The reopening of the Chinese economy after draconian COVID lockdowns is pushing gold prices higher, report Myra Saefong and Joseph Adinolfi in MarketWatch: Gold futures touched a fresh eight-month high Wednesday as traders bet that China’s decision to drop COVID-19 restrictions on its economy would continue to boost prices of precious and industrial metals. The reopening of China’s economy after the lifting of COVID-related restrictions has helped push demand for industrial metals and precious metals higher. Copper futures traded at their highest levels since June and gold on Wednesday … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2023
Let’s Go: It’s Never Too Late to Be a Beginner
Your Survival Guy just finished reading the first draft of a client’s novel written over the last several months. It’s remarkable what she got done in less than a year. As an accomplished writer, she doesn’t need the money. She has plenty of that. But when her daughter suggested she get back into writing, she decided to put pen to paper, and the fun (hard work) began to jump off the pages. How rewarding. It’s a reminder that it’s never too late to start (or restart) something you’re good at or interested in. You have skills you honed during your career, making you the success you are today. … [Read more...]
Luxury Car Supply Chain Issues Ease
Supply chain issues that have plagued the automotive supply chain are easing, and luxury brand automakers BMW and Mercedes are feeling the relief. Patricia Nilsson reports for the Financial Times: Sales at BMW and Mercedes-Benz jumped in the final months of 2022 as the premium German car brands signalled supply chain problems that have plagued the industry were easing. Carmakers around the world have been struggling with a lack of parts since the pandemic, particularly semiconductors, leaving many with large fleets of unfinished vehicles that cannot be delivered to customers. Both BMW … [Read more...]
Don’t Worry, I Won’t Tell Them Our Secret
Being a successful investor is hard. Why? Because if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. And clearly, they’re not. I don’t need to tell you. You already know this. You hear it from friends and family who ask, “Why are you so cool?” when markets are crazy. Don’t worry, I won’t tell them our secret. You understand from here, here, and here that “doing something” rather than just standing there is easier said than done. When the world is crazy, that’s when it’s time to hunker down in your cave for the winter. Like a broken record, investors learn the hard way. They did in the tech bust, … [Read more...]
WATCH OUT LANDLORDS: Are Rentals Due for a Hard Landing?
According to Conor Sen in Bloomberg, the rental market could be headed for a hard landing. Sen writes: For most of the past year, investment risk in the housing market has been focused on the for-sale segment. That was largely because the huge run-up in home prices during the pandemic led to a mentality of “what goes up must come down,” coupled with long memories of the housing bust in the late 2000s. But the data we’ve gotten over the past several months suggest that it’s the rental part of the housing market that’s setting up for a hard landing. Declining rents in 2023 should be the base … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy’s Adventure to Fenway Park for a Winter Classic
OK, you know Your Survival Guy likes to hunker down in his cave for the winter. But on occasion, I’ll venture out amongst the throngs for an adventure. This is where I found myself Monday with family and friends for the National Hockey League’s outdoor Winter Classic between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins at Fenway Park in Boston, MA. The Winter Classic is the NHL’s mid-season Super Bowl, if you will, without the trophy but absolutely with the fanfare, including the most famous goal scorer in Bruins history, Bobby Orr dropping/pitching the first puck, Bell Biv DeVoe singing the … [Read more...]
Can Amazon Mature Successfully?
Amazon, a tech and retail giant, has, according to Dan Gallagher in The Wall Street Journal, come near to the end of its ability to remain a "growth" company. He writes: Andy Jassy’s first full year running Amazon AMZN 0.28%increase; green up pointing triangle has been one for the books—and not in a good way. A macroeconomic slowdown coming just as Amazon has been trying to absorb a major expansion of its fulfillment capacity has proved especially unfortunate for the e-commerce company. When it reports full results for 2022 later this month, Amazon is expected to show its first-ever year … [Read more...]
Can You Guess Where Everyone Moved to in 2022?
No surprises here with the latest results from United Van Lines’ 2022 National Movers Study. What stands out most to Your Survival Guy is my favored New Hampshire being a beacon of freedom from blue Massachusetts. Let’s not forget that New Hampshire and Vermont protect your Second Amendment rights. Contrary to what progressives would have you believe, despite their pro-freedom gun laws, the two states have America’s lowest homicide rates, according to the CDC. Both states were recipients of net migration inflows in 2022, according to the United Van Lines study. Then obviously, there’s … [Read more...]
Russia’s Arctic Oil Seeps into Asia
Despite sanctions and price caps from Western nations, Russian oil is finding its way to Asian nations. Reuters' Florence Tan and Nidhi Verma report on Russia sending oil to China and India, writing: Russia is sending more crude oil produced in the Arctic region to China and India, and at steeper discounts, after Europe slammed its doors shut on Russian supplies last month, trade sources and data show. Arctic grades Arco, Arco/Novy Port and Varandey do not normally head East but are now finding new homes further afield after the European Union, G7 nations and Australia introduced a price … [Read more...]
Happy New Year! Are You Getting the Advice You Deserve?
Did you make last year a good year? If you subscribed to my monthly Survive & Thrive letter, we got to know each other better and gained some perspective. This year will be no different. As my father-in-law, Dick Young, would write in his monthly newsletter Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report, “make it a good month” is a philosophy. Because this is an emotional time of year, I want you to keep your head about you. As I’ve written to you before, stock prices are qualitative. They’re opinions. Dividends are not. They are quantitative. They’re cold, hard cash. You can see them being … [Read more...]