Archive for February, 2023

• CWS Market Review – February 28, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 28th, 2023 at 5:07 pm

  (This is the free version of CWS Market Review. If you like what you see, then please sign up for the premium newsletter for $20 per month or $200 for the whole year. If you sign up today, you can see our two reports, “Your Handy Guide to Stock Orders” and “How Not to Get Screwed on Your Mortgage.”)

  The Market’s Cold February Comes to an End

  The month of February has come to an end, and I, for one, won’t miss it. Wall Street was squeezed by a lackluster earnings season and stubborn inflation. That’s a bad combo for stock prices. Apparently, the bulls saw their shadows and scurried off. Indeed, the S&P 500 lost just over 2.6% during February.

  According to Bloomberg, Q4 earnings “were 0.1% below Wall Street’s forecast at the start of earnings season.” That’s very bad. Before the pandemic, companies had beaten forecasts by an average of 3.7%. Versus expectations, this has been on of the worst earnings seasons in years.

  There are, however, reasons for optimism. My friend Gary Alexander points out that over the last 20 years, the stock market has done better in the three months from March through June than in the other nine months combined. We also shouldn’t forget that the stock market is still positive by 3.4% for the year.

  

  The big market story for February is that we thought the Federal Reserve was close to the end of its interest-rate hiking. Now that appears not to be the case.

  How much higher will rates go? Well, that’s still a mystery, but I suspect it won’t be too much longer. Make no mistake: the end of rate hikes will lift a major weight from the back of the stock market. There are few things bulls like better than the Fed slashing short-term rates. Some folks think we’ll see that before the end of the year.

  The other big market story for February was the brief rotation away from high-risk stocks. Those sectors got off to a fiery start this year, but that trend got tripped up in February.

  Investors need to understand that these two stories are related. The stock market has grown more conservative exactly as it has feared a more aggressive Fed. That’s one of the major reasons why our Buy List did so well against the stock market last year, and we’re beating the market again this year.

  Inflation Is Still a Big Problem

  Let’s break down some of the recent economic data. Last Thursday, the Commerce Department said that the U.S. economy grew, in real terms, at an annualized rate of 2.7% in the final three months of 2022. That’s a downgrade from the initial report which said that the economy grew at a 2.9% rate. For comparison, the economy grew by 3.2% in the third quarter.

  While those numbers aren’t great, they’re not that bad. At least it’s not a recession. The first two months of last year showed negative economic growth—the economy receded, but that was more due to technical reasons rather than a broad slow down. There hasn’t been a recession yet, but that may soon change.

  What can we expect for Q1? We’re already two-thirds of the way through Q1. Bank of America said it expects real growth of 1.3%. Goldman Sachs is a little more optimistic. They expect growth of 1.8%. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model is the most bullish. Their model currently expects Q1 growth of 2.7%.

  I have to stress that the economic data can often be confusing, and it seems to point in several directions at once. I’ve often been a guest on financial news shows and I’m afraid I don’t come off well. The producers want to have a bull line up with a bear and have them duke it out. It makes for great TV. Instead, they get me, and I’ll say something like, “Well, it’s hard to say at this point, and there are several conflicting trends at once.” That’s awful TV.

  Back to the economy. The day after the GDP report comes out, the Commerce Department releases the numbers for the Personal Consumption Price index. This is important to watch because it’s the preferred inflation measurement for the Federal Reserve.

  That data showed that inflation rose by 0.6% in January which means inflation accelerated from a 0.2% increase for December. The 12-month rate increased from 5.3% ending in December to 5.4% for the 12 months ending in January.

  The core PCE rate rose by 0.6% in January and by 4.7% for the 12 months ending in January. Wall Street had been expecting a 12-month rate of 4.3%.

  Wall Street, and the bond market in particular, did not take these numbers well. On Monday, the yield on the six-month Treasury got to 5.18%. For context, at one point in June 2021, the six-month bill was yielding just 0.02%.

  

  The futures market now expects the Fed to increase rates by 0.25% at its next three meetings (March 22, May 3 and June 14). After that, traders expect the Fed to pause until the end of the year.

  The labor market continues to be very strong. The last jobs report showed an unemployment rate of 3.4%. That’s the lowest in 53 years. Labor force participation has improved, but I’d like to see it climb higher. Initial jobless claims are down to 192,000. That’s quite good. That data series has trended lower since November.

  The next jobs report won’t be out until the second Friday of the month which will be March 10.

