"Tech’s troubles on Wall Street haven’t hit Boston yet — but they could" by Andy Rosen Globe Staff November 19, 2018
Technology stocks took a beating on Monday, the latest in a string of downdrafts that has erased hundreds of billions of dollars in market value from companies such as Apple and Google and left investors concerned that the industry’s long period of runaway growth is over.
In Boston, where there are few tech giants and hundreds of startups, the tremors on Wall Street have so far not shaken the faith of executives and their investors. In the past week, a handful of young companies have announced funding from early-stage investors. The venture team at Bain Capital said it had raised a new $1 billion fund to invest in promising companies, but the local tech sector isn’t immune to the turmoil on Wall Street. No boom lasts forever, and when this one ends, Boston could get hurt.
Related:
"Two private equity owners of the iconic Toys R Us toy chain will be handing over a $20 million hardship fund to the thousands of former workers left jobless and without severance after the chain was liquidated in June. The move by KKR and Bain Capital is aimed at helping the 30,000 workers affected by the store closures and comes following efforts by worker-backed groups. Workers are pushing to get an additional $55 million they believe they’re owed and are looking to other firms that had a stake in Toys R Us and that they believed played a role in the chain’s demise."
They should have unionized.
“The storyline has been so positive, with such good prospects for such a long time that it’s hard to remember that there could be a significant headwind at some point,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “The Boston region is deeply involved with the digital sector, and itself could see ramifications of any adjustment.” While the Dow Jones industrial lost 396 points, or 1.6 percent, on Monday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 3 percent. The biggest names in tech — including Amazon, Facebook, and Netflix — all tumbled.
While the focus has been on publicly traded stocks, a broad pullback could also affect the significant wealth generated here by venture capital, private investments to support the rapid growth of emerging tech companies.
Nationwide, that money has generally been concentrated in tech hubs such as Silicon Valley, Calif., New York, and Boston.
Venture-backed companies are generally insulated from the caprice of the stock market, but that doesn’t mean they’re invulnerable, and since Boston depends more heavily on such companies, it has more to lose.
Josh Lerner, a Harvard Business School professor who studies entrepreneurial management, said his research has shown that venture investors tend to draw back when the stock market retreats.
“Venture capital, even though it’s private, is equity, and as such we would expect that it’s not divorced from what’s going on in public markets,” he said.
Geopolitical shifts could be a factor in slowing the flow, however.
Saudi Arabia has been key among overseas tech investors, which has led some to wonder whether the international firestorm over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi might have some effect on the sector.
Increasing trade tensions between the United States and China could also have an effect on foreign investment, said Kirsten Morin, co-head of global venture capital at Aberdeen Standard Investments, but she said she doesn’t see as much risk that investment in tech will slow down because of the companies’ performances alone. The startups she has examined are doing well, she said.
They are going to the dogs, too.
“Ultimately, you would first have to see companies encountering operational challenges before they would think about needing to make workforce changes,” she said. “Unless the economy changes dramatically, they seem to have been beating their plans in recent quarters.”
Yeah, nothing to see here or there.
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Related: Verizon’s Boston plans include expanded Fios service, 2,000 more jobs at North Station
Since they are blaming the Khashoggi situation, let's stick with that:
"Saudi king stands by crown prince as outrage over Khashoggi killing spreads" by Ben Hubbardand Carlotta Gall November 19, 2018
BEIRUT — King Salman of Saudi Arabia stood by his son and crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Monday, avoiding any mention of the international outrage toward the kingdom in his first public remarks since Saudi agents killed the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month.
The echoes of that killing continued to spread, with Germany sanctioning 18 Saudis suspected of involvement and freezing arms exports to Saudi Arabia on Monday, and the Turkish defense minister suggested that Khashoggi’s killers could have left the country with his body.
Khashoggi’s killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul has become a lightning rod for Western criticism of Saudi Arabia, its human rights record, and the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s day-to-day ruler. A growing chorus of current and former Western officials have concluded that an operation as elaborate as the one to kill Khashoggi could not have been carried out without the prince’s knowledge, and US officials told The New York Times and other publications last week that the CIA had concluded that the prince had ordered the killing.
