The pandemic created a perfect storm for Amazon. With more people shopping, and more people working from home using cloud services, Amazon's profits have soared. Sebastian Herrera reports for The Wall Street Journal (abridged): Amazon. AMZN 0.37% com Inc. reported record quarterly profit as demand remained robust for its deliveries, cloud-computing and advertising businesses, capping a blockbuster earnings season for the world’s largest technology companies. The Seattle company’s profits in the year since the pandemic started exceeded $26 billion, more than the previous three years … [Read more...]
Junk Bond King Predicted This About Real Estate
The rise and fall of junk bond king Michael Milken was well documented in the book, Den of Thieves. Years later, I remember him saying in an interview that the next “big thing” would be the securitization of residential real estate. In other words, you could look up the price of your neighbor’s house and trade it much like a stock. Today, that’s pretty close to reality. You can buy stocks that own thousands of single-family homes or visit Zillow to see your neighbor’s “Zestimate.” As I wrote to you here, when we were in Key West in March, we took a random house tour simply out of curiosity. … [Read more...]
Apple Increases Its Dividend by 7% on Record High Profits
Apple Inc. raised its dividend by 7% today to 22 cents a share and increased an existing share repurchase program after results showed record-high profits. Tim Higgins reports in The Wall Street Journal: Apple Inc. AAPL -0.60% signaled that the historic rise in sales it has achieved during the pandemic is set to continue, addressing a key investor concern as the company reported a profit that more than doubled to a record high for the first three months of the year. New, more expensive models of the iPhone 12 have been a hit with customers, and revenue from Mac computers and iPads also … [Read more...]
The Six Trillion Dollar Man
Just how much taxpayer money is Joe Biden going to spend? So far $6 trillion and counting if he gets his way. Karl Rove writes in The Wall Street Journal: President Biden has 53% approval in the RealClearPolitics average as his 100th day looms. That’s 12 points higher than President Trump at this point in his presidency—but still the second-lowest such rating for any president elected since modern polling of presidential performance began in 1945. Yet the Biden administration acts as if it has a broad mandate to pursue the most ambitious left-wing agenda in history, involving a massive … [Read more...]
Thanks to the Pandemic by 2025, America’s Biggest Retailer May Be Online
According to a report by Edge by Ascential, which claims to deliver "one of the industry's most accurate and actionable sales-driving data, insights and advisory solution sets," by 2025, Amazon.com will outpace Walmart in retail sales. Bloomberg's Spencer Soper reports: Amazon.com Inc. will supplant Walmart Inc. as the biggest U.S. retailer by 2025, according to a new report, suggesting the e-commerce giant has too much momentum for Walmart to stop despite big investments in its own e-commerce offerings. By 2025, U.S. shoppers will buy US$632 billion worth of products at Amazon and retail … [Read more...]
What Does It Take to Be A Successful Investor/Survivor?
What does it take to be a successful investor? Good question. How about this—what does it take to be a successful survivor? Do you really need the word “successful?” You either are, or you’re not. Right? Being an investor shouldn’t be confused with being a speculator—someone who hopes prices go up. An investor thinks about the work that goes into creating generational wealth. The best way I know how you do that is by being an investor in yourself. I learned a great lesson about being an investor when delivering newspapers as a kid. One of my customers tipped me four nickels for every … [Read more...]
World’s Largest Asset Manager Is Using Your Money for Everything But Profit
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is run by Chairman and CEO Larry Fink. Fink has decided that with the power of his position, he's going to force companies to support his political goals. Is this really who you want running your money? He's acting like it's his money, not yours. Pay attention to what's going on here. Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker and Annie Massa report: If BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink ever had second thoughts about injecting his voice into such weighty issues as climate change and voting rights, he doesn’t anymore. “I’ve been very loud at what I’m saying and … [Read more...]
What’s the Rationale for Subsidizing the Mortgage Market?
The Federal Reserve's low interest rates are subsidizing the mortgage market, and creating a bubble in housing. Randall W. Forsyth explains in MarketWatch, writing: When the Federal Open Market Committee begins its two-day meeting on Tuesday, it ought to consider whether its policies aimed to bolster housing may be having negative side effects. With the market for new and existing homes red hot, the rationale for subsidizing the mortgage market has largely passed. Indeed, the Fed’s policies may be hurting home affordability as much as they’re helping. The Federal Reserve’s … [Read more...]
Despite Disturbing Crash, Tesla Logs Record Earnings
Despite the still unsolved crash of a Tesla, the company's earnings hit record highs in the first quarter of 2021. Rebecca Elliott reports for The Wall Street Journal: Tesla Inc. TSLA -4.26% posted a record quarterly profit despite supply disruptions, fueled by rising deliveries and increasingly broad-based demand for electric vehicles. The Silicon Valley car maker has enjoyed booming sales, driven by both its popular Model Y compact sport-utility vehicle and sustained demand in China. The company also has benefited from the wider embrace of plug-in cars as governments across the world … [Read more...]
The Fallout from Archegos Capital Management and More
What risks do certain "family" offices pose to outside investors, considering most, if not all, of the money is the "family’s?” Well, as it turns out, quite a bit. The most recent one making headlines is Archegos, where the family office of Bill Hwang burned banks to the tune of $10 billion. The WSJ reports, the losses are felt far and wide, not just at his dinner table. The battering to Wall Street banks from Archegos Capital Management topped $10 billion after UBS Group AG and Nomura Holdings, Inc. reported fresh hits caused by the fund’s collapse. Archegos, the family office of Bill … [Read more...]
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