  On Friday, the Census Bureau said that new single-family home sales came in at an annualized rate of 670,000. That’s down 19% over the last year but it’s up 7% over December.

  Over the last year, the average home price is down 5.3% but the median price is down just 0.7%. That suggests that the higher-priced homes are feeling the largest impact.

  On Monday, we got the report on pending home sales. The National Association of Realtors said that pending home sales rose by 8.1% last month. That’s the largest increase since June 2020. Some of the increase is due to lower mortgage rates at the end of last year. Even with the increase, over the past year, pending sales are down more than 24%. From Bloomberg, “The jump beat all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, which called for a 1% advance.”

  On Monday morning, we got the report on orders for durable goods. The headline number was very bad. Orders for durable goods plunged by 4.5%, but that drop was almost all due to Boeing. In December, Boeing got a surge in orders, so that led to a slow January.

  Airplane orders can be very volatile. If we exclude transportation, then orders were up by 0.7%.

  From MarketWatch:

  More important, business investment climbed 0.8% to mark the fastest gain since last August. Investment had declined in three of the last four months of 2022.

  Still, the annual rate of growth in business investment slowed again to 4.3% from 5% — less than half the pace compared with one year ago.

  These orders exclude military spending and the auto and aerospace industries.

  The odds are low that the economy will avoid a recession this year, but it looks like those odds are rising. Now let’s look at a little-known stock that has proved to be a winner in good times and bad.

  Stock Focus Amphenol Corporation

  Last week, we looked at Illinois Tool Works (ITW) which is a big company that’s done very well but it seems to get overlooked. This week, I want to look at another such company.

  This week, we’re looking at Amphenol (APH). Over the last 30 years, APH is up an amazing 326-fold. That’s more than 21% per year.

  

  Despite its success, Amphenol doesn’t seem to get much attention. The stock is rarely mentioned in the media. Last year, it had sales of $12.6 billion. The name Amphenol comes from the company’s original name which was the American Phenolic Corporation. The company was founded by Arthur J. Schmitt in 1932.

  Schmitt found that “insulating plastic could effectively be used to produce tube sockets in a quicker and simpler method than using Bakelite or ceramic.” The company made military equipment and radios during World War II.

  Today, the company is a major producer of electronic and fiber optic connectors, cable and interconnect systems such as coaxial cables. Amphenol is based Wallingford, Connecticut and has 91,000 employees.

  On January 25, Amphenol reported Q4 earnings of 78 cents per share. That beat estimates by three cents per share. For 2022, Amphenol made $3.00 per share. That’s up from $2.48 per share in 2021.

  For Q1, Amphenol expects to fall by 2% to 4% to a range of $2.84 to $2.9 billion. Amphenol sees earnings between 65 and 67 cents per share.

  For this year, Wall Street expects earnings of $2.99 per share, and it sees $3.30 per share for 2024. That gives the stock a decent valuation of 23.5 times next year’s estimate. Ideally, I’d like to see APH a little cheaper, but this is one of the most consistent stocks around.

  That’s all for now. I’ll have more for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review.

  – Eddy

  P.S. If you want to learn more about the stocks on our Buy List, please sign up for our premium service. It’s $20 per month, or $200 per an entire year.

• Morning News: February 28, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 28th, 2023 at 7:05 am

  Sanctions Net Widens to Catch Russia’s Middle East Shipping Company

  China’s Coal Build-Out Is a Dirty, Costly Backup Plan

  Banks Need Even Bigger Low-Carbon Pivot to Avert Climate Crisis

  Nuclear Power’s Revival Reaches the Home of the Last Meltdown

  Biden’s Semiconductor Plan Flexes the Power of the Federal Government

  Pentagon to Reap Rewards From $53 Billion Chips Act

  Powell’s Debt-Limit Alarm Echoes Stealth Lobbying Effort in 2011

  Citi Strategists Say Traders Are Piling Up Short Bets on Stocks

  The SPAC Fad Is Ending in a Pile of Bankruptcies and Fire Sales

  More US Homebuyers Are Paying in Cash, Sweeping a Majority of Sales in Some Markets

  Restaurant Chains Make It Cost More to Be Loyal

  Zoom Revenue Up on Growth From Big Customers

  Target Tempers Strong Fourth Quarter With Cautious Forecast

  Apple Suppliers Are Racing to Exit China, AirPods Maker Says

  Student-Loan Forgiveness Case at Supreme Court Hinges on ‘Harm’

  Elon Musk is the Richest Person in the World Again

  What You Get for Being Loyal to Elon Musk

  TD Bank Agrees to Pay $1.2 Billion to Settle Ponzi Scheme Case

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• The Two-Year Reaches Its Highest Yield Since 2007
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 27th, 2023 at 12:12 pm

  The stock market is having a good day so far. At noon, the S&P 500 is up about 0.5%. Earlier, it was up over 1%.