Saudi officials have vehemently denied that the crown prince had any involvement in the death of Khashoggi, a Virginia resident who wrote columns for The Washington Post that were critical of some Saudi policies. They have portrayed the killing as a result of a rogue operation to return Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia.
The heightened scrutiny of Crown Prince Mohammed, 33, has caused speculation in some quarters that he could be pushed aside, but in Saudi Arabia’s absolute monarchy, only his father has the authority to do so and in Monday’s remarks he showed no intention to sideline his son.
In his annual address to the Shura Council, the kingdom’s advisory assembly, the 82-year-old monarch stuck to general statements on official Saudi policy, calling on the world to stop Iran’s nuclear program, press for political solutions to the wars in Syria and Yemen, and keep up the fight against terrorism.
If the king made any reference to the aftermath of Khashoggi’s killing, it was done obliquely.....
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Related:
Trump issues statement ‘standing with Saudi Arabia’ after Khashoggi murder
That is an Associated Press piece in place of the WaComPo story that was in print:
Trump defends Saudi Arabia's denial
What do you mean Page not found and We're sorry for the inconvenience?
"Saudi women’s rights advocates reportedly abused while in prison" by Kareem Fahim Washington Post November 20, 2018
ISTANBUL — Several women’s rights activists who have been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for more than six months have been subjected to psychological or physical abuse while in custody, including sleep deprivation and beatings, according to four people familiar with the conditions of the activists’ detention.
Some of the abuse occurred during interrogations, during which several of the women were administered electric shocks or flogged, two of the people said, citing a witness account. Other women displayed what witnesses said were apparent signs of abuse, including uncontrollable shaking or difficulty standing, the people said.
When the pre$$ starts waving women at you, you know there is a deeper agenda at stake.
The allegations of abuse and torture were impossible to independently confirm. Families are reluctant to repeat what they hear from the detainees during prison visits, fearing retaliation by the authorities. The four people who spoke about the abuse, all Saudi citizens, have contacts in the prison or had been briefed on conditions there. They spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern that revealing their names could identify the detainees.
The Saudi government did not immediately respond to an e-mail sent Monday requesting comment on the allegations. In previous cases, Saudi officials have vigorously denied detainees are tortured while in the state’s custody.
The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents last month in Istanbul has heightened scrutiny of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and fueled rumors that Saudi authorities were considering releasing some of the female activists to blunt some of the attacks on the kingdom, but seven weeks after Khashoggi’s killing, none of the activists have been released and there has been no indication that prosecutors have taken new steps to formally indict them.
Saudi authorities began detaining the country’s most prominent feminists in mid-May, after several waves of previous arrests had targeted other high-profile figures, including clerics, royal family members, business executives, and independent political activists. Some of the women had worked for decades to repeal a female driving ban in Saudi Arabia. The arrests, which included men who had worked with the female activists, drew international outrage in part because they occurred just weeks before the Saudi government officially lifted the driving ban — and hailed its repeal as an important step forward for women’s rights in the kingdom.
Saudi authorities, which usually withhold the names of criminal suspects, also mounted a highly unusual campaign to publicize the women’s identities after detaining them on accusations that included illegal contacts with foreign countries.
None of the activists have been formally charged or been granted access to lawyers, the people familiar with the matter said.
So much for the rule of law the U.S. champions so much.
According to the people familiar with the detentions, some of the female activists were detained for months at a building believed to be a hotel, where some of the worst abuses occurred at the hands of male interrogators. Many were then transferred to Dhahban prison in the coastal city of Jiddah. In both facilities, detainees were held in solitary confinement for long periods.
In addition to the beatings and electric shocks, at least one prisoner was hung from the ceiling during an interrogation. Another prisoner was told, falsely, that a relative had been killed. A third inmate has attempted suicide several times, the people familiar with the matter said.
A former inmate at Dhahban prison who said she was released about three months ago said that she had witnessed interrogators beat inmates at the facility, using phone cables and other implements. She did not have any specific information about the treatment of the women’s rights activists, she said.
Amnesty International released a report Tuesday also alleging that several of the Saudi activists detained since May have reportedly faced sexual harassment, torture, and other forms of mistreatment while being interrogated. The report was released subsequent to The Washington Post’s independent interviews with the four people familiar with detention conditions.
