Weekly Performance
Dow -5.67% S&P -5.95% Nasdaq -6.54% Russell -4.79% Canada -3.10% Mexico -2.72% Brazil -0.60% Nikkei -5.44% Hang Seng -3.79% CSI -3.73% Shanghai -3.58% Shenzen -5.18% EuroStoxx -4.05% FTSE -3.38% CAC -3.55% Dax -4.06% Ibex -3.77% MIB -2.49% SMI -3.53%
Global stock markets took a significant step back this week as investors were unable to look past a growing number of risks to equity valuations. Technology shares opened under significant pressure when Facebook found itself embroiled in a major controversy, leading many to call for the resignation of CEO Zuckerberg amid intense scrutiny from government officials in Europe as well as in Washington. The consternation surrounding a looming trade war only intensified after President Trump followed through and announced a swath of tariffs aimed at $60B in Chinese imports. The Chinese responded in kind, launching what appeared to be much more modest $3B retaliation package against the initial steel and aluminum tariffs imposed earlier this month, but suggested more reciprocal measures may be announced soon. Wednesday, the US Fed raised rates as expected, but the median forecast for the Fed funds rate for both 2019 and 2020 were ratcheted significantly higher. The next day, the BOE hinted that its next rate hike is likely to come in May. President Trump made fresh headlines on Friday by announcing another change to his inner circle, bringing on hawk John Bolton to head up his national security team. He also signed the omnibus spending bill, but not before deriding Congress for the legislation's perceived shortfalls in his eyes.
Macro :
- JPMorgan Sees Market Overcoming Stock Rout, But Beware Trade War
- Bond Traders Face Gut-Check in Record $300 Billion U.S. Auctions
- Burkhard Balz to Join Bundesbank Board on Sept. 1, WamS Reports
Keep an eye on :
- ALV GY : *ALLIANZ, PING ARE SAID IN TALKS W/ CBA ON GEN INSURANCE OPS:AFR
- ALO FP : Enea/Energa Unit Wants GE-Alstom Bid for Ostroleka Power Project
- BMPS IM : Monte Paschi Shareholder to Propose Suing Other Banks, Directors
- EN FP : Bouygues to Buy Alpiq Units for About CHF750 Million: SZ
- BG US : Bunge Director Andreas Fibig Won’t Stand for Re-Election (1)
- GATE SW : Gategroup IPO Price Is Too High, According to Investors: FuW
- IAG LN : U.K. Is Said to Crack Down on Airlines’ Hidden Fees: Times
- LBK SM : Spanish Lender Liberbank Is Open to Merger, Expansion Says
- MAERSKB DC : Maersk CEO Rules Out Deals Until After Hamburg Sued Integration
- NOS PL : NOS Doesn’t Need to Sell Assets, CEO Almeida Tells Expresso
- NOVN VX : Novartis to Double $2B China Business Over Five Years: CEO
- RIO LN : Rio Tinto CEO Says Watch Out for ‘Tit-for-Tat’ War on Trade
- TIT IM : Telecom Italia CEO Says Most Investors Back Strategy: JDD
- UBI IM : UBI Banca Denies Report Board Discussed Paschi Merger Study
- VOW3 GY : VW Board Must Become ‘Younger, More Female’: Mueller to Spiegel
‘Black Panther’ just became North America’s highest-grossing superhero movie
After the remarkable string of weekends it’s been having, it was really just a matter of time before Black Panther wrestled the top spot from his fellow Avengers. As of today, the Ryan Coogler-directed film is North America’s highest grossing superhero film of all-time (not adjusted for inflation, mind).
The news comes via The Hollywood Reporter, which notes that the film has pulled in $624 million on the continent, roaring past 2012’s The Avengers, which made $623.4 million. The film, which cost around $200 million, is now one of only seven movies to make more than $600 million, domestically.
Black Panther has been pulling in money at a steady clip since opening, with a record-setting $218 million opening weekend. Worldwide, it’s pulled in $1.2 billion and is on-track to become the third highest-grossing superhero film internationally, behind the first two Avengers films. The third Avengers film, Infinity War, is due out on April 27.
Even more so than those films, however, Black Panther has become a cultural touchstone for moviegoers, and, hopefully, a wake up call for Hollywood, which has traditionally shied away from diversity in film. Those who still haven’t seen it, can check out Anthony’s review here — or just take my word that it’s awesome.
Earlier this year, the business community received a wake-up call issued with all of the might that $6 trillion can muster.
The call came from Laurence Fink, the founder and chief executive of the global investment firm, BlackRock, and was delivered as a letter to the CEOs of the world’s largest companies.
Aptly titled, “A Sense of Purpose,” the letter informed business leaders that driving record profits is no longer enough to garner BlackRock’s support. Companies must also positively contribute to society, or in Mr. Fink’s words, “Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate.”