  The yield on the two-year Treasury reached 4.857%. That’s its highest level in nearly 16 years.

  Our Buy List is outpacing the market by a small amount so far today. Some of our leaders today are Trex (TREX), Middleby (MIDD) and Polaris (PII). Those are all cyclical stocks. Trex and Celanese (CE) will report after today’s close.

  This morning we got the report on orders for durable goods. The headline number was very bad. Orders for durable goods plunged by 4.5%, but that drop was almost all due to Boeing. In December, Boeing got a surge in orders so that led to a slow January.

  Airplane orders can be very volatile. If we exclude transportation, then orders were up by 0.7%.

  From MarketWatch:

  More important, business investment climbed 0.8% to mark the fastest gain since last August. Investment had declined in three of the last four months of 2022.

  Still, the annual rate of growth in business investment slowed again to 4.3% from 5% — less than half the pace compared with one year ago.

  These orders exclude military spending and the auto and aerospace industries.

  Finally some good news for housing. This morning, the National Association of Realtors said that pending home sales rose by 8.1% last month. That’s the largest increase since June 2020.

  Even with that increase, over the past year, pending sales are down more than 24%. From Bloomberg, “The jump beat all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, which called for a 1% advance.”

  Shares of Union Pacific are up about 10% on news that the CEO is stepping down. If the news of you leaving your job adds $11 billion in market value, then it probably wasn’t meant to be.

• Morning News: February 27, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 27th, 2023 at 7:02 am

  Gas Crisis Is Far From Over for Europe Inc.

  As Oil Companies Stay Lean, Workers Move to Renewable Energy

  Higher Interest Rates Slam Stocks and Profits, But Spare Workers

  What Layoffs? Many Employers Are Eager to Hang On to Workers

  I.R.S. Decision Not to Tax Certain Payments Carries Fiscal Cost

  As Wall Street Chokes on Bad Buyout Loans, Rivals Seize Opening

  Buyout Firms Looking for Bargains Will Be Left Disappointed

  Goldman Turns to ‘Make-or-Break’ Unit as CEO Solomon Put to Test

  JPMorgan Investment Arm Purges Its ESG Funds of Adani Stocks

  Why Warren Buffett Doesn’t Worry Much When the Market Goes Down

  Lamar Jackson and the NFL’s Salary Cap Capably Indicate What ‘Inflation’ Isn’t

  Americans Are Saving $500 Million Monthly on Internet Fees

  How Repaying Student Loans Is Changing—Dramatically

  Apartment Rents Fall as Crush of New Supply Hits Market

  Why We Don’t Build More Apartments for Families

  Apple’s iPhones Winning Over Gen Z—and the World’s Premium Market

  From McDonald’s to Ralph Lauren, U.S. Companies Are Planning China Expansions

  China Renaissance Says Its Missing Founder Bao Fan is Cooperating With a Government Probe

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• Morning News: February 24, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 24th, 2023 at 7:04 am

  A Year After Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Tough Sanctions Linger

  Europe Has Weathered an Energy Crisis, for Now

  How One Ukrainian Company Survived, and Thrived, Through a Year of War

  Israel’s Tech Industry Rebels Against Netanyahu’s Judicial Overhaul

  As India Shakes Off Shackles, It Emerges as Global Economic Power

  US Likely to Put a Tech Cap on South Korean Chipmaking in China

  The World’s Most Painful Trade Is Finally Ending as Dollar Peaks

  Biden to Nominate Former Mastercard Executive Ajay Banga to Lead World Bank

  Bank of Japan Governor Nominee Predicts Inflation Rate Will Fall Soon

  Economy Showing Strength in Early 2023 After Last Quarter’s GDP Gain Revised Modestly Lower

  How ‘Base Effects’ Trip Up Our Understanding of the Economy

  Inverted Yield Curve: Is It Still a Recession Indicator?

