In this mid-quarter update, entitled “Escalation,” we discuss the backdrop of escalating trade wars and our belief that the environment is more favorable for US Treasury bonds relative to stocks. The trade war is escalating at a time of weakening global growth, thereby weighing further on growth. The CNY/USD devaluation that began last year is […]
In 2003, Taiwanese generic drug leader TTY Biopharm and other Taiwanese venture capital firms funded a new type of drug company. PharmaEngine was launched with the specific mission of getting to market faster with drug treatments. To reduce the time between drug discovery, the first step in formulating a new drug, and approval, the last, […]
For all the buzz, it would be easy to guess Tesla is the most innovative car maker in the world. But as our intangible-adjusted data reveals, Tesla invests less than half as much on R&D as the most innovative car company in the world. Invention in the world’s auto industry stands on the shoulders of […]
So far this week, we’ve received a few data points that reinforce the manufacturing slowdown taking place in the US. Below is a calendar of events for the last couple days. On Monday, we got the Empire State Survey, a survey of manufacturing in New York. Importantly, this is one of the few “soft” data […]
When Lyft went public on the last trading day of March, investors learned the firm has staked its future to the street-level adoption of autonomous vehicles. Aside from the legal and ethical concerns, social anxieties and scandals, driverless cars still have major technology hurdles to clear: they are dependent on a future that successfully employs […]
The IMF made news yesterday by announcing its latest updates to 2019 GDP growth around the world. It guided global growth down and made an especially large cut to Eurozone growth estimates, bringing them down 30bps since January to 1.3%. They also took their estimates down a touch for the US as well. In the […]
Yesterday’s stocks reacted to a raft of overnight foreign economic data that it perceived positively. In this note, I’ll run down the data and my doubts about that reaction. The hits began with China’s Markit manufacturing PMI jumping to 50.5. While the media seems to focus on the size of the jump, and the fact […]
Stocks have been on a tear. Manufacturing has contracted, bringing down GDP and earnings estimates. Was the stock bounce real or just a short covering? Sentiment on stocks has shifted to bullish while sentiment on bonds has moved bearish. In this special video report, CIO Steve Vannelli describes the team’s analysis of the question: is it […]
Last week we were selected as a “Hidden Gem” at the Inside ETF conference in Hollywood, Florida. Steven Vannelli gave a 3-minute pitch on our investment strategy. Here’s what he said. Knowledge Leaders Hidden Gems 3-min Pitch “Hidden Gems” are 12 under-the-radar ETF ideas selected by Inside ETFs and presented on the main stage […]
Pilots used to say, “speed is life.” But things have changed, says former F-15 pilot Bob Edmonds, now of Elbit Systems, in a recent white paper. Today, “information is life.” Because for military pilots, lack of data can lead to spatial disorientation, or worse, fatalities. Most flight systems use “heads-down” map and data displays which […]