General Mills has announced an agreement to acquire Blue Buffalo pet food company. Blue Buffalo makes natural pet food the company calls "super-premium pet food using only the finest natural ingredients starting with real chicken, lamb or fish." The American market for pet food has been strong, with Blue Buffalo delivering "compound annual net sales growth of 12 percent," over the last three years, according to Bloomberg's Eric Pfanner. He continues: The buzz around the pet-food sector means another suitor may emerge for Blue Buffalo, said Pablo Zuanic, an analyst at Susquehanna International … [Read more...]
BP: World Running out of Oil Demand
According to BP, by 2035 demand for crude oil may peak. By 2040, the world's energy supply pie will be sliced equally between oil, coal, natural gas, and renewables, according to the oil giant's predictions. This new projection pushes up peak oil demand by a half decade or more. Christopher Alessi reports: The world’s appetite for oil and other liquid fuels could continue to grow until around 2035, hitting 110.3 million barrels a day—compared with 95 million barrels a day in 2015—before plateauing and falling off in the run up to 2040, the British oil-and-gas giant said Tuesday in the main … [Read more...]
Will Houseparty Dethrone Facebook?
Facebook is declining in popularity among U.S. teens. The platform has lost 10 percent of its users aged 12-17 according to eMarketer. Ben Rubin, a 30-year old tech entrepreneur has developed a group video chat app that is gaining in popularity with teens. Can Houseparty replace Facebook? The FT reports on Rubin’s goals for his app: Two years ago he landed on the idea for Houseparty, where groups of up to eight friends gather to chat, moving in and out of “rooms” and meeting friends of friends. It has already hosted half a billion chats. The average time spent on the app has gone from zero … [Read more...]
CNBC Blows the Whistle on Blockchain Abuse
When Bioptix Inc. changed its name to Riot Blockchain Inc., investors flooded in to the company they thought was working on blockchain technologies. CNBC says the change may have been made simply to enrich Bioptix's founders. Bloomberg reports: The shares had more than quadrupled to as high as $46.20 after the company changed its name from Bioptix Inc. in October and said it would focus on cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. But the euphoria didn’t last long and the stock has lost more than half of its value since Bitcoin’s Dec. 18 peak, on concern the company isn’t doing much more than … [Read more...]
Investors Flee High-Yield Debt
When economic growth booms, Treasury yields often rise and the prospects for junk bond issuers tends to improve. In an environment where interest rates are rising because economic growth is strong, junk bonds tend to outperform Treasuries. Spreads (difference in yields) on junk bonds narrow as the risk of default falls in a better economy Don’t tell that to the crowd who has been reaching for yield in junk bonds though. As the FT reports, high-yield debt redemptions reached their second-largest net outflow, $10.9 billion last week. Central banks have distorted risk free yields for so long … [Read more...]
How Revolutionary Satellite Tech is Changing the World
Here the FT reports on the revolution in satellite technology that is having a profound impact on many different businesses and industries. Investors, for example, can now estimate traffic at retail establishments or oil storage tankers moving into China. Today, a new revolution in satellite technology is unfolding at warp speed, and its consequences are just as unpredictable. The rapid adoption of billions of smartphones and other connected devices over the past decade has boosted the market for telecommunications satellites, transforming the demand side of the business. But the supply side … [Read more...]
Inflation in America: A Reason to Avoid Emerging Markets?
Traditionally emerging markets haven't performed well in times of inflation in the United States. While most inflation predictions for the U.S. don't put emerging markets in jeopardy, the latest inflation numbers and some predictions are raising red flags that all emerging market investors should be paying attention to. Steve Johnson reports in the FT: Matters could yet become a little fraught, however, with some estimates for inflation starting to come uncomfortably close to the danger level for EMs. Research by Daniel Salter, head of emerging market equity strategy at Renaissance … [Read more...]
Shale Oil Production Booming
The WSJ reports here that shale oil production is growing faster this year than it did when oil was at $100 per barrel. The breakeven price for shale producers is now much lower than it was in 2014. Shale producers “cut costs dramatically” during the nearly three-year-long oil industry downturn, the IEA said. They then took advantage of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel’s decision to cut its own output, which helped prices rise from the low $40s to over $70 a barrel as recently as late last month. “All the indicators that suggest continued fast growth in the U.S. … [Read more...]
Steam Rolled
Shorting volatility was a wildly profitable strategy over the last two years…until it wasn’t. Inverse VIX investors were wiped out in about a week. I can think of more than a few strategies that are employed widely by investors that have a similarly skewed risk profile. … [Read more...]
There Were Red Flags for Volatility Traders
Back in September of last year I pointed out the one-time Target manager who was starting his own hedge fund to wager against volatility. He had lined up $100 million to bet invest. I said that there had been many disturbing trends during this bull market, but that one took the cake. Now you can see why. The VIX index has spiked, and those who have persistently been betting against volatility are getting hammered. … [Read more...]
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