My mid-week morning train WFH reads:
• The Electrification of Everything: What You Need to Know More of the energy we use will come from the electric socket. And we aren’t ready. (Wall Street Journal) see also Lamborghini Will Drop $1.8 Billion on Electrifying Its Supercars From Aventador to Urus, each model will be offered as a plug-in hybrid by 2024. An EV is on the way later this decade. (Bloomberg)
• US and European companies report forecast-crushing earnings rebound Earnings season in the US is coming to a close, and while it is still in full swing across the Atlantic, one thing is clear: analysts far underestimated how much of a bonanza the global economic recovery delivered in the first quarter of 2021. (Financial Times)
• Lumber Futures’ Rout Deepens to 27%, Hinting at Rally’s End The lumber contract for July delivery fell $63 on Tuesday, the maximum permitted by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, with the price sinking to $1,264 per 1,000 board feet. That’s the 7th straight session of falling prices for the futures contract. Lumber’s most-active futures contract is down 27% from its May 10 peak of $1,733.50, a level more than four times higher than prices a year ago. (Bloomberg)
• Hedge Funds Increase Bets on Private Companies Hedge-fund firms are stepping up their presence in what has emerged as Wall Street’s hottest area: investing in private companies. (Wall Street Journal)
• Short Their Optimism We just saw the best 52-week period for stocks in over 75 years. You know what these magazine covers were telling you the week that rally started? (All Star Charts)
• The Battle for a $15 Minimum Wage Is Already Won The Fight for $15 is winning a different way: by altering the norms of wage-setting in the U.S. Fast-food merchant McDonald’s Corp., the archetypical low-wage employer, just announced that it will raise its average wages to $15 an hour by 2024. This follows a similar move by Chipotle. Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15 back in 2018. Costco, Starbucks, and a variety of other companies have similar policies. (Bloomberg)
• Five Things My Roomba Does Better Than My Tesla (Not including vacuuming.) There are two kinds of companies: those that make products, and those that make promises. A great product does what it claims to, but I expect even more from a great technology product. If it has an app, I expect the simplicity, reliability and upgradability of my iPhone. I don’t care about the details. I don’t care about promises. There’s no better promise than a product that just works. (The Drive)
• The ultimate guide to the creator economy 220+ platforms that can help you turn your hobby into a paying profession (Antler)
• They Got Covid One Year Ago. They’re Still Sick. Scientists are putting new effort into understanding the troubling symptoms of long Covid. These patients are waiting for answers. (Wall Street Journal) see also A Once-in-a-Lifetime Chance to Start Over It’s time to prepare for a new and better normal than your pre-pandemic life. (The Atlantic)
• New pix of Jupiter will rock your (very very large) world On January 11, 2017, both the Gemini North Telescope in Hawai’i and the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting above Earth were pointed at this gigantic world, taking images nearly simultaneously in different wavelengths to probe Jupiter’s atmosphere. The results are jaw-dropping. (Syfy Wire)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Scott Sperling, Co-Chief Executive Officer of private equity firm Thomas. H. Lee. The Co-CEO is a member of the firm’s Management and Investment committees. THL has completed more than 100 investments in excess of $125 billion of aggregate purchase price. Their flagship fund has more than $5B in it, and their Automation Fund has over $900 million in LP assets.
Fund Managers Say ‘Long Bitcoin’ Is the Most Crowded Trade in the World
Source: Bloomberg
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