I was elated when I read the letter. I’ve spent my entire career as a social entrepreneur advocating for businesses—specifically technology businesses in Silicon Valley—to use their technology, wealth, and influence for social good. After reading the letter in the New York Times and seeing the extensive coverage in major business publications, I turned to the leading Silicon Valley tech blogs to get their take on this blockbuster announcement. After all, the Bay Area is home to many of BlackRock’s largest clients.
Crickets. Fink’s letter wasn’t covered by the technology press. Well, to be accurate, I checked the first ten pages of Google results as well as all of the tech pubs in Techmeme’s top ten list. Nothing.
Guys (I hate to say it, but it’s mostly guys here in the Valley), Fink’s point is that ignoring society’s voice will lead to the loss of our “license to operate.” Putting the Valley’s collective hands over our ears and saying “we can’t hear you” only works for so long.
Instead, what if Silicon Valley embraced the letter to commit good for the better of society as a whole, not just the interests of the software and data industrial complex? What if Fink’s letter served as a constant reminder to build products that make the world a 10x more equitable place to live and prosper and not just to build products that deliver 10x profit?
With those questions in mind, here are two interrelated and crucial ways to commit good on purpose while making sure Silicon Valley technology companies embrace “A Sense of Purpose.”
Put People Before Algorithms. The goal of algorithms must not be to replace, manipulate, or deceive in the name of profit. This is all too often the case as black-box algorithms use massive amounts of data to attract eyeballs, encourage clicks, and, in more dire circumstances, even determine if someone goes to prison.
We must always ask up front how unaccountable algorithms impact individuals and society as a whole. Instead of eyeballs, clicks, and even prison time served, algorithms should be optimized to make people better—more efficient in their jobs, more informed in their daily lives, and more connected to their communities. We must make a cognizant effort to analyze and identify the risks of algorithms-gone-rogue before they result in disasters. Let’s not only ask, “How can we make more money?” but also, “What could go wrong?”
Risk-benefit analysis already takes place around boardroom tables by those with monetary interests, but those conversations fail to include the diverse voices of the communities that will feel the decision’s impact. There will never be perfect clarity around what will unfold after a decision is made. That’s exactly why decisions that impact thousands, millions, and even billions of people must include all company stakeholders—shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate—if we are ever to prevent a world where algorithms reign supreme in the name of profit.
Treat Diversity as Our Greatest Asset. It’s very easy to discount points of view, values, and even someone’s humanity when the voice of diversity is not present. Establishing diversity as a core company principle is a good start, but it’s not enough. Diversity must be omnipresent and it must be truly embraced across an organization as an asset, not a statistic.
Many in Silicon Valley will tell you that diversity has been a top priority for years, only to follow with reports that cite a 2% increase in women employees, 0% increase in black employees, and no data at all on the number of employees with disabilities. Let’s not conflate transparency with priority. We must increase diversity now while investing in STEM education and training to create a more diverse pipeline of workers for tomorrow’s technology jobs. By making the workforce of today and tomorrow more diverse, we make our communities more diverse. We are then one step closer to never discounting a point of view, value, or someone’s entire humanity due to a lack of voice.
It’s not too late to use Mr. Fink’s letter as a wake-up call for Silicon Valley to commit good on purpose. While the two proposals detailed in this article are aspirational, they have at their core something much more valuable than $6 trillion. These ideas are about regaining Silicon Valley’s conscience. They are about investing in a collective future that prizes diversity and equality, not a future that allows technology, data, and algorithms to further entrench the inequality that we face today in Silicon Valley and everywhere that feels our impact.
5G Wireless Will Redraw the Wireless Industry Map: Who Stands to Lose?
5G wireless was supposed to cement wireless carriers’ grip and threaten traditional broadband providers—but what if it does the opposite?
You may have heard that fifth-generation wireless technology, better known as 5G, is coming, and it’ll be awesome. If you don’t know anything more than that, you are far from alone.
The Trump administration recently blocked a takeover of U.S. firm Qualcomm QCOM -3.45% by Singapore-based Broadcom , on the grounds it would undermine U.S. strength in 5G technology and damage national security. Meanwhile, we’ve seen a drumbeat of 5G press releases from telecommunications companies, whose breathless hype about blistering speeds and astounding applications make 5G sound like it’s right around the corner.
The shift is inevitable, but it’ll take time. And the breathlessness may be overblown.
Like past generational shifts, the move from current 4G LTE wireless to next-gen 5G will be hugely expensive and will result in patchy coverage for years to come. What’s different is that after all the infrastructure upgrades, much of the time your phone’s connection to the internet might not be any faster.
The biggest impact of 5G could be that the distinction between wired and wireless networks will blur, as America’s two biggest “wireline” service providers, Comcast and Charter Communications , CHTR -3.28% and the biggest wireless providers, AT&T T -1.89% and Verizon, adopt similar technologies and transform the way the internet reaches consumers.
