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☆ Analysis: Investors seek to break through Japan Inc's 'value trap'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) - Corporate governance in Japan has suddenly become a cause celebre, rousing the world's third-largest stock market out of decades of lethargy and drawing in hordes of foreign investors. Japan's stock market has long been seen by investors as a 'value trap' where companies focus on market share, hoard cash and care little about shareholder returns. What has prompted investors globally to sit up and take notice is an endorsement from legendary billionaire investor Warren Buffett. The MSCI Japan Value index (.dMIJP0000VPUS) is up 9% since August 2020 versus a 9% drop for the MSCI Japan growth index (.dMIJP0000GPUS). "I think the value trap that was Japan is no longer."

☆ Earnings playbook: Netflix and Goldman Sachs headline a big week of reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Fred Imbert | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

Tuesday Johnson & Johnson is set to report earnings before the open, followed by a call with management at 8:30 a.m. Goldman Sachs is set to report earnings before the open, followed by a call at 9:30 a.m. What history shows: Bespoke data shows Goldman tops earnings expectations 86% of the time. Netflix is set to report earnings after the bell, followed by a call with management at 6 p.m. Friday Procter & Gamble is set to report earnings before the open, with a conference call also slated for 8:30 a.m.

☆ Goldman Sachs says these are its top picks heading into quarterly earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Earnings season is off and running and Goldman Sachs has named a host of stocks to buy ahead of the companies' quarterly reports. CNBC Pro combed through Goldman Sachs research to find stocks to own as first-quarter earnings kick off. They include Tesla, Boeing, CBRE , T-Mobile and Logitech. CBRE Group Goldman is standing by its buy rating on the real estate investment firm, even as lending standards tighten following the recent bank crisis. T-Mobile The wireless provider is Goldman's favorite growth stock, and favorite pick overall, the firm said in a recent earnings preview note to clients.

☆ Bernstein says if you like gold, you should like bitcoin even more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

It's "irrational" to like gold and dislike bitcoin at this point in the macro cycle, according to Bernstein. At the same time, the flagship cryptocurrency's correlation with gold has been climbing, while its correlation with stocks has declined, Bernstein found. "If you like gold here, you should like bitcoin even more … Gold and bitcoin correlation increases during the periods of crisis. And when there is a massive monetary debasement event, while both bitcoin and gold rally, bitcoin outperforms gold." "Liking gold, but not liking bitcoin, is like hating on a faster horse," they said.

☆ TSX rises as domestic economy outperforms; Rogers slides
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Johann M Cherian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A sign board displaying Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) stock information is seen in Toronto June 23, 2014. of 0.3%TSX up 0.6%March 31 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index edged up on Friday as investor sentiment gained steam after data showed the domestic economy grew more than expected in January. A Statistics Canada report showed that the Canadian economy performed better-than-expected in January versus December, driven by broad gains in both goods and services industries. ET (1410 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) was up 130.39 points, or 0.65%, at 20,071.38. "The strength in January is consistent with an economy that remains resilient," said Angelo Kourkafas, investment strategist at Edward Jones Investments.

OTTAWA, March 31 (Reuters) - The Canadian economy grew more than expected in January and is seen expanding further in February, data showed on Friday, results that are likely to fuel concern by the central bank that inflation has yet to be fully tamed. The economy gained by 0.5% in January, ahead of analysts' forecasts of a 0.3% rise, after contracting 0.1% in December, Statistics Canada said. The Bank of Canada became the first major central bank to pause interest rate hikes in March after increasing them at eight consecutive previous meetings. With the key overnight rate now at 4.5%, the bank said it would not raise rates again if inflation came down as forecast. While inflation has eased, falling to 5.2% in February from a high of 8.1% last year, the economy is expanding faster than the central bank had forecast in January.

☆ Piper Sandler did a deep analysis of banks and says these are the ones to buy on the dip
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The repercussions from the ongoing banking crisis will take some time to play out, but Piper Sandler has names for investors to start sorting through among the wreckage. Even so, banks are dealing with tightening lending standards and rising costs that will continue to weigh on the sector. Still, some banks with strong deposit and liquidity characteristics can help investors find safe harbor, according to Piper Sandler. Here are three overweight-rated, mid-cap bank stocks that Piper Sandler highlighted: The analysts named SouthState Corporation to their list, saying they have confidence in the bank's ability to outperform peers because of its "strong low-cost, core deposit base." First Interstate BancSystem was named to the list because of its lower cost deposit base, its relatively insulated location, and its strong dividend yield.

