Trading Ideas

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Five years ago, in a routine display of trash talking, Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk made a now infamous quip about how hard it is to manufacture automobiles.“Cars are very complex compared to phones or smartwatches,” he told German newspaper Handelsblatt. “You can’t just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say: Build me a car.”He may be proven wrong. Foxconn Technology Group, through its Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. unit, will establish a joint venture with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, the Taiwanese company said in an exchange filing Thursday. While not yet signed, they expect their 50-50 …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — German rangers stand guard to shoo away visitors from a nondescript stretch of forest near Berlin, where a sign nearby warns of “Lebensgefahr” (mortal danger).The precautions are part of the frantic activity underway to set up Tesla Inc.’s latest assembly plant, Elon Musk’s most daring attack on the German auto establishment. Workers wielding metal detectors have started combing through an area covering some 200 football fields to search for errant ammunition lurking beneath the sandy surface of tiny Gruenheide.It’s the first stage to prepare a site that could churn out as many as 500,000 cars a year, employ …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Facebook Inc. was sued by four potential competitors who accuse it of anticompetitive behavior and who asked a judge to order Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg to give up control of the social media behemoth.The companies also said if Facebook isn’t forced to sell its WhatsApp and Instagram assets, it’ll integrate them into the social network, “consolidating its market power across the globe, likely permanently foreclosing competition in the relevant markets for decades to come.”The lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco by Reveal Chat HoldCo LLC, a successor to the dating site LikeBright; USA Technology and Management …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Chief Justice John Roberts made his first appearance in the Senate chamber Thursday to swear in the senators for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, which is set to begin Tuesday.Here are the latest developments:Parnas Makes More Accusations on Ukraine (10 p.m.)Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, said that then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry told Ukraine’s president that he had to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and the energy company that had Biden’s son as a board member.Perry went to Ukraine with that message last May when he attended the inauguration of President Volodymyr …read more […]

Oil prices were steady on Friday as investors braced for data expected to show China’s economic growth last year slid to its slowest pace in 29 years, holding on to gains for now after Washington and Beijing inked a long-awaited trade deal. The impact of the trade row between Washington and Beijing last year is likely to show up in China’s official 2019 economic data, set to be released at 0200 GMT. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk’s suggestion for how to fix Twitter? Identify the bots.Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla Inc. chief executive officer, was asked Thursday by Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey how he would fix the social network, where Musk has almost 31 million followers.“Give us some direct feedback,” said Dorsey, who spoke to Musk via a video call from a company meeting in Houston. Musk was projected onto a giant screen as thousands of Twitter employees watched the two executives chat. “If you were running Twitter,“ Dorsey continued, “what would you do?”“I think it would be helpful to differentiate” between …read more […]

Let’s start with some good news – according to Goldman Sachs’ chief global equity strategist Peter Oppenheimer, 2020 will see a continuation of last year’s surge. Oppenheimer believes 2019’s bull run was down to valuation expansion. If the history books are anything to go by, then 2020 will see a repeat of the trend.“Years of strong valuation expansion are generally followed by positive returns in the equity market, although typically at a slower pace. Moderate profit growth this year and higher starting multiples point to total returns in the high single digits for the asset class globally in 2020,” Oppenheimer …read more […]

A review of the firm’s latest quarterly letter Continue reading… …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Nestle SA is introducing faux sausages to its meat-substitute lineup as competition for imitation meat spreads beyond burgers.The KitKat maker will start selling a pea protein-based sausage in the U.S. and a soy-based version in Europe this spring, the company said.The Swiss food giant joins rivals Impossible Foods Inc. and Beyond Meat Inc. in a race to offer plant-based meat alternatives after demand for vegan burgers exploded.“The burger was what you would call in the tech industry the killer app — it got the whole plant-based trend running,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider said at a media event …read more […]

The spotlight on Friday will be on the housing market and industrial sector. …read more […]

Bombardier, which sold control of the A220 program to Airbus in 2018 for a token Canadian dollar as part of broader efforts to improve its financial footing, said the venture needed more investment and might be subject to a writedown during fourth-quarter results next month. Bombardier also said it is “reassessing” its minority stake in the A220 jet program, which will require additional cash to ramp up production. …read more […]

I’m frequently asked how markets do during a presidential election year.
Looking back through history, there are certain trends in the markets during the first, second, third and fourth years of a presidential term.
Market watchers forecast based on how history repeats itself during these cycles. So today, I’ll focus on what tends to happen in the fourth year of a presidential term.
Since 1952, the Stock Trader’s Almanac tells us, the Dow has returned 10.1% on average when a sitting president has run for reelection.
(Of course, there is no crystal ball for the market. Past performance is no indicator of future performance. …read more […]

New investment terms are showing up every day. Some of them fade but the one we’re about to review is becoming more common. As the market continues to grow, so will the number of investment unicorns. That’s why I’ve put together this short guide and a list of unicorn startups.
What is an Investment Unicorn?

An investment unicorn is a privately held startup that’s climbed to a valuation of at least a $1 billion. And most unicorns have come from the tech sector thanks to their ability to scale their business. For example, unicorns like Airbnb and Robinhood can reach millions of …read more […]

A business development company, or BDC, is a unique class of company that operates much like a private equity firm but with many of the same oversight requirements as a publicly-traded stock. Profits from loans and other investments are delivered to shareholders via regular and generous dividends but without the constraints of conventional private equity funds. Also, current low interest rates allow them to access capital cheaply while a surging U.S. economy means a tailwind behind their investments. …read more […]

The cannabis sector is on fire – in a good way!
What a difference a couple of months can make. Back in November and December, pot stocks were getting killed across the board.
The thinking now is that these stocks have bottomed – and that they’ll no longer decrease significantly.
It’s important to know that what happened with pot stocks is actually a game Wall Street plays all the time – and you need to know how to interpret it.
Let me explain…
To start, brokers hype up companies, which leads to an increase in share value of those companies. Then the hype fades and …read more […]