China’s Meteoric Rise Extremely Similar To Japan In 1980s, Walmart Falls Short On Earnings, And Other Stories Worth Reading (5/19/15)
Quartz reports Chinese banks took the first four spots in Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful companies. But this is nothing to really celebrate because most of their asset comes from loans. Gwynn Guilford of Quartz writes, “As it happens, in the late 1980s, a similar trend took hold: The world’s five biggest banks by total assets were Japanese. China’s not quite there, but it’s pretty close.”
That’s scary. Coupled with low interest, pro-bank market reforms, and the stock market boom, we can only conclude that China is going to end up like Japan: economic collapse.
Walmart reports $114.83 billion in earnings vs. the expected $116.32 billion. The retailer was short $1.6 billion due to lower sales overseas.
Fortune reports shoppers leveraged low gas prices to pay off debt instead of spending money. (Are consumers getting smarter, or what?)
https://twitter.com/Selerity/status/600617531678785536
Feedback loops. It started entering the American vernacular in the late 1930s. America was suffering from the Great Depression, people were scared to spend their money, and the economy, as we all knew it, tanked. Today, a lot of people are certain we won’t ever see anything like the Great Depression, but all the signs are there. With interest rates at an all-time low, people are still afraid to spend their money.
Government and corporate interests are low, so why aren’t they spending money on American infrastructure? Create jobs, spur confidence, kickstart the economy, inspire growth.
Thanks to low oil prices, oil projects around the globe have more or less slowed to a grind.
But banks are projecting a “W”-shaped recovery. Will we see this in the third quarter?
Bank Of America believes the S&P 500 will hit 2200 by the end of the year. (They’ve also announced 11 more calls. What do you think?)
Well, and so does Goldman Sachs.
But Morgan Stanley says it’s too early to call the top right now.
Housing hits a seven-year high: 1.14 million annual rate.
Gold ended its five-day streak as the dollar rose against the euro. Gold doesn’t pay interest!
Urban Outfitters falls 15% after analysts downgrade to “Neutral”.
The NYSE is going to accommodate a new index for bitcoin. Welcome to the digital world, y’all.
Looks like Pandora is making moves to offset Tidal (psh, maybe not?) with their latest acquisition, Next Big Sound. The amount has not yet been made public.
Apple is cutting prices and introducing new computers. Oh hell-to-the-fucking yes! But it still looks like not everyone will be able to afford the Retina 5K displays (slashed to $2299).
Are you guys ready for this? Analysts have set Netflix to hit $850. Netflix stock jumped up 0.6% in pre-market after this news.
The world is running away from US stocks like the plague. International investors are putting their money into European markets, as a modicum of factors played into their decision (strong US dollar, worrisome economic indicators in US markets…).
Fingers are pointing to a fourth-consecutive day of the S&P 500 closing on a high note. (Let’s all cross our fingers, though.) With higher housing starts, the futures market have been optimistic.
The market opened eight minutes ago…
Keep the bull run going!
Foreign-exchange traders are on their “best behavior” to avoid any more fines.
Shake Shack is on a tear again, gaining what they had lost on Thursday. They’re up almost 30% today. Jesus.
This Chinese company lost $8 million, totally is not profitable, just hired a new CEO, <a href="http://“>yet their stock is flying high. Totally unreal.
The Dow closes at a record and analysts say they think it can go higher.
But the S&P 500 failed to maintain its growth streak!