Credit Suisse fell 8% in Europe and First Republic tumbled 30%. Banking troubles revived memories of the 2008 financial crisis, when dozens of institutions failed or were bailed out with billions of dollars of government and central bank money. Earlier this week, the franc plunged the most against the dollar in one day since 2015, when the Swiss central bank loosened its currency peg. Japan's Ministry of Finance, Financial Services Agency and Bank of Japan officials met on Friday evening to discuss financial markets. Masato Kanda, vice finance minister for international affairs, told reporters after the trilateral meeting that the government, the central bank and the banking watchdog would coordinate to ensure the stability of the financial system.

☆ Volkswagen invests in batteries, raw materials in race for affordable EV
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Victoria Waldersee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Over two-thirds of the company's five-year investment budget announced on Tuesday is allocated to electrification and digitalisation, including up to 15 billion for batteries and raw materials. Volkswagen, Europe's top carmaker, is striving to close a gap with electric vehicle (EV) pioneer Tesla (TSLA.O) by expanding its slice of the growing market for battery-powered cars. Buzz EV car, on the day of the annual news conference of the Volkswagen Group at DRIVE.Volkswagen Group Forum, in Berlin, Germany March 14, 2023. Volkswagen met analysts' expectations in 2022 on revenues but missed the consensus estimate for earnings before interest and taxes by 3%. The most likely actual stock market candidate is battery unit PowerCo.

☆ Volkswagen to invest $193 billion over 5 years to hit EV target
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Victoria Waldersee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] The logo of carmaker Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is pictured at the IAA Transportation fair, which opened its doors to the public on September 20, 2022, in Hanover, Germany, September 19, 2022. The investments come as Volkswagen, Europe's top carmaker, tries to close a gap with electric vehicle (EV) pioneer Tesla (TSLA.O) by expanding its slice of the growing market for battery-powered cars. In the latest investment plan, up to 15 billion euros is ringfenced for battery plants and raw materials. VW outperforms EU rivalsThe investment decisions are targeted towards fulfilling a 10-point plan developed by Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume after he took the helm in September. The most likely actual stock market candidate is battery unit PowerCo.

☆ Run on Silicon Valley Bank injects some panic into an already slumping stock market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Michael Santoli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The charts suggest that breaking the December low in the S & P 500 around 3765 – down just 2.5% from here – would lose the bullish case a lot more credibility than has been surrendered so far. Of course, fears of contagion can outrun the facts and sometimes can become self-fulfilling, but the S & P 500 has (for now) simply backslid to a nine-week low. Jason Hunter, technical strategist at JP Morgan, had been expecting "a weakening corporate earnings environment would eventually take the narrative away from the Fed driven rates market. In the past week Apple shares lost about a third of what the S & P 500 did. Inflation has been at generational highs for two years as it was not then, and the labor market wasn't nearly as tight.

☆ Here's why you should expect a housing rebound, according to a top economist at the National Association of Realtors
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

On tap today we've got a great interview with a top real estate economist and this week's best markets stories, including updates on the Silicon Valley Bank meltdown. Nadia Evangelou: What we see in the data is that the housing market will likely pick up in the coming months, in the spring season. NE: It seems that homesales activity has bottomed out, and 2023 will be the turning point for the housing market. Due to low inventory, even though there are relatively few buyers on the market, housing demand continues to outpace housing supply. We expect 4.5 million homes to be sold in 2023, and about 5.3 million homes to be sold in 2024.

☆ Investors fear inflation, higher yields may make U.S. equities 'dead money'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( David Randall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Jonathan Golub, managing director at Credit Suisse, is among those with a bleak outlook for equities. "A six-month (Treasury) yield effectively guaranteed at 5.25% changes the dynamics for investors when the stock market looks shaky," he said. "You would need to get risk-adjusted returns in equities of at least 1 or 2 percentage points more than that, so in that environment stocks are not worth the effort and are dead money. Still, stocks have managed to hold onto their year-to-date gains so far even as bond yields have risen, with the S&P 500 up 4% and the Nasdaq Composite up nearly 11%. "You no longer have to hold your nose and invest in stocks because there's no other alternative," he said.

