MIT Technology Review has announced its eagerly awaited "50 Smartest Companies" winners list. And the new rankings are loaded with surprises for investors and technology mavens of all stripes. Each year we identify 50 companies that are “smart” in the way they create new opportunities. Some of this year’s stars are large companies, like Amazon and Alphabet, that are using digital technologies to redefine industries. Others are wrestling with technological changes: companies like Microsoft, Bosch, Toyota, and Intel. Also on the list are ambitious startups like 23andMe, a pioneer in … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2016
A First of its Kind Building in the U.S.
To deal with a growing shortage of space for building high in demand industrial warehouses in many American cities, Prologis is building new three story 580,000 square foot warehouse just outside of Seattle. The WSJ has the story. Prologis Inc., the world’s biggest warehouse owner, is starting construction next year on a three-floor 580,000-square-foot warehouse just outside downtown Seattle that is scheduled to be completed in 2018, the company told The Wall Street Journal. The building will look like two warehouses stacked on top of each other, with a truck ramp to loading docks on the … [Read more...]
Tidal Wave of Junk Bond ETF Outflows
Inflation and uncertainty over future interest rate moves by the world's central banks are causing junk bond investors to flee for the exits. Over the last week a wave of money has exited the junk bond market. The chart above displays the outflows from junk bond ETFs HGY and JNK. After I wrote to you yesterday, investors pulled money out of of junk bond ETFs yet again. The Wall Street Journal's Chris Dieterich writes: The bond market’s October retreat fueled record withdrawals from some popular exchange-traded funds, the latest sign of investor anxiety over inflation. Investors pulled $998 … [Read more...]
The Looming Crisis in the Auto-Loan Market
The auto loan market and the sub-prime auto loan market have boomed in recent years. The Financial Times reports that cracks are already starting to emerge in the market for car loans with repossessions at their third highest level in the last twenty years. The only time repossessions were higher was during the 2008 / 2009 financial crisis. In other words, we have recessionary levels of car repossessions at a time when the economy is still expanding. What happens during the next recession? Repossessions in the US hit 1.6m in 2015, the third highest level on record for data going back 20 … [Read more...]
Gated Enclaves that Cater to Horse Lovers
The Wall Street Journal unveils a terrific new high-end concept in the niche residential gated communities marketplace. WSJ informs its readers that a select group of residents at Brays Island Plantation, a 5,500-acre gated community in coastal South Carolina, are pampered with massages, acupuncture therapy and custom diet plans. Gated enclaves that cater to horses—and the home buyers who love them—are laying on equine-friendly amenities like never before, with state-of-the-art stables, jumping and dressage rings, polo fields and miles of maintained trails. Residents can saddle up borrowed … [Read more...]
GE’s Big Bet in Oil & Gas Can Create a Powerhouse
No doubt about it. GE now has a great opportunity to score big in a recovery in the energy industry. The Wall street Journal explains the breaking news on a huge potential merger. General Electric Co. reached a deal to combine its oil-and-gas business with Baker Hughes Inc., creating a publicly traded energy powerhouse that would give GE a cost-effective way to play any recovery in the industry. GE will contribute its oil-and-gas business and $7.4 billion through a special one-time cash dividend of $17.50 for each Baker Hughes share. The new company will be publicly traded on the New York … [Read more...]
What the Ozone Layer and Investing have in Common
In his most recent issue of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, Jim Grant quotes Charles Moore of the London Spectator. This has nothing to do with investing and everything to do with investing. One point that struck home was how scares run in fashions. According to Ridley, the hole in the ozone layer is very much the same size as it was when we all got worried about it in the 1980s, yet few today live in fear as they did then. Even Al Gore has fallen silent in his claim that the hole was sending rabbits living in the Tierra del Fuego blind. A yet more curious example of the change in fashion is … [Read more...]
These Two ETFs Were Hit Hard by Outflows on Friday
High yield ETFs focused on long-duration bonds are seeing a massive exodus by investors worried about rising rates. On Friday, BlackRock's iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) suffered a record outflow of $1 billion. That's in contrast with shorter duration funds that have even seen some inflows as investors readjust. On the same day, State Street's SPDR® Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) watched $182 million walk out the door. Financial Times reporters Joe Rennison and Eric Platt write of the phenomenon: “The recent pullback in the larger high-yield ETFs such as HYG … [Read more...]
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