October 17, 2023

📰 News Organizations

• Apple’s iPhone Loses Top Spot in China. Smartphone sales in China have shown positive growth year over year, driven primarily by an increase in Android sales. As a result, Huawei overtook the iPhone in the No. 1 spot for market share..
  

• Albemarle’s Giant Lithium Deal Collapses. Albemarle Corp. has walked away from its $4.2 billion takeover of Liontown Resources Ltd. after Australia’s richest woman built up a blocking minority and effectively derailed one of the largest battery-metals deals to date.

• US to Tighten Curbs on China’s Access to Advanced Chip Tech. The Biden administration is seeking to strengthen controls on selling graphics chips for artificial intelligence applications and advanced chipmaking equipment to Chinese firms.

• Home Sales on Track for Slowest Year Since Housing Bust. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, purchase mortgages dropped in late September to their lowest levels since 1995, indicating that home sales will stay depressed in the coming months.
  

• LinkedIn Lays Off Nearly 700. The reductions come as the business-oriented social network has seen year-over-year revenue growth slow for eight consecutive quarters. It grew just 5% in the second quarter.
  

• British Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe to Buy Minority Stake in Manchester United. The proposed terms, widely reported, call for Ratcliffe to acquire 25% or more of Manchester United’s nonvoting shares, which are listed on the NYSE.

🐦 Twitter

• The silver-to-Treasuries ratio just broke out from a multi-decade resistance. Hard assets are now becoming more appealing to traditional investment strategies that have had minimal to zero exposure to commodities in the past 40 years. Source.
  

• Multiple compression has driven the move lower in the S&P 500 over the past few months; but since the October 2022 low, forward P/E still accounts for most of the market’s gain, forward EPS just started adding to gains in late August. Source.
  

• Global cybersecurity vendors could reach a TAM of $1.5T to $2.0T in the longer term, more than 10x its current market size. Cloud security, application security, and IoT security are some of the least penetrated markets relative to their TAM. Source.
  

• Qatar Airways has inked an agreement with SpaceX to make Starlink WiFi in the sky available at no cost to every passenger with speeds up to 350Mbps. Qatar Airways is now the largest airline to collaborate with Starlink. Source.
  

• The surge in private credit has led to significantly compressed lending spreads relative to history. The argument is that these funds are lending to better credits. But anyone who has been through a few credit cycles knows that when spreads squeeze forward returns suffer. Source.

📓 Online Publications

• Meta Patents Aim to Read Brain and Body Signals. Meta wants to get into more personal space to make extended reality more real. The company filed two patents for tools that read your body's neural and muscular signals for use in controlling the metaverse.

• Mortgage Bankers Expect the 30-Year Rate To Drop to 6.1% by the End of 2024. The MBA forecasts unemployment to rise and inflation to slow, which are signs of a weakening U.S. economy. That will, in turn, push rates down.

• Housing Market Scenarios. The worst-case scenario for the housing market isn't a price drop but the ongoing unaffordability of homes for a larger population. While existing homeowners prefer price increases, a decrease could contribute to a healthier housing market.
  

• EVs are Miles Away From Taking Over. We are probably a decade away from when the price and quality differences between ICE and EV vehicles disappear. And even as that transition occurs, Gasoline ICE engines continue to get better.
  

• US National Debt Surges, Fueling QE Concerns. The US national debt is rapidly increasing by billions monthly, driven in part by funding for the Ukraine war, raising the possibility of the Fed implementing substantial quantitative easing to facilitate debt monetization.

🎧 Podcasts

• Rite Aid Files for Bankruptcy Amid Slowing Sales, Opioid Litigation. The company has been grappling with slowing sales, mounting debt, and lawsuits alleging it contributed to the nation’s opioid epidemic. Source(6:07)
  

• Netflix Goes Retail. The streamer plans to build retail stores in the US starting in 2025. It will feature dining, shopping, and live entertainment which will leverage its IPs for marketing and diversifying revenue. Source(10:07)
  

• Exxon's $60B Bet on Oil Demand. Exxon, along with other US supermajors, has been less inclined to embrace renewables compared to European counterparts. Exxon's recent $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer signals a strong belief in the enduring demand for oil. Source(6:20)
  

• Netflix and Tesla Take Center Stage During This Earnings Week. On Wednesday, Netflix will update on its password sharing, while Tesla will reassure investors following lower-than-expected vehicle sales. Goldman Sachs, American Express, and AT&T will also report this week. Source(23:38)