☆ A CIO shares the strategy behind 'The Big Short' garage hedge fund that flipped $110,000 to over $80 million — and explains how to use the same approach in today's stock market to make extremely cheap
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Universa Investments, a "black swan" hedge fund specializing in market shocks, sensationalized this approach after it made headlines in the first quarter of 2020 for a 4,144% return when the stock market plunged. So what we do for investors is our fund serves as protection against that sort of exogenous event, that sort of crash," Sidial said. In short, it's a bet against the odds in exchange for lofty returns, or what's known as convex payouts. However, if there's a market crash, the volatility on the VIX generally outperforms more than any other underlying securities in the US equities market, he noted. For example,Cambria Tail Risk ETF (TAIL) was up 27% from mid-feb to mid-march 2020 during the stock market crash brought about by the pandemic.

☆ This ETF only invests in women-led companies — and is expected to rise 20% this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The WCEO ETF is created to isolate this "female factor" by investing solely in women-led companies. "We created an algorithm, that in our view, would come closest to isolating the female factor," Lizarraga told CNBC Pro . This index has outperformed its FT Wilshire US Small Cap Index benchmark by more than 20 percentage points over the past five years. Lizarraga hopes that the WCEO ETF will enable investors to improve their allocation diversity and help demonstrate that investing in women-led companies can be profitable. In comparison, women are CEOs at 41 S & P 500 companies, according to the Catalyst, a workplace gender diversity charity, which is less than 10% of the benchmark.

☆ Morgan Stanley's guide for tech investors playing the end of this bear market — and the start of the next bull
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Tech (and media and telecom) investors should start preparing their buy lists now ahead of a bear market low, Morgan Stanley said. Given this, the strategist offered an investment guide for the period before, during and after the stock market trough. Netflix was among the names Morgan Stanley recommended for the period prior to the market bottom. Meanwhile, after the bear market low, Morgan Stanley said cyclicals, lower quality and value names have the most "impressive outperformance." Meanwhile, for investors trading through the trough and into the bull market, names such as Salesforce and Microsoft are buying opportunities, Morgan Stanley said.

☆ This fund is trouncing the S&P 500 by focusing on international stocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

A fund once led by an investing great known for finding opportunities in distressed assets is beating the market — but with a somewhat different focus. The Third Avenue Value Fund (TVFVX) outperformed the S & P 500 in 2022, rising 11.2% while the broad-market index shed 19.4%. 'Go where the opportunities are' Fine said that can happen by looking at both country and industry trends. The fund had just over 40% and 30% of its holdings in small- and mid-cap companies, respectively, at the end of 2022. portfolio manager Matt Fine Fine was able to work under Whitman and eventually take over the value fund, which is one of the first the company created, in 2017, a year before Whitman died.

☆ The new era of investing is here and stocks will no longer be the key player, a top global strategist says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm eager to share today's conversation with a top strategist about changes to the current investing landscape — but first I have a question. Seema Shah, Chief Global Strategist at Principal Asset Management. Courtesy of Principal Asset ManagementSeema Shah is the chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. Seema Shah: The key part of it is that we're not in an era of unlimited central bank liquidity. Historically, in a period of low economic growth and higher-than-expected inflation, it outperforms global fixed income and global equities, almost without exception.

☆ Goldman Sachs upgrades this ‘internet of things’ stock — which it sees surging 60%
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Fred Imbert | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Investors looking for exposure to the "internet of things" — the concept of linking physical objects to the internet and cloud — should consider buying shares of Samsara. Analyst Kash Rangan upgraded Samsara , which provides tracking systems for vehicle fleets and agricultural equipment, to buy from neutral. He also hiked his price target on the stock to $27 from $16, implying upside of 60% from Thursday's close. Rangan pointed out this marks the fourth consecutive quarter in which Samsara's revenue outperforms expectations. Samsara CFO Dominic Phillips said during a call with analysts that the company expects to reach breakeven free cash flow in the fourth quarter.

