Here’s the weekly rundown – August 2 – 6, 2021
Weekly Summary:
How do you feel about juice? We’ll get back to you about that at the end of this week’s summary.
This week started off with nerves on Wall Street as the Labor Department was set to release nonfarm payroll data today. The big question, would the recovery continue to sizzle (i.e. more jobs and more spending), or is covid going to die-hard?
All signs pointed to the latter more than the former as the week started out. Companies such as Google and Delta Airlines, started to require their employees to be vaccinated for COVID while CNN went so far as to fire two employees for showing up unvaccinated. Other companies such as The Home Depot are updating their facemask policies for employees.
All of this is a result of what’s going on with new cases. The current new case level continues to rise, pushing over 100,000 on August 5th, 2021 vs the 55,000 new case level at the same time last year. The silver lining is that the fatality rate is some 60% less than it was a year ago.
Ultimately all questions on the economy were settled this morning when nonfarm payroll jobs added came in at 943,000 in July. That’s a whopping 100,000 more jobs than expected dropping unemployment to 5.4% nationally and boosting the S&P 500 and Dow to near all-time highs yet again..
Juice for sale, asking $3 billion.. ?
Figure out how much you like juice yet? Apparently, the French really like juice as PepsiCo agreed to sell its controlling stake in Tropicana and Naked to the French private equity firm PAI Partners this week. This comes as PepsiCo is working to slim its portfolio of sugary beverages that Americans have bought less and less of over the last decade.
Robinhood to the Moon ?
After a dismal IPO, Robinhood…went to the moon gaining over 100% this week as retail Reddit traders put it on the meme list. After last week’s initial public offering, financial “experts” were wondering if Reddit traders led by Wall Street Bets would take interest in the company’s stock?
Would they potentially try and punish the company for halting trading earlier this year when many of its users were responsible for GameStop’s epic short squeeze, or would they attempt to push the stock like they did GameStop?
So far its push!
After trading to a low of $33.25 last week, Robinhood settled today at $55.01
The Major Headlines:
? Half of You will Drive Electric Cars by 2030 Whether You Like it or Not
Want to buy a Tesla? You might be forced to sooner than later as Joe Biden signed a non-binding executive order this week calling on half of vehicles sold in 2030 to be electric. How’d traditional automakers react to this? They were there when he signed the order and in support.
Reason: They (automakers) stand to potentially receive billions of dollars in government aid in order to make this goal happen. Apparently, if you can’t beat Tesla by being more creative or a better business…take government money to play catch up.
?? Communists Governments Fall by…Computer Games..?
Remember when your parents told you that you spent too much time on the computer and shouldn’t waste your life? Apparently, Chinese communists feel the same way as your parents. This week state-run media outlets in China publicly criticized a game produced by China tech giant Tencent as “spiritual opium” (? the game makers for making something so epic its “spiritual”).
Result: Tencent quickly moved into action to “curb” access to “Honor of Kings” the game that drew offense from the government. But Tencent would lose some $60 billion worth of value in the meantime as investors are increasingly frightened by the CCP’s increased intervention in china’s tech private sector.
? Crypto May See More Regulation Soon
Crypto’s 1920’s era of regulation may end soon as the securities and exchange commission (SEC) looks to get more involved. Gary Gensler, chair of the SEC, asked congress to give the SEC more authority to regular and monitor the crypto market. It seems his main concern is to reduce fraud that may be taking place in the loosely regulated space.
? Starter Homes Not Getting Cheaper Any Time Soon
“If you don’t build it they will come”..wait that’s not the quote from Field of Dreams (good movie though, who thought Iowa was so interesting). No, if you don’t build homes, well, you don’t have homes and this is currently where the US is with starter homes.
In 2020, some 60,000 starter homes were built. Compare this to 400,000 in the 1970s and you see the situation we’re in right now -house buying mania.
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