  Why the Time to ‘Fix’ the 40 in Your 60/40 Portfolio Is Now

  Investors Are Dumping Equities and Cash Amid Fears of Hawkish Fed, BofA Says

  JPMorgan Could Reach $1 Trillion Market Value by 2030, Morgan Stanley Says

  Egg Prices Will Fall Nearly 30% this Year, USDA Says

  History May Wonder Why Microsoft Let Its Principles Go for a Creepy, Clingy Bot

  Netflix Drops Prices in Over 30 Countries Amid Password-Sharing Crackdown

  The Billionaire’s Daughter Knows What You’re Thinking

  Goldman Expects $2.3 Billion More in Potential Losses from Legal Disputes

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• Morning News: February 23, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 23rd, 2023 at 7:09 am

  China’s Tech Rainmaker Vanishes, and So Does Business Confidence

  China’s Cities Are Cutting Health Insurance, and People Are Angry

  Yellen Calls for More Ukraine Support and Warns China Against Helping Russia

  Russian Oil Is Still Flowing, and That Is What the West Wants

  Without Gas and Cash, Fed Up Nigerians Head to Polls

  A $14 Billion Bailout for Eskom Leaves South African Power Crisis Unresolved

  How Arizona Is Positioning Itself for $52 Billion to the Chips Industry

  U.S. Aims to Create Semiconductor Manufacturing Clusters With Chips Act Funds

  SEC, New York Regulator Oppose Binance.US’ $1 Billion Voyager Deal

  Fed Minutes Show Most Officials Favored Quarter-Point Rate Rise

  White House Considers Two Economists for Fed Vice Chair

  Jerome Powell’s Worst Fear Could Come True in Southern Job Market

  After Multibillion-Dollar Fintech Binge, Wall Street Has a Writedown Hangover

  Why Interest Rates on Savings Accounts Are Still So Low

  US Housing Market Posts $2.3 Trillion Drop, Biggest Since 2008

  These Three Words Are Taking Over LinkedIn

  U.S. Labor Board Limits Gag Clauses in Severance Agreements

  Newmont’s Gold Output Stagnates as It Chases Big Takeover

  Lucid Sees Disappointing 2023 EV Production as Orders Drop Amid Weakening Demand

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• Morning News: February 22, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 22nd, 2023 at 7:05 am

  The EV Question for Auto Executives: How Fast to Make the Shift?

  China’s Leading Electric Carmaker Has Arrived in Germany

  China Urges State Firms to Drop Big Four Auditors on Data Risk

  China’s Economic Support for Russia Could Elicit More Sanctions

  Ukrainians Dig Into Their Own Pockets to Fund Everything From Drones to Mortars

  U.S. Mortgage Interest Rates Jump to Highest Level Since November

  US Home-Purchase Applications Drop to 28-Year Low as Rates Jump

  US to Cut Mortgage Insurance Costs for Some New Homeowners

  Inside Taiwanese Chip Giant, a U.S. Expansion Stokes Tensions

  How Arizona Is Positioning Itself for $52 Billion to the Chips Industry

  JPMorgan Restricts Staff’s Use of AI-Powered ChatGPT Bot

  Stellantis Rises on Surprise Buyback, Strong Earnings

  Palo Alto Networks’ Earnings Blowout Spotlights the Club’s Newest Stock

  Chesapeake to Sell Shale Oil Assets to British Chemical Maker Ineos for $1.4 Billion

  Japan Auto Giants Offer Biggest Raises in Decades Amid BOJ Focus

  New York City Coffers are Flush With Cash as It Taps Bond Market

  Pay and Plug: Federal Funds Spur Cleanup of Lost Oil Wells

  These 61 Companies Moved to a 4-day Workweek. Here’s What Happened to Revenue — and Employees’ Relationships to Their Jobs

  How Hybrid Work Is Changing Offices of the Future

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• CWS Market Review – February 21, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 21st, 2023 at 7:21 pm

  (This is the free version of CWS Market Review. If you like what you see, then please sign up for the premium newsletter for $20 per month or $200 for the whole year. If you sign up today, you can see our two reports, “Your Handy Guide to Stock Orders” and “How Not to Get Screwed on Your Mortgage.”)

  The S&P 500’s Worst Day of the Year

  Wall Street has apparently re-entered one of its gloomy phases. The S&P 500 has fallen the last two weeks and today was not a good day for the bulls. The S&P 500 lost 2% today making it the worst day of the year so far.

  Until recently, the market had been doing quite well. From October 12 to February 2, the S&P 500 gained more than 16%. Now that appears to be yet another of several bear-market rallies we’ve seen over the last 14 months. Today was the market’s lowest close since January 20.