The report said that one of the female detainees was reportedly subjected to sexual harassment by interrogators wearing face masks. According to testimonies cited by Amnesty, the human rights group also reported that activists were repeatedly administered electric shocks or flogged. Some of the activists were left unable to walk or stand properly.
‘‘Only a few weeks after the ruthless killing of Jamal Khashoggi, these shocking reports of torture, sexual harassment, and other forms of ill-treatment, if verified, expose further outrageous human rights violations by the Saudi authorities,’’ said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East research director.
According to Amnesty, at least a dozen women and men associated with the Saudi feminist movement have been detained since May. Several who were well known for their activism had been arrested in the past, including Samar Badawi, Aziza al-Yousef, and Loujain al-Hathloul. The activists had fought to end the driving ban as well as to repeal regulations that require women to seek the permission of a male guardian to travel or to work.
Saudi officials denied that the arrests were because of the women’s activism and accused them of trying to pass on information to foreign countries hostile to Saudi Arabia.
When the detentions began in May, the women’s pictures were circulated in pro-government media outlets with headlines that branded them as ‘‘traitors.’’
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Yes, "barring an unexpected discovery of presidential spine, it seems likely that Congress will need to intervene" as the Globe also says that Gulen, a US resident wanted by Turkey, must be protected.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Palantir, Merck KGaA form Boston venture to mine health care data" by Jonathan Saltzman Globe Staff November 19, 2018
Palantir Technologies, the Silicon Valley data analytics company — and a contractor for the US intelligence community — and German drug maker Merck KGaA announced Monday they were forming a joint venture in the Boston area to help advance cancer research.
The collaboration will be called Syntropy. It will offer data analytics tools to teaching hospitals, biotechnology firms, pharmaceutical companies, and others so that scientists can detect patterns that could lead to the development of new cancer treatments.
Too often, said executives at Palantir and Merck KGaA, drug makers and academic research centers collect data from clinical drug trials but don’t thoroughly mine it or compare it with information gathered by other institutions.
Syntropy will combine Palantir’s Foundry data platform with the scientific know-how of Merck KGaA’s life sciences unit, MilliporeSigma, to sift data for potential nuggets, the executives said. MilliporeSigma has 1,600 employees in the state, including 1,000 on a massive campus in Burlington.
“There have been lots of attempts to do this that have failed,” said Alexander Karp, the billionaire businessman who cofounded Palantir, of Palo Alto, Calif., and serves as its chief executive.
“Sure, there will be jobs,” Karp said. “Sure, there will be offices. Sure, there will be money. But the main thing that will be created will be the advancement of medical progress.”
Palantir has attracted considerable attention in recent years for providing data-mining software to US intelligence agencies. The company was credited with helping the government and Navy SEALs hunt down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.
PFFFT!
However, the company has drawn criticism from civil libertarians who worry that Palantir’s data mining might violate the privacy of ordinary Americans.....
WHY WORRY!
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Right below that article, this:
"Breaking the code: program trains young adults to enter computer industry" by Morgan Hughes Globe Correspondent November 20, 2018
In a crowded classroom in downtown Boston, Anne Demosthene was using NASA data to build a weather app.
She had come a long way in a short time. Just seven weeks earlier, Demosthene was learning basic technical skills in HTML.
“It was over my head a day ago,” she said with a laugh.
Through a nonprofit called Resilient Coders, Demosthene and about 20 other young adults are working to turn the tech industry’s traditional image of software engineers on its head.
The group helps young people of color in the Boston area break into an industry that typically relies on recruits from elite universities and other technology companies, said David Delmar, the group’s founder and executive director.
This approach, Delmar said, has made it difficult for minorities to enter the field.
“This workforce pipeline is so well-baked that if you do not have access to it, it’s much harder to break into professional employment,” Delmar said.
Better than the prison pipeline.
Delmar said minorities also need to prepare for a rapidly changing job market. The rise of automation will be “catastrophic” to communities like Roxbury and Dorchester, where many people work as retail associates or drivers — jobs that may be on their way out.
