $7,000 into over $1 million.

I’m not going to say that UFPT is completely ignored by Wall Street. A grand total of two Wall Street analysts cover the stock. UFPT is a medical devices company based in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

In its own words:

UFP Technologies is an innovative designer and custom manufacturer of components, subassemblies, products, and packaging primarily for the medical market. Utilizing highly specialized foams, films, and plastics, we convert raw materials through laminating, molding, radio frequency welding and fabricating techniques. We are diversified by also providing highly engineered solutions to customers in the aerospace & defense, automotive, consumer, electronics, and industrial markets.

UFPT’s next earnings report will probably be out in early March.

The last earnings report was very strong. For Q3, organic sales grew 21.7% and operating income increased 36.6%. Earnings rose 173% to $1.36 per share. The consensus, such as there was one, was for 94 cents per share.

CEO R. Jeffrey Bailly said, “Overall, it’s a very exciting time at UFP. We are seeing a sharp increase in customer orders, and our proactive investments to increase capacity have come online at just the right time. This, combined with the resolution of several supply chain issues, has enabled us to meet the surging demand.”

The stock is currently going for 24 times trailing earnings which is high but not excessive, especially if you consider how strong the earnings have been.

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

– Eddy

P.S. If you want to learn more about the stocks on our Buy List, please sign up for our premium service. It’s $20 per month, or $200 per an entire year.

Morning News: February 7, 2023
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 7th, 2023 at 7:10 am

How Russia Is Surviving the Tightening Grip on Its Oil Revenue

Farmland Becomes Flashpoint in U.S.-China Relations

Solar Panels Are the Midwest’s New Cash Crop as Green Energy Booms

Immigration Rebound Eases Shortage of Workers, Up to a Point

Washington, D.C., Has More Tech-Job Openings Than Silicon Valley

Fed’s Kashkari Says Strong Jobs Data Show Need for More Hikes

For More Certainty in Your Retirement Portfolio, Consider Annuities

SoftBank Loses Nearly $6 Billion in Quarter as Investments Suffer

French Bank BNP Paribas Reports Bumper Profit for 2022, Boosts Stock Purchase Plan

BP Makes Record Profit in 2022, Boosts Oil Spending

ChatGPT Gets Fresh Competition

Meta to Revamp Horizon Metaverse App, Plans to Open for Teen Use as Soon as March

Beyoncé’s Ticket Sales Are Ticketmaster’s Next Test After Taylor Swift

Lab-Grown Meat Has a Bigger Problem Than the Lab

Who Decides How Woke Corporations Should Be?

Bed Bath & Beyond Strikes Investor Deal for Over $1 Billion to Avoid Bankruptcy

Match Fixing Has Existed for Centuries. Gambling Apps Are Making It Worse

Crypto Firms Ditch Super Bowl Commercials This Year After FTX Meltdown

Americanas’ $4 Billion Accounting Scandal Puts More Scrutiny on PwC’s Auditing Record

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Morning News: February 6, 2023
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 6th, 2023 at 7:07 am

Chevron Explores Algerian Gas Plans Amid Russian Sanctions

Newmont Proposes $17 Billion Takeover of Australia’s Newcrest Mining

Flowers, Fresh Fish and Movies: China Is Spending Again, Cautiously

With Debt Ceiling in Sight, Treasury Resorts to ‘Extraordinary Measures’

Opposite What Economists Believe, Rising Wages Signal Easing Inflation

States Are Flush With Cash, Which Could Soften a Possible Recession

Many Banks Pay High Rates on Savings. So Why Aren’t You Moving Your Money?

Steve Eisman on the ‘Paradigm Shift’ Happening in Markets Right Now

The Man Behind Pimco’s Great Debt Bet Closes In on His Next Big Trade

Adani Stock Selloff Enters Third Week

Adani Crisis Sparks Protests and Arrests in India as Sell-Off Losses Top $110 Billion

The World’s Richest Person Is Trying to Head Off a Succession Battle

Rothschild Family to Take Bank Private in $4 Billion Deal

The Blurred Lines Between Goldman C.E.O.’s Day Job and His D.J. Gig

Carlyle Taps a Former Goldman Executive to Fill Its Leadership Void

Twitter Set to Charge Businesses $1K a Month for Gold Verification

Tesla’s Pickup Truck Is Coming Soon. Maybe.

U.S. Car Makers’ EV Plans Hinge on Made-in-America Batteries

Nissan, Renault Alliance Shake-Up to Give Each Company More Independence

The World’s Biggest Planes Are Finding Their Way Back Into the Skies

Dell to Cut About 6,650 Jobs, Battered by Plunging PC Sales

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