☆ Morgan Stanley sees Apple rallying more than 20%, says investors should look past near-term headwinds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Investors should look beyond Apple 's near-term challenges to see strong catalysts on the horizon, according to Morgan Stanley. Near-term challenges include weakening consumer electronics spending trends, a challenging economic backdrop, headwinds from foreign currencies, iPhone production shortages and remaining Covid restrictions, Woodring said. But Woodring said investors should look past what could be a tough short-term, instead focusing on incoming tailwinds. New iPhones should be down 9% in fiscal 2023 — the biggest year-over-year drop since 2019 — due to supply shortages and sliding demand. He said those price increases could be seen in products such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple One and international apps.

☆ Flutter profit at lower end of guidance, U.S. outperforms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DUBLIN, March 2 (Reuters) - Flutter on Thursday reported full-year core profit at the lower end of its guidance range but its fast growing U.S. business outperformed expectations as it became the betting company's largest division by revenue. Full-year core profit excluding the U.S. grew 4% to 1.295 billion pounds ($1.55 billion) versus the forecast range of 1.29 billion pounds to 1.39 billion pounds. Customer-friendly sports results hit profitability in December, it said, but $3.2 billion in revenue at its U.S. FanDuel business was at the top end of a range that it upgraded in November. The U.S. operation made a core loss of $313 million, compared with expected losses of $300 million to $360 million. ($1 = 0.8352 pounds)Reporting by Padraic Halpin Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ This emerging markets fund outperforms by finding ideas in small- and mid-cap companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

A keen appreciation for ideas that fly under the radar helped one emerging markets fund outperform during the pandemic. Since starting at the Matthews Emerging Markets Small Companies (MSMLX) fund in 2020, Vivek Tanneeru said he has kept his focus on small- and mid-cap companies to generate alpha (returns above a benchmark). For example, his Matthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future fund (MISFX) fund, which he founded in 2015, is also given five stars at Morningstar. One stock Tanneeru is particularly bullish on now is Legend Biotech . For Tanneeru, small caps are a more nimble way for investors to gain access to emerging markets and tap into consumer preferences there.

☆ Here are Monday's biggest analyst calls: Tesla, Alphabet, Apple, Nvidia, Best Buy, Zillow & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Goldman Sachs upgrades Nomad Foods to buy from neutral Goldman said it sees an "attractive investment opportunity" to invest in the frozen food company. Goldman Sachs upgrades Willis Towers Watson to buy from neutral Goldman said it sees a robust turnaround for the insurance company. Barclays reiterates Tesla as overweight Barclays said it's standing by its buy rating heading into Tesla's investor event on March 1. Raymond James upgrades Frontier to strong buy from outperform Raymond James upgraded the cable company after its "impressive" earnings report. UBS reiterates Apple as buy UBS said its survey checks show Apple is the preferred brand in both the U.S. and China.

☆ Why Josh Brown likes this high-beta cybersecurity stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Cybersecurity stocks got a lift on Wednesday, but for Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown there's one name that stands out: CrowdStrike. Shares rallied about 4% during afternoon trading on Wednesday after competitor Palo Alto Networks blew past earnings expectations after the bell Tuesday. Goldman Sachs recently initiated coverage of the stock with a buy rating, along with Check Point , Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks. It's now three years ahead of the profitability goals it laid out in 2021, Palo Alto Network's CEO Nikesh Arora said. Morgan Stanley believes Palo Alto Networks will keep moving higher after its earnings results.

☆ Thoma Bravo and Clearlake have posted negative returns for a major endowment, according to exclusive performance data. Middle-market firms have been much stronger.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The returns show losses from Thoma Bravo and Clearlake, though the funds are new and PE is a long game. Thoma Bravo and Clearlake Capital Group, two private-equity firms that have emerged as notably active investors in recent years, have posted early losses across some of their funds, according to investment returns from a major US endowment. UTIMCO invested $51.7 million in Clearlake's seventh flagship private equity fund, known as Clearlake Capital Partners VII, which closed with some $14 billion of commitments last May. Thoma Bravo declined to comment. Meanwhile, the data show high returns from CapRock Partners, Renovus Capital Partners, Serve Capital Partners, and LFM Capital, PE firms that target middle-market companies.

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