“We’re worried about the future of Boston’s workforce,” Delmar said.
What are they going to do with the surplus population?
Through a program called Resilient Bootcamp, students of color learn coding languages such as Javascript, React, and Node. They complete projects that range from website interfaces to apps.
The 14-week boot camp is both a learning experience and networking opportunity, Delmar said. Teachers are on the lookout for talent, and students can display their skills first hand. This is crucial, Delmar said, because computer engineers tend to follow a “show, don’t tell” philosophy.
Another pervert procurement front?
“Interviewing someone with a capital ‘I’ is not a perfect way to get to know them,” said Delmar, who used to screen candidates when he worked at PayPal.
Many students gave up full-time jobs to enter the program.....
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"US Treasury to scrutinize all-cash home sales in Boston" by Tim Logan Globe Staff November 19, 2018
Secret buyers of luxury real estate in Greater Boston will soon get extra scrutiny.
The US Treasury Department has added Suffolk and Middlesex Counties to a program that requires people who buy homes with cash through shell companies to share their name with the government. It’s a bid to combat money laundering in high-end real estate, which critics say is becoming increasingly popular with buyers who can hide their identity behind a limited liability company or other shell entity.
Such shell-company deals are legal, and there are no state or federal laws requiring public disclosure of an owner’s name. The rules, however, would require title companies to disclose to the government the identity of people who make all-cash purchases through a shell company. That enables prosecutors of financial crimes to screen for people they’re investigating for potential criminal activity.
The Treasury launched the program in 2016 in New York and Miami and has gradually expanded by adding more cities and less-expensive purchases. The latest expansion, announced Thursday, will bring the review to 12 housing markets and all deals worth $300,000 or more — which would cover nearly all cash sales in Suffolk and Middlesex counties. The government also, for the first time, will review deals in “virtual currencies” such as Bitcoin.
The expanded program “will further assist in tracking illicit funds and other criminal or illicit activity,” the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in a statement.
The issue of shell-company purchases in recent years has become more relevant in Boston, as a wave of luxury condo buildings have drawn high-end investors and wealthy buyers who want to remain discreet. Some members of the City Council, concerned units are sitting empty amid a housing shortage, have called for greater public disclosure of ownership. Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh had asked the Treasury to add the city to its anti-laundering program.
What are they saying, that the Bo$ton building boom has a foundation of dirty money?
A report in September by the Institute for Policy Studies looked at 12 high-end condo buildings in Boston and found that 35 percent of the units are owned by LLCs, trusts, and other kinds of shell companies. Study author Chuck Collins said adding Boston to the program was “a positive outcome” from the report.
“The issue of illicit funds and secrecy really touched a nerve around Boston,” Collins said. “No one wants Boston to become Miami or New York City as a center of money laundering.”
The potential impact on the housing market is unclear.
A study released this summer found that shell-company purchases in Miami fell sharply after the new rules took effect there, but that overall sales were little changed, suggesting would-be shell buyers simply found another way to buy real estate. In several of the cities that the Treasury has been studying, high-end sales have levelled off for other reasons.
In Boston, real estate brokers say, luxury condo buildings typically conduct their own scrutiny to identify potential buyers, and that episodes of real-estate-related money laundering and other financial crime has been relatively rare.
Yeah, don't kill the golden goo$e!
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Related:
"Confidence among US homebuilders plummeted by the most since 2014 as the highest borrowing costs in eight years restrain demand, adding to signs of a cooling housing market that will weigh on the Federal Reserve’s debate over how far to raise interest rates......"
Also see:
Slowdown in building of single-family homes
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
They be Ghosn you:
"Nissan chairman is arrested over financial misconduct allegations" by Motoko Rich and Jack Ewing New York Times November 20, 2018
TOKYO — Carlos Ghosn, who created an alliance between Nissan and Renault that made it effectively the world’s largest carmaker, was arrested by authorities in Japan on Monday in a remarkable tumble for one of the industry’s most powerful and admired leaders.
Ghosn, a larger-than-life figure widely hailed for saving Nissan, reviving Renault, and rethinking how automakers could share technologies, was detained after an internal company inquiry found that he had underreported his compensation to the Japanese government for several years.
