May 4, 2022
Bespoke’s Global Macro Dashboard is a high-level summary of 22 major economies from around the world. For each country, we provide charts of local equity market prices, relative performance versus global equities, price to earnings ratios, dividend yields, economic growth, unemployment, retail sales and industrial production growth, inflation, money supply, spot FX performance versus the dollar, policy rate, and ten year local government bond yield interest rates. The report is intended as a tool for both reference and idea generation. It’s clients’ first stop for basic background info on how a given economy is performing, and what issues are driving the narrative for that economy. The dashboard helps you get up to speed on and keep track of the basics for the most important economies around the world, informing starting points for further research and risk management. It’s published the last Wednesday of every month at the Bespoke Institutional membership level.
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Apr 24, 2022
Welcome to Bespoke Brunch Reads — a linkfest of the favorite things we read over the past week. The links are mostly market related, but there are some other interesting subjects covered as well. We hope you enjoy the food for thought as a supplement to the research we provide you during the week.
While you’re here, join Bespoke Premium with a 30-day free trial!
Things That Make You Say “Hmm”
Elon Musk says Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robot ‘will be worth more than the car business’ by Nicolas Vega (CNBC)
A yet-to-be released humanoid is expected to surpass the car business eventually as Tesla CEO Elon Musk promises “will become apparent in the coming years”. For our part, we’re just waiting on the self-driving taxis Musk had promised would be ubiquitous by 2022 and have yet to hit the road (or even get close to it). [Link]
Man who paid $2.9m for NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet set to lose almost $2.9m (Guardian/Reuters)
An NFT of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet is basically worthless after an initial purchase price of nearly $3mm, surprising precisely nobody. [Link]
Renewables
California ran on nearly 100% clean energy this month by Mark Dediak (The Mercury News/Bloomberg)
On Sunday, April 3rd, California’s electrical grid was 97% powered by renewables, a new record and a glimpse of what the carbon-free power production future (targeted within 25 years) may look like. [Link]
Visualizing All Electric Car Models Available in the U.S. by Omri Wallach (Visual Capitalist)
Ranging from the fully-loaded (GMC’s Hummer EV) to the humble (Nissan’s LEAF), EVs are rapidly rolling out at dealerships and from new entrants across the country. [Link]
Stabilization of gamma sulfur at room temperature to enable the use of carbonate electrolyte in Li-S batteries by Rahul Pai, Arvinder Singh, Maureen S. Tang, and Vibha Kalra (Nature)
A new approach using carbon nanofibers offers one example of the rapid R&D efforts underway throughout the battery supply chain. [Link; 11 page PDF]
Being Perceived
EU Tech Chief Goes Phoneless in Crucial Meetings to Thwart Spies by Stephanie Bodoni (Bloomberg)
Smartphones are generally plenty secure for day-to-day users, but some policymakers are doing away with them on the way in to meetings to avoid being surveilled. [Link; soft paywall]
Following Elon Musk’s Attempted Twitter Takeover, Half of Republicans Say They Feel Muzzled on Social Media by Chris Teale (Morning Consult)
In the latest partisan divide, 51% of Republicans believe that Twitter and Facebook do not allow respondents to express themselves freely, compared with 19% of Democrats and 30% of the population as a whole. [Link]
Real Estate
Homeowner Groups Seek to Stop Investors From Buying Houses to Rent by Will Parker and Nicole Friedman (WSJ)
The front line of the battle against corporate ownership of single-family homes is in HOAs across the country where residents are seeking to restrict rentals of properties. [Link; paywall]
The Terminal
The Bloomberg Terminal can’t be terminated by Robin Wigglesworth (FTAV)
A look at the still-dominant Bloomberg Terminal, which despite its high cost and stagnating sales volumes remains the lynchpin of financial markets information sales. [Link; registration required]
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Have a great weekend!
Apr 20, 2022
Searching for ways to better understand the fixed income space or looking for actionable ideas in this asset class? Bespoke’s Fixed Income Weekly provides an update on rates and credit every Wednesday. We start off with a fresh piece of analysis driven by what’s in the headlines or driving the market in a given week. We then provide charts of how US Treasury futures and rates are trading, before moving on to a summary of recent fixed income ETF performance, short-term interest rates including money market funds, and a trade idea. We summarize changes and recent developments for a variety of yield curves (UST, bund, Eurodollar, US breakeven inflation and Bespoke’s Global Yield Curve) before finishing with a review of recent UST yield curve changes, spread changes for major credit products and international bonds, and 1 year return profiles for a cross section of the fixed income world.
