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April 12, 2018

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Quotes

A climate of fear is your friend

April 12, 2018

“A climate of fear is your friend when investing; a euphoric world is your enemy.” – Warren Buffett (2013 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders)

Putting the (Insta)cart before the (Grocery) horse: A COVID Favorite's Reality Check! September 19, 2023
After years of rumors of an imminent IPO, Instacart has finally filed for a public offering of it’s shares, aspiring to raise about $600 million from markets, at a pricing of about $9-$10 billion for its equity. Coming in the week after ARM, an AI chip designer, also filed to go public, but with an […]
A Business Upended: Streaming disrupts the Entertainment Business! September 11, 2023
It has been an unsettling summer for anyone with a stake in the movie, television and broadcasting businesses. The strike by screen actors and writers which started in July is now into almost into its third month, with no end in sight, putting at risk the pipeline of movies and shows that were expected to […]
Toys for Billionaires: Sports Franchises as Trophy Assets! August 25, 2023
I have always loved sports, playing tennis and cricket when I was growing up, before transitioning to fan status, cheering for my favored teams from the sidelines. I also like finance, perhaps not as much as sports, but there are winners and losers in the investment game as well. Thus, it should come as no […]
In Search of Safe Havens: The Trust Deficit and Risk-free Investments! August 15, 2023
In every introductory finance class, you begin with the notion of a risk-free investment, and the rate on that investment becomes the base on which you build, to get to expected returns on risky assets and investments. In fact, the standard practice that most analysts and investors follow to estimate the risk free rate is […]
The Price of Risk: With Equity Risk Premiums, Caveat Emptor! August 5, 2023
If you have been reading my posts, you know that I have an obsession with equity risk premiums, which I believe lie at the center of almost every substantive debate in markets and investing. As part of that obsession, since September 2008, I have estimated an equity risk premium for the S&P 500 […]
Country Risk: A July 2023 Update! July 25, 2023
I have looked at country risk, in all its dimensions, towards the middle of each year, for the last decade, for many reasons. One is curiosity, as political and economic crises roll through regions of the world, roiling long-held beliefs about safe and risky countries. The other is pragmatic, since it is almost impossible to […]
Market Resilience or Investors In Denial? A Mid-year Assessment for 2023! July 17, 2023
I am not a market prognosticator for a simple reason. I am just not good at it, and the first six months of 2023 illustrate why market timing is often the impossible dream, something that every investor aspires to be successful at, but very few succeed on a consistent basis. At the start of the […]
AI's Winners, Losers and Wannabes: An NVIDIA Valuation, with the AI Boost! June 23, 2023
I will start this post with a couple of confessions. The first is that my portfolio has held up well this year, in a market that has been top-heavy and tech-driven, and one big reason is that it contains both NVIDIA and Microsoft, two companies that have benefited from the AI story. The second is […]
Good (Bad) Banks and Good (Bad) Investments: At the right price... May 7, 2023
In my last post, I looked at banking as a business, and used a simple banking framework to advance the notion that the key ingredient tying together the banks that have failed so far in 2023 is an absence of stickiness in deposits, created partially by depositor and deposit characteristics (older are stickier than younger) […]

Toys 'R' Us brand may be brought back to life October 3, 2018
Bankrupt toy retailer tells bankruptcy court it is looking at possibly reviving the Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us brands.
JCPenney names Jill Soltau as its new CEO October 2, 2018
Read full story for latest details.
S&P downgrades debt-riddled GE and GE Capital October 2, 2018
New General Electric boss Larry Culp just got a fresh reminder of the debt-riddled balance sheet he's inheriting.
Goldman Sachs slants research to help Democrats, top White House adviser says October 2, 2018
Kevin Hassett, President Donald Trump's top economic adviser, suggested Goldman Sachs may be slanting its economic research to help Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.
Meet GE's new boss: Can Larry Culp right the ship? October 1, 2018
General Electric is turning to a outsider to clean up a mess that took decades to create.
Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford, from the cornfield to the C-suite October 1, 2018
Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford charts her career path, from her first job to becoming the first openly gay CEO at a Fortune 500 company in an interview with CNN's Boss Files.
GE unexpectedly removes its CEO October 1, 2018
Read full story for latest details.
The next big test for Elon Musk arrives this week September 30, 2018
Read full story for latest details.
The S&P 500 achieves best quarter since 2013 September 28, 2018
The longest bull market in history is back on track.

US: Wall St opens higher as softer PCE data supports rate-pause hopes September 29, 2023
WALL Street’s main indices opened higher on Friday (Sep 29) after a softer-than-expected reading on a crucial inflation metric kept alive hopes of a pause in the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes.
Niks Professional lodges preliminary prospectus for Catalist IPO September 29, 2023
NIKS Professional, a Singapore-based provider of dermatology and aesthetic medical services, on Friday (Sep 29) lodged a preliminary prospectus for a Catalist listing.
Commerzbank vows 3 billion euro payouts over 3 years September 29, 2023
COMMERZBANK has promised to return three billion euros (S$4.3 billion) to shareholders for profits earned from 2022 through 2024, placing it at the lower end of a previously given range of potential payouts.
Dollar set for best quarter in a year September 29, 2023
THE dollar backed off 10-month highs on Friday (Sep 29), but was still headed for its biggest quarterly gain in a year, giving the yen some breathing room as intervention watch intensified.
Brokerages eye customer boost on TD Ameritrade retail fallout September 29, 2023
BROKERAGES in Singapore are bracing for an influx of new customers, after trading platform TD Ameritrade (TDA) announced this week that it would stop serving retail investors from December.

Premarket: 7 things to know before the bell
Read full story for latest details.
Why it's time for investors to go on defense
Howard Marks, co-chairman of Oaktree Capital, explains why investors should start treading lightly.
Barnes & Noble stock soars 20% as it explores a sale
Barnes & Noble jumped more than 20% after it said it would review a sale of the troubled company.
Aston Martin falls 5% in London IPO
Aston Martin is joining the ranks of listed automakers with an IPO that values the British company at more than $5 billion.
Honda teams up with GM on self-driving cars
Read full story for latest details.
Toys 'R' Us brand may be brought back to life
Bankrupt toy retailer tells bankruptcy court it is looking at possibly reviving the Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us brands.
Tencent Music plans to go public on US exchange
It dominates the music streaming market in China through its QQ Music, KuGou and Kuwo platforms.
JCPenney names Jill Soltau as its new CEO
Read full story for latest details.
Amazon announces $15 minimum wage for all US employees
Read full story for latest details.
S&P downgrades debt-riddled GE and GE Capital
New General Electric boss Larry Culp just got a fresh reminder of the debt-riddled balance sheet he's inheriting.