The alliance, which in 2016 was broadened to include Mitsubishi, accounts for 10.6 million cars sold annually. The arrest of Ghosn, who is chairman of Nissan, chief executive of Renault, and chairman of the board at Mitsubishi, stunned the industry. It comes at an uneasy time: The companies face a slowing economy, a global trade war, and a shift toward electric cars.
If the alliance were one entity, it could be considered the world’s largest automaker, on track to sell more cars than Toyota or Volkswagen this year — if it can match results in the first six months of this year, when it sold 5.5 million vehicles.
Hiroto Saikawa, Nissan’s chief executive, said he would recommend to his board, which will meet Thursday, that Ghosn be removed. “Needless to say, this is an act which cannot be tolerated by the company,” he said.
Saikawa, speaking at a news conference at Nissan headquarters in Yokohama, described Ghosn and Greg Kelly, a director who was also arrested Monday, as “masterminds” of a long-running scheme to mislead financial authorities. He offered few details, citing the prosecutors’ continuing investigation.
“I feel a big disappointment,” said Saikawa, who did not bow in deep apology before television cameras, as is customary in Japan. “And I feel frustration and despair, and indignation or resentment.”
Kelly was Nissan’s first American director, appointed in 2012, but had a much lower profile than Ghosn. Neither of the men could be reached for comment.
Nissan said it was cooperating with Japanese prosecutors and that its investigation into Ghosn began after a whistleblower said he had misrepresented his salary and used company assets for personal purposes.
Born in Brazil to Lebanese parents and educated in France, Ghosn made his reputation after joining Nissan in 1999. Renault, where Ghosn was an executive vice president, had bought a large stake in the Japanese company, which was on the verge of collapse at the time.
Ghosn made sweeping changes at Nissan, closing five domestic factories and cutting 21,000 jobs. Later, he engineered an arrangement between Renault and Nissan that allowed them to operate like a single carmaker. Short of a full merger, the alliance enabled them to share the cost of developing new models and to negotiate better deals with suppliers by buying components together.
As chairman and chief executive of the partnership, Ghosn was celebrated in Japan: His life story was made into a manga comic, although critics on the left noted he had earned his French nickname, “Le cost killer.” Still, he had enough political savvy to retain the support of the French government, which owns 15 percent of Renault, despite some bitter pay disputes.
In 2016 and 2017, Ghosn’s salary at Renault was questioned publicly, by French government officials and a shareholder group; this year he agreed to a 30 percent pay cut in return for another four-year term as chief executive.
Under Ghosn, the alliance overcame the kinds of differences in corporate and national cultures that have often doomed megamergers like the ill-fated marriage between Daimler and Chrysler, which was dissolved in 2007.
“His world is the world of efficiency,” said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen who follows the auto industry. “It’s the American style of management: clear plans, clear goals, and permanently monitored.”
With the corruption, too.
Dudenhöffer said it was questionable whether Nissan or Renault would have survived in the brutally competitive market for mid-price autos without Ghosn. In a measure of investors’ regard for him, Renault shares slid 10 percent on the Paris stock exchange Monday; Nissan shares fell 9 percent in trading in Düsseldorf, Germany.
According to Nissan’s securities filings, Ghosn was paid 735 million yen, about $6.5 million, in cash in 2017. That is a drop of 33 percent from the 1.1 billion yen he received in 2016.
He stepped down from the top job at Nissan last year but remained at the top of the alliance.....
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Related:
Citizens Bank pursues national ambitions
They are looking to find new corporate clients because it's all about the Benjamins, of course.
"BuzzFeed founder’s big idea to revive its fortunes? A merger with rivals" by Edmund Lee New York Times November 20, 2018
BuzzFeed has long positioned itself as the future of publishing — it practices the mysterious arts of digital media better than anyone. From the beginning, its ability to know, before anyone else, what sort of content would go viral delivered it a large audience and helped the company attract half a billion dollars in venture money and a steady stream of mostly positive media attention.
Then came 2017, but efforts to reestablish its fortunes have already begun.
Oh, I'm so happy then!
Still, these are largely stopgaps. The better solution according to Jonah Peretti, a founder of the company and its chief executive, would require a much more audacious effort: a series of mergers with five or six top Internet publishers.
