Tag Archives: Investing

Credit Suisse expects the construction boom in Japan to continue beyond the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. However, just like in the Olympics, there will be winners and losers among the companies hoping to win big. Construction-related companies are gearing up for a busy few years as Japan prepares...

As pension obligations look set to rise, companies will have to increase their pension contributions. Pension obligations have reached an all-time high for a number of companies in many countries, with the main reason for the poor shape of corporate pensions being the significant decline in...

A semi-annual overview of the most important drivers for global equity and credit markets The Equity & Credit Sector Monitor provides a semi-annual overview of the bottom-up fundamental drivers across all sectors, and furthermore presents our most and least favored stock and bond...

Finally, there's the undeniable appeal of a company overflowing with cash, a tasty target for a campaign to initiate share buybacks or increase dividend payments. Which metric works best in identifying balance sheets that are attractive to activists? The ratio of a company's total cash relative to its market capitalization. The higher that ratio relative to one's peers, the more likely a company is to garner unwanted attention. When ValueAct Capital scored a seat on Microsoft's...

To Sell or Not to Sell, That Is the Question Most investors have to face loss aversion in their own investment portfolios when they incur losses. For long term investments the best course of action is to stay invested through the ups and downs of markets. But what if an investment is short term or has a limited investment horizon and the remaining time is shorter than the time needed to recover? Imagine that an investor has bought a specific stock with the intention of holding it...

Pokémon Go Gave It a Go This summer we saw the first widespread breakthrough in AR: people were crowding with their phones under bridges, in restaurants, and on stairs of museums trying to collect the virtual creatures in real life settings. "'Pokémon Go' is hugely helpful in terms of awareness of AR among both consumers and the broader investment community," says Tim Merel, founder and CEO of Eyetouch Reality and Digi-Capital. "It could have far-reaching repercussions beyond...

“It is not surprising the Fed once again failed to take action as their expectations for economic growth were once again lowered. In fact, as I have noted previously, the Federal Reserve are the worst economic forecasters on the planet. As shown in the table/chart below, not only are the expectations for economic growth now the lowest on record, the Fed has given up on 2% growth for the economy with the long-run...

Ursula Nötzli Breinlinger: The topic of sustainability is very much in vogue. What should investors understand by the term "sustainable investing"? Béatrice Fischer: The aim of sustainable investing is to combine financial returns with positive repercussions for the environment and society. The investor strives to build up a comprehensive view that also includes non-financial factors. In investment decisions, the investor also takes into account sustainability aspects, i.e....

Why Robots? Robots are present not only where strength or precision is needed. With shrinking farmland, growing populations and the need to increase food supplies, agriculture is another field likely to benefit from robot use, such as driverless tractors, drones, or swarm robots for the harvest season. They could cut costs and be suitable even for indoor farming. According to the "Agricultural Robots" report by Tractica, by 2024 annual shipments of these robots are likely to...

As I noted on Thursday, the Fed non-announcement gave the bulls a reason to charge back into the markets as “accommodative monetary policy” is once again extended through the end of the year. Of course, it is not surprising the Fed once again failed to take action as their expectations for economic growth were once again lowered. Simply, with an economy failing to gain traction there is little ability for the Fed to...