Amazon One-day Shipping

Amazon has had a history of making announcements that decimate adjacent markets. They’ve acquired Whole Foods & crashed Kroger, they’ve acquired PillPack & crashed CVS + Walgreens, and they’ve had other retail announcements in the past which have clobbered other retailers. In most cases, each of the “oh shit, Amazon …” stories has been a …

Health Sector Not So Healthy

The health sector cratered yesterday on fear of ‘Medicare for All’ gutting the sector. The stock is down 13.3% so far in April, on track for its biggest one-month decline since February 2009 when it fell 30.64%. UnitedHealth shares initially rose Tuesday after it reported first-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street’s expectations. But the …

Reporting the News vs Creating the News Cycle

CVS was downgraded today by Oppenheimer analyst Michael Wiederhorn to market perform. The value of such a downgrade AFTER the stock slid from over $112 a share in July of 2015 to under $53 a share recently is a bit suspect. That said, a downgrade would normally cause a stock price to slide at least …

DIS Up Big on Disney+

Disney had a big 10% pop today after they promoted aggressive pricing ($6.99 a month or $69 a year) on their Disney+ streaming service and made it clear they were all-in on launching a successful streaming service. Disney has given producers approval to make a big-ticket “Star Wars” spinoff series that will bypass theaters and …

Trade War, Part 2

Yesterday President Trump tweeted mad hate against Europe, promising tariffs. The European economy is structurally weak & they can’t afford to exit negative rates & quantitative easing. Across Europe German manufacturers are already calling the shots trying to minimize the fall out from Brexit. Now would be an inopportune time for curtailing the export-led engine …

Clash of Empires: Currencies and Power in a Multipolar World

I recently read the book Clash of Empires: Currencies and Power in a Multipolar World written by Charles Gave & Louis-Vincent Gave. It is a great read. No fluff. Quite short with many charts backing up the concepts & on point analysis. Here are a few of the key themes & notes I took from …

Walgreens Off A Comfortable 13% on Earnings

Walgreens (WBA) announced results where they slightly missed top line revenues & missed earnings. Net income fell to $1.16 billion, or $1.24 a share, from $1.35 billion, or $1.36 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding nonrecurring items, the company said adjusted EPS declined 5.4% to $1.64, below the $1.72 that FactSet …