Peretti extolled the logic of combining forces: A larger entity could lobby for a higher percentage of the ad dollars Facebook and Google share with publishers whenever their content, videos in particular, run on the platforms. In turn, publishers can supply them with content that is safe for users and friendlier for advertisers.
He pointed to how Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have had to answer for the latest content crisis plaguing social media. In addition to Russia’s misinformation campaign to try to sway the 2016 presidential election in the United States, hate speech and conspiracy theories regularly show up on their platforms.
OMFG!
“Having some bigger companies that actually care about the quality of the content feels like something that’s very valuable,” he said......
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
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{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Big technology and Internet companies tumbled again Monday, leading to broad losses across the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly fell 500 points. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, the most valuable companies on the market, sustained some of the worst losses. After a brutal October, stocks had started to recover early this month, but continued losses for tech companies have sent major indexes lower again. Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide Investment Management, said investors are dumping the high-profile technology companies that have dominated the market recently. He said investors are picking companies based on traditional profit and revenue figures instead of the kind of user growth figures favored by tech companies. Investors focused again on trade tensions between the United States and China after the two countries clashed at a Pacific Rim summit over the weekend. A steep loss for Boeing, a major exporter which would stand to suffer greatly in a protracted trade war, weighed heavily on the Dow. Boeing gave up 4.5 percent to $320.94, but is still one of the best-performing stocks in the 30-stock index.
Boeing is still dropping.
Apple fell 4 percent to $185.86 on renewed worries that iPhone sales could slow, Microsoft lost 3.4 percent to $104.62 and Amazon gave back 5.1 percent to close at $1,512.29. High-dividend stocks like real estate companies and utilities, which investors favor when they are fearful of market turmoil, held up better than the rest of the market. Among tech and Internet stocks, chipmaker Nvidia dropped another 21 percent to $144.70. Nvidia said last week that it had a large number of unsold chips because of a big drop in mining of cryptocurrencies. Facebook sank 5.7 percent to $131.55 and Netflix lost 5.6 percent to $270.21. The S&P 500 index of technology companies has now plunged 13.1 percent since the end of September. Nissan said its chairman, Carlos Ghosn, was arrested Monday and will be dismissed from the company after allegedly under-reporting his income. Nissan said an internal investigation found Ghosn under-reported his income by millions of dollars and engaged in other ‘‘significant misconduct.’’ US-traded shares of Nissan lost 5.8 percent to $16.90. In Paris, shares of Nissan’s partner Renault dropped 8.4 percent."
Also see: Dow drops more than 500 points as tech and retail stocks fall
"Stock market’s slide is flashing a warning about the economy" by Matt Phillips New York Times November 20, 2018
NEW YORK — Unemployment is near lows not seen in half a century. The American economy is set for its best year since 2005. Large corporations are producing giant profits. Even wages are starting to rise, and the stock markets are a mess.
The losses extended on Tuesday, as the S&P 500 turned negative for the year, stoking fears that one of the longest bull markets in history could be at risk.
The stock market struggles may seem incongruous with an American economy that by many measures looks strong, but stocks often act as an early warning system, picking up subtle changes before they appear in the economic data.
In recent weeks, retail stocks have been hit over concerns of rising costs, a sign that the trade war may be starting to take a toll and that higher wages are cutting into profits. Commodities and the companies that depend on them have been pummeled by the prospect of weaker demand should the global economy slow. Five tech giants — Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Netflix — have shed more than $800 billion in market value since the end of August, the fallout from slowing growth and regulatory scrutiny.
The S&P 500 closed on Tuesday at 2,642, down 1.8 percent. Other markets also flashed warnings, with oil dropping by 6.8 percent, falling deeper into bear territory.
The sell-off doesn’t mean the United States is headed into a recession. The stock market suffered several sharp stumbles in recent years before climbing to new highs on the back of booming corporate profits and strong economic growth, but the recent market drop is consistent with a potential downshift in the American economy. In 2018, a hefty dose of fiscal stimulus allowed the United States to shake off the growth worries in China, Europe, and the rest of the world. It won’t have the same potency next year, leaving the US economy vulnerable to a global slowdown.