In this week’s report we discuss the degree of risk to corporate balance sheets posed by the rapid increase in corporate bond yields.
Our Fixed Income Weekly helps investors stay on top of fixed income markets and gain new perspective on the developments in interest rates. You can sign up for a Bespoke research trial below to see this week’s report and everything else Bespoke publishes free for the next two weeks!
Click here and start a 14-day free trial to Bespoke Institutional to see our newest Fixed Income Weekly now!
Apr 17, 2022
Welcome to Bespoke Brunch Reads — a linkfest of the favorite things we read over the past week. The links are mostly market related, but there are some other interesting subjects covered as well. We hope you enjoy the food for thought as a supplement to the research we provide you during the week.
While you’re here, join Bespoke Premium with a 30-day free trial!
Real Estate
What Happened to the Gilded Age Mansions of New York City? by Candace Taylor (WSJ)
The history of the midtown mansions which used to be a defining feature of life in Manhattan; they’ve long since disappeared under soaring buildings which now dominate the city. [Link; paywall]
Redfin Reports Demand Slips, Pushing More Sellers to Drop Asking Prices (Redfin/Business Wire)
A summary of leading indicators for home buying demand that have started to slow. Fewer searches, fewer tours, fewer mortgage applications, and higher rates are all illustrating a looming cooldown in the housing market. [Link]
How Remote Work is Shifting Population Growth Across the U.S. by Adam Ozimek (Economic Innovation Group)
An analysis of Census data that suggests remote work is driving population outflows from high-cost dense metros and towards suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas around the country. [Link]
Work
Sure, Work Makes Us Want to Swear. But Should You? by Rachel Feintzeig (WSJ)
It’s one thing to let fly with profanity at home, but returns to the office have meant habits developed during the pandemic may require a bit of adjustment now that there are coworkers in ear shot again. [Link; paywall]
Everything Costs More, and That’s Disrupting Retirement for Many by Harriet Torry (WSJ)
Inflation appears to be playing a role solving a problem that was much fretted over last year: workers are returning to the labor force to augment retirement income amidst high rising prices. [Link; paywall]
Starbucks is weighing better benefits for employees but says they could exclude union workers by Amelia Lucas (CNBC)
Already facing one complaint from the NLRB for union-busting, Starbucks is trying to fight further unionization by denying benefits to union shops and may run further afoul of labor regulations in the process. [Link]
Innovation
A McDonald’s distribution partner in Canada is testing an electric Volvo truck — take a closer look at the big rig EV by Brittany Chang and Mary Meisenzahl (Business Insider)
EV trucks are starting to hit the road in Canada as part of a test for Volvo’s new offerings. McDonalds is testing the trucks as part of its distribution network. [Link]
World’s Biggest Particle Collider to Restart in Bid to Extend Frontiers of Physics by Aylin Woodward and Janet Babin (WSJ)
The massive particle accelerator along the Swiss-French border has been shut down for three years, but new collisions will resume soon after a series of upgrades. [Link; paywall]
Emerging Markets
Unsafe at any price by Jay Newman (FTAV)
Concerns are mounting over the shift away from protective covenants are especially grave among the highly-indebted sovereign borrowers from emerging markets, where legal enforcement against sovereign actors is always more complicated than in the private sector. [Link; registration required]
U.S. and Chinese Bond Yields Converge, Reversing a Decadelong Pattern by Rebecca Feng (WSJ)
The once-large yield advantage for Chinese government bonds relative to those in the US has been erased, with a slowing Chinese economy and tightening Fed policy leading to a convergence between the two large markets. [Link; paywall]
Supply Chains
Building Resilient Supply Chains (Council of Economic Advisors)
A detailed report on the general nature of supply chains and steps that could be taken to make them more resilient, part of the CEA’s annual Economic Report of the President. [Link; 42 page PDF]
France
First round of 2022 French election in charts by Eir Nolsoe, Ella Hollowood, and Oli Elliot (FT)
A series of charts explaining the geographic, material, and educational differences between voters that supported Marine Le Pen and Emmanuelle Macron in France’s first round elections. [Link; soft paywall]
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Have a great weekend!