  

  It will be interesting to see if the bears can keep this downturn moving. The S&P 500 closed today below 4,000 for the first time in a month. The index is still above its 50- and 200-day moving averages, but the 50-DMA is getting close. It may seem surprising to you that the market is still up 4.1% this year because sentiment has been so negative this month.

  The market’s latest drama centers around the fact that the despite the Fed’s best efforts, the U.S. economy, outside of housing, continues to do well. There’s even talk of the Fed resorting to a 0.50% rate hike at its next meeting. This isn’t the dominant view, at least not yet, but it may be gaining momentum.

  Goldman Sachs said it sees the Fed hiking by another 0.75% this year, with zero rate cuts until 2024. We’ll learn more tomorrow when the Fed releases the minutes from its last meeting.

  Earlier today, Walmart released a very good earnings report. Walmart is so big that its earnings report is effectively like a report on American consumer behavior. The company said that December was its best sales month in its history. For the quarter, Walmart made $1.71 per share. That was 20 cents more than expectations.

  For the quarter, Walmart had sales of $164 billion. That’s a gigantic number and it’s up 7.3% from the same quarter one year before. Despite the good news from the quarter that just ended, Walmart gave a muted forecast for this year. The company warned investors that consumers are getting more cautious. Americans are starting to pull back as they feel the impact of higher prices. The CFO said, “prices are still high and there is considerable pressure on the consumer.”

  Until now, most of the fallout from the rate hikes has fallen on the housing market, and not so much on consumers. That might be changing.

  Walmart wasn’t alone. Today Home Depot cautioned that this year might not be as strong as they had hoped. Of course, there’s a key difference with Home Depot because its business is closely tied to the housing cycle, and higher mortgage rates have severely impeded the housing market.

  Shares of Lowe’s also took a hit today. That’s common on Wall Street. Traders assume that if one company in an industry is having issues, then they all are. On our Buy List, Trex fell over 6% today. The deck company will report earnings this coming Monday. Even with today’s drop, Trex is still our top-performing stock this year.

  Morgan Stanley said that the stock market “could” drop by 26% in the first half of this year. These pronouncements always make me smile since the word “could” is doing an awful lot of work. Sure, many things could happen, but what’s likely to happen? Also, it’s 26%. Not 25% or 27%, but 26%. I appreciate the specificity.

  

  Morgan contends that that the risk-reward ratio has turned against stocks. That makes sense since short-term rates have increased. The one-year Treasury yield closed today at 5.07%. In May 2021, it was yielding 0.04%.

  For some investors, it will be tempting to sit out of the market and earn an easy 5% for one year. That’s not me, but I understand the feeling. Higher rates become stiff competition for stocks, and prices will adjust. That explains a lot of what happened today. And yet, housing continues to be a mess.

  Today’s Terrible Housing Report

  Today we got the home sales report for January, and it was ugly. U.S. home sales fell for the 12th month in a row. CNN said it “was the weakest home sales activity since 2010.”

  The data for single-family homes goes back to 1968, and this is the longest streak in declining home sales on record. According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing homes fell 36.9% over the last year.

  The annualized rate of new home sales fell from over six million one year ago to four million last month. The average rate for a fixed-year mortgage has nearly doubled from around 3.5% to over 6%.

  It’s as if the Fed wants to throw a net around consumers but it keeps catching the housing market instead.

  Despite the lower home sales, home prices are still going up. In January, the median home price was $359,000. While that’s down from the peak of $413,800 in June, it’s still up 1.3% over last year. That’s the lowest year-over-year change in more than ten years.

  It’s a buyer’s market. Last month, the average home spent 33 days on the market. That compares with 19 one year ago. As bad as housing is, I suspect it may finally turn before the end of this year.

  Stock Focus: Illinois Tool Works

  I like to reserve this space for stocks you may not have heard of. My goal is to show investors that there are lots of great stocks to buy once you leave the area where the popular stocks and cool kids hang out.

  This week’s focus is on a very big company that’s still not well-known. Illinois Tool Works (ITW) has 46,000 employees and a market cap of $71 billion which makes it a large-cap stock. It’s odd to call a company like this “little known,” but that seems to be the case. On Wall Street, 18 analysts cover ITW. I’m a sucker for any company with an old-fashioned sounding name.

  Illinois Tool Works is based in Glenview, Illinois. The company describes itself as “a Fortune 200 global multi-industrial manufacturing leader with revenues totaling $15.9 billion in 2022. The company’s seven industry-leading segments leverage the unique ITW Business Model to drive solid growth with best-in-class margins and returns in markets where highly innovative, customer-focused solutions are required.”

