Our Commentary
Market Update: November 9th 2020
U.S. stocks gained sharply last week, experiencing the strongest week since the early post-COVID downdraft in April—as election results became more clear. Every sector ended positively last week, led by growth segments technology and health care, each up over 8%. On the weaker side, energy rose less than a percent, with continued challenges for crude oil prices.
How a California Ballot Measure Could Re-Shape the Gig Economy
Had Prop 22 failed to pass, there would have been a huge reclassification of gig workers in California which is a large market for these companies. California represents 9% of Uber’s global rides and Eats bookings, and is responsible for around 16% of Lyft’s total rides. The market’s reception to the passing of Prop 22 was positive, as shares of Uber rose 11.0% toward a near 9-month high and Lyft rose 14.9%.
Qualcomm Announces Q4 2020 Earnings
Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated states that “Our fiscal fourth quarter results demonstrate that our investments in 5G are coming to fruition and showing benefits in our licensing and product businesses,”
Market Update: November 2nd, 2020
Of special near-term interest is the plight of U.S. tech companies, which have been the single bright light of 2020 for investors, and have led the S&P higher—puzzling many. In fact, it’s been a smaller group of tech giants that have led the market’s results, with the rest of the S&P showing far less impressive returns (including many high quality, dividend-paying stalwarts).
Beta Bytes: Week of October 31st
Bay Area companies are moving to Utah, PayPal joins the cryptocurrency market and has big plans for making it available as a funding source for purchases at 26 million merchants, and Facebook launches their dating service in Europe after a data privacy delay
Market Update: October 26th, 2020
What’s the status of potential stimulus?
Following some optimism early in the week, the Senate was unable to come to an agreement, despite the relatively small monetary difference between the amounts proposed by House Speaker Pelosi, the Senate Republicans, and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin
Beta Bytes: Week of October 24th
NASA is partnering with Nokia to put a 4G network on the moon, Google is hit with a new antitrust lawsuit from the department of justice, and Qualcomm backed AiFi Inc. is making moves in San Francisco to install autonomous stores.
Market Update: October 19th, 2020
Economic data for the week included strength in retail sales and consumer sentiment, regional manufacturing reports were mixed, while industrial production fell back. Producer and consumer inflation ticked up slightly, while jobless claims remain challenged.