“I think there’s very clear signs that investors are beginning to worry about weaker growth in the coming year or so, and how that’s going to feed through to corporate earnings,” said Michael Pearce, senior US economist with Capital Economics.
Until recently, investors were willing to ignore the geopolitical dramas, economic risks, and other issues clouding the outlook for US companies. Now, they are jittery, pressing sell at even small signs of trouble.
Strong growth and deep corporate tax cuts have supercharged corporate profits this year. Once all the results are tallied up, the third-quarter earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are expected to be up more than 28 percent from a year earlier — outpacing previous quarters, but those numbers haven’t satisfied investors, who have grown simultaneously concerned about risks they face if the economy stays strong — such as rising interest rates and increased expenses for wages — as well as the threat to stocks from a significant global slowdown.
The profit growth is mind-bogglingly obscene.
On Tuesday, shares of the retailer Target dropped by more than 10 percent, on worries that rising costs — from increased wages to higher prices for the Chinese goods facing tariffs — could continue to crimp profits. Apple continued its slide on worries about softening demand.
Yeah, it's going to crimp profits, boo-hoo-hoo!
Also see: TJX stock falls on weaker fourth-quarter guidance
China, the world’s largest consumer of oil, has also been weighing on commodities. Oil prices, now just above $53 a barrel, have fallen more than 20 percent since early October.
Weakness in China is feeding broader global concerns. Last quarter, the country’s growth slowed to its lowest level since 2009, during the depths of the global financial crisis.
Japan is also looking shaky, with the economy contracting in the third quarter, and Germany, the powerhouse behind Europe, shrank unexpectedly during the third quarter as well.
Yeah, blame everyone and everything but the bankers profiting from and running it.
The global slowdown could eventually spill over into the United States, particularly as the impact of this year’s tax cuts fades in 2019. For investors, that could mean a choppy new phase in the markets after years of solid gains.
“I think this is what a low-return environment starts to feel like,” said Joe Davis, chief economist with Vanguard. “The past five years, although entirely welcome from an investment standpoint, is clearly unsustainable.”
Yeah, we are f***ed.
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"A Massachusetts investment adviser has pleaded guilty to defrauding her clients of more than $3 million and using the money for vacations, luxury vehicles, and other personal expenses. Federal prosecutors say 51-year-old Kimberly Kitts, of Orleans, pleaded guilty Monday to investment adviser fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Sentencing was scheduled for March 20. Authorities say starting in 2011 Kitts engaged in various schemes to misappropriate her clients’ assets. In one scheme, she directed client assets to a bank account for Marquis Consulting, an entity she controlled. In another, she cashed her clients’ annuities, transferred funds out of her clients’ brokerage accounts, and directed distributions from her clients’ Individual Retirement Accounts."
It's always discouraging to see a woman as the thief, but at least the office is now has local owners.
"Vacation rental company Airbnb said it is removing its listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The company said Monday it will take down some 200 listings in Israeli settlements ‘‘that are at the core of the dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians.’’ Airbnb said that although it had been operating in accordance with US law, it long wrestled with the question of whether to do business in Israeli settlements, which most of the international community views as illegal. Palestinians and human rights groups have long urged the company to remove the listings. Airbnb said it would cease its operations in the occupied territory in hopes that ‘‘a framework is put in place where the entire global community is aligned.’’ Israeli officials condemned the decision."
"Israel is threatening vacation rental company Airbnb with high taxes and legal repercussions over its decision to remove listings from Jewish West Bank settlements. The threats step up Israel’s fight against a global movement advocating for boycotts over the country’s treatment of the Palestinians. Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin says Tuesday that Israel will seek to impose ‘‘very high taxes’’ on the company in order to restrict its operations in the country. He also says Israel will encourage hosts in settlements to sue the company to make it ‘‘pay’’ for its decision. Airbnb’s decision on Monday sparked outrage among Israeli officials and settler leaders, but was welcomed by Palestinian officials and human rights groups that had long pressured the company to end its contentious West Bank settlement listings."
Related: Banksy exhibit opens in Milan on heels of auction stunt
I love Banksy, and you won't be able to find a room in Bo$ton, either.