  Since 1990, the shares are up 88-fold. Check out this long-term chart:

  

  Last August, ITW increased its dividend for the 51st year in a row.

  Earlier this month, ITW reported Q4 earnings of $2.95 per share. That beat Wall Street’s forecast by 37 cents per share. The stock gapped up 4.6% after the earnings report came out, but it’s given the entire gain back since then.

  ITW is a classic cyclical stock which means its fortunes are closely tied to where we are in the economic cycle. These are the kinds of stocks that have suffered lately, especially today. Contrast that with Hershey, one of our Buy List stocks, which is a classic non-cyclical. HSY was one of 36 stocks in the S&P 500 to close higher today.

  For all of last year, ITW made $9.77 per share. For the current year, the company expects earnings between $9.40 and $9.80 per share. That gives the stock a P/E Ratio of 24 to 25 which is on the rich side. This is the kind of stock to buy just before the economy hits bottom. That means when the Fed is already cutting rates instead of what we’re seeing now.

  That’s all for now. I’ll have more for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review.

  – Eddy

  P.S. If you want to learn more about the stocks on our Buy List, please sign up for our premium service. It’s $20 per month, or $200 per an entire year.

• Morning News: February 21, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 21st, 2023 at 7:06 am

  Europe’s Economy Picks Up After Year of War in Ukraine

  U.S., Allies to Tighten Screws on Russian Sanctions Evasion -Treasury’s Adeyemo

  Putin Tells Business Elite: Don’t Beg for Western Money, Invest in Russia

  China’s Newest Weapon to Nab Western Technology—Its Courts

  Star Banker’s Disappearance Surprises Even China’s State Lenders

  Looming U.S. Default Risk Prompts Investors to Cut Some Debt Exposure

  Morgan Stanley Says S&P 500 Could Drop 26% in Months

  Credit Suisse Shares Hit Record Low on Outflow Claims Probe

  After Testing Four-Day Week, Companies Say They Don’t Want to Stop

  Why Big Layoff Announcements Don’t Always Mean Big Workforce Cuts

  You Want at Least $3 Million in Savings to Retire Comfortably

  Office Landlord Defaults Escalate as Lenders Brace for More Distress

  The Cheap, Powerful Climate Fix Energy Companies Are Ignoring

  HSBC Posts Higher Profit After Rise in Global Interest Rates

  Home Depot Misses on Revenue, Issues Muted Outlook

  Tencent in Talks to Sell Meta’s Quest 2 VR Headset in China

  Big Soda’s Alcohol Drinks Worry Health Experts

  It’s Time to Tear Up Big Tech’s Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card

  ‘Effective Altruism’ Led Bankman-Fried to a Little-Known Wall St. Firm

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• Morning News: February 20, 2023
  Eddy Elfenbein, February 20th, 2023 at 7:08 am

  Russian Crude Exports Surge Despite Impending Cut to Output

  Russia and China Have a Stranglehold on the World’s Food Security

  China Sets New Rules for Overseas IPOs. What It Means for DiDi, Alibaba and Others

  Turkey’s Reeling Economy Is an Added Challenge for Erdogan

  Investors Already Bet Nigeria’s Next Leader Has No Chance of Fixing Fiscal Crisis

  Despised Dictator’s ‘Scary’ Shrine Becomes a Bet on Albania’s Future

  Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up With Inflation

  Debt-Ceiling Standoff Prompts Backup Plans, but They Face Hurdles Too

  JPMorgan Strategists Say Stock Rally Will Fade

  How Pete Buttigieg and Washington Lobbyists Are Fueling the US Airline Crisis

  Supreme Court to Hear Case That Targets a Legal Shield of Tech Giants

  Meta Verification Fee Could Raise $3 Billion in Revenue

  Amazon Corporate Workers Face Pay Reduction After Shares Slip

  Walgreens CEO Bets on Doctors Over Drugstores in Search for Growth

  From CEOs to Coders, Employees Experiment With New AI Programs

  Why the Tesla Recall Matters

  Adani Maps Comeback Strategy After $135 Billion Hindenburg Rout

  Hedge Fund Billionaire Extracts Billions More to Retire

  A Fight Over Wine Sales Highlights Push in U.S. to Expand Access to Alcohol

  Uniqlo’s Quest to Conquer the US, One Cashmere Sweater at a Time

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