Blain: “Are All Tech Companies Doomed To Irrelevance”

Gibraltar. It’s always Gibraltar. The Spanish want Gibraltar back. Tried a few times and its never worked terribly well for them. We’ll have Shabby National back from Santander then? (There’s a name fewer and fewer of us remember….)

And the French want our fish. Bring it on. When it comes to Peterhead vs the World, my money is on the Peetaheid loons every time..

Yep… Brexit continues to entertain and amuse. That the beleaguered leaders of Spain and France want to look tough and deflect domestic strife by prodding the Lion, and adding conditions to the agreement, pretty much explains why we want to exit.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, it’s not looking pretty out there in stocks. Normally, stocks rally into the US Thanksgiving Holiday. This year they are tanking – and it’s still the names that have driven the market through the year that are under most pressure – FAANG! (And Halloween was so last month…)

Bond investors are wondering if this is the moment to start buying again on the basis equities are looking crap and the Fed seems to have gone all wobbly about its plans for future hikes – so must be the moment. They’re hearing a dovish Fed worried about stocks and future growth. (I’d wait to have that “message” confirmed – what I heard was Powell’s sidekick John Williams saying slow and steady rate rises in the future, and warning markets to discount the current market turmoil.)

The equity market feels like it has convinced itself something has fundamentally changed. It has – we’re into a new reality… The Age of Financial Realism!

That’s most clearly seen in the reversal of the positive vibe on tech names. Despite remaining the most profitable company on the planet, the knock-on effects from Apple mumbleswerve about declining iPhone demand and production (and the resulting impact damage on suppliers), internal tensions in Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica fallout, (see stories posted on the website), and all the other stuff about Google etc, means the momentum has completely gone from the market.

The Rest…HERE

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2018 at 11:27 am and is filed under oops, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.