"Jury finds former Aveo CFO misled investors" by Jonathan Saltzman Globe Staff November 21, 2018
A federal jury in Boston found the former chief financial officer of Aveo Pharmaceuticals liable for civil securities fraud Tuesday for misleading investors about the Cambridge biotech company’s prospects to win approval of a kidney cancer drug candidate.
The US District Court jury concluded that David Johnston concealed from investors that the Food and Drug Administration had expressed concerns about the drug candidate, known as tivozanib.
Johnston told investors that the drug was moving toward approval. In fact, the FDA was telling the company it had deep concerns about how the trial had been designed and said the way the company was comparing tivozanib with another medicine on the market was fundamentally flawed.
In a statement issued after the verdict Tuesday, Stephanie Avakian and Steven Peikin, co-directors of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said the outcome “makes clear that a company and its officers are required to be honest in their public communications, including about matters as critical as communications with regulators about approval of a key product.”
Aveo agreed to pay a $4 million penalty to settle SEC charges without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint.
Michael P. Bailey, CEO of the company since 2015, said at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco in January that Aveo was “truly a turnaround story.”
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The glamour is gone:
"Glamour magazine to cease regular print publication" by Jaclyn Peiser November 20, 2018
NEW YORK — Yet another women’s magazine is moving away from print.
Condé Nast, the legacy publisher of glossy and aesthetically rich magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, announced Tuesday that it was ending regular print publication of Glamour.
Two moves foreshadowed the change. Last year, Condé Nast reduced Glamour’s frequency to 11 issues a year, from 12, and in January, the company installed a digital journalist, Samantha Barry, as the magazine’s new top editor.
Although the number of Glamour’s paid subscribers has remained stable over the last three years, at around 2.2 million, Barry said it was time for the publication to break away from the printed page.
“This is my plan, because it makes sense,” Barry, a former executive producer for social and emerging media at CNN Worldwide, said in an interview. “It’s where the audiences are and it’s where our growth is. That monthly schedule, for a Glamour audience, doesn’t make sense anymore.”
The editor added that the magazine might still publish occasional print issues centered on its annual Women of the Year award or topics like power and money. Online access to Glamour will remain free for now.
All I can think of is what will I look at in the checkout line at the supermarket.
Barry, 37, took over the top editorial position at Glamour after Cindi Leive had run the magazine for 16 years. She seemed to hint at its digital future soon after accepting the job when she said in an interview with The New York Times, “Glamour is a brand — it’s not just a magazine.”
Do you know how tired I am of brands, images, and narratives posing as news?
In a statement, Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue and Condé Nast’s artistic director, called Barry “a change-maker — the embodiment of the modern Glamour woman.”
“I am thrilled with her plan for Glamour’s future,” Wintour said. “She’ll be reaching the title’s loyal readers on the digital and social platforms they use most, while using the power of print to highlight tentpole moments like Women of the Year.”
Glamour’s digital audience has grown since Barry took the helm.
Glamour, which was founded by Condé Montrose Nast himself as Glamour of Hollywood in 1939, is not the first women’s magazine to move away from print. Last year, Condé Nast put an end to the regular print editions of Teen Vogue and Self, and Hearst Magazines recently announced that it would stop publishing Seventeen as a bimonthly. All three plan to publish occasional special print issues.
The appeal to the adolescents bothers me now, knowing what we do regarding the rampant pedophilia across so many institutions.
The end of Glamour as a regular print publication is part of a general belt-tightening at Condé Nast, a company that was known for its lavish offices and generous pay packages back when its publications were so stuffed with ads that readers had trouble finding the articles.
The ads were the articles, the glamour, if you will!
The publisher lost more than $120 million last year and has leased six of its 23 floors at its headquarters at One World Trade Center in New York City.
Pamela Drucker Mann, Condé Nast’s chief marketing officer, said Glamour’s disappearance from newsstands should not be viewed as a failure.....
And when he went there, the newsstand was bare?
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Usually the markets try to end the week or a holiday with a positive gain so that everyone has a good one; however, after gaining most of the day the Dow ended with a near 100-point loss.
Thanksgiving's been ruined!