To understand any of this, we have to start with what 5G is and how it will work. Today’s 4G LTE wireless technology is enabled mostly by large cell towers of the sort used to create cell networks since the days of Gordon Gekko and Zack Morris. In rural areas these towers can be tens of miles apart; in Manhattan there are more than 50 per square mile.
The radio waves that come from these towers are in the megahertz-to- low-gigahertz range and vary according to which bits of spectrum a carrier has licensed from the FCC. These radio waves can travel long distances and penetrate buildings, so they can reach you wherever you are.
At its most basic level, 5G can be an upgrade to existing infrastructure like this. As a grab bag of the latest tricks for making wireless networks better—including targeting radio beams and a huge increase in the number of antennas—5G can operate across all the spectrum currently used by telecoms companies, from 600 megahertz on up. In theory, this would make any existing spectrum it’s applied to more reliable—though not necessarily faster.
The aspect of 5G that grabs headlines is its incredible speed. That comes from a rollout of wireless across new, higher-frequency spectrum.
Waves with a frequency in the tens of gigahertz—known as “millimeter waves” because their wavelength measures a few millimeters, rather than today’s longer-wave frequencies—can carry an order of magnitude more data, in theory. But these waves can’t travel very far or penetrate most building materials including glass, and they get absorbed by foliage and rain.
If the old way of doing things was to set up widely spaced towers and pass longer-range wireless between them, the new approach is to turn the disadvantage of 5G—the short distance over which it operates—into an advantage.
By subdividing an area into many more cells, 5G could allow wireless companies to reduce the number of users connecting to any given tower, while simultaneously making radios in both our phones and on the towers faster. If that sounds familiar, it’s because this is similar to how a Wi-Fi network inside an airport or office building works.
Cable companies like Comcast have made limited inroads to date into the wireless industry, but that is likely to change with the advent of 5G.
Cable companies like Comcast have made limited inroads to date into the wireless industry, but that is likely to change with the advent of 5G. PHOTO: CHARLES MOSTOLLER/BLOOMBERG
It’s true that 5G will go into cell towers. T-Mobile is building it out in 30 cities, and its customers will be able to access it in 2019 when the first 5G phones become available, a company spokeswoman says.
But what makes more sense for high-speed 5G is an ultradense web of radios, many not much bigger than a Wi-Fi access point. All of these must be physically connected to power and the internet and dwell where the network operator already has right of way.
Initially, 5G will work much the way cable or fiber-optic internet service works now. A 5G wireless base station will connect with an antenna hung on a home or office, which will connect with a Wi-Fi network inside the home. Phones will appear later, in 2019, but the number of places where you’ll be able to get high-speed 5G access will be extremely limited.
Because of this, wired networks are suddenly hot again, and cable carriers have an advantage at the start.
Telecom companies like Verizon and AT&T say this shift will only expand their business, as new applications for 5G, from self-driving cars to mobile augmented reality, stoke demand. But they need to keep building their fiber-optic networks to make it happen.
AT&T plans to extend fiber near (but not directly to) 22 million homes and businesses by July 2019. Verizon currently has nearly six million customers for its fiber-optic home internet service, making it well-situated to roll out a dense, fiber-optic-powered 5G network in regions where it already offers its Fios service, says Bill Stone, vice president of network planning at Verizon.
Cable companies, which already have dense wired networks, see an opportunity to move into mobile, a Charter Communications spokesman says. Charter will be rolling out its own mobile service in the middle of 2018. Comcast already has a wireless service with 380,000 subscribers, but it hasn’t elaborated on future plans for it.
Jonathan Chaplin, managing partner at New Street Research, which specializes in telecommunications, says cable companies do have the advantage: They are already focused on homes and offices, rather than mobile use. And even on mobile devices, more than 80% of our data use happens over Wi-Fi.
Given the complexity and expense of building out full-coverage 5G networks, expect a long, slow rollout of services like these. At some point, with enough nodes densely packed in across big cities, any of these carriers could go from offering wireless inside buildings to offering it outdoors, too. Eventually, that patchy Wi-Fi-like network will get good enough so that we can trust 5G—and then, maybe, you’ll get into an autonomous vehicle connected to it. But it could take years.
Sliding Silver Sends Scary Signal
Gold is priced 82 times higher than silver, the highest such discrepancy in two years and seen as a negative economic indicator
Investors have soured on silver to start 2018, after prices rose over the last two years—a possible warning signal to the broader market.
Silver futures have fallen 3.1% this year, trailing a 3.3% gain in gold. That’s after bullion rose 14% last year, double silver’s 7% advance.
The divergence between the two means prices for gold are 82 times those of silver, which is 27% more than the 10-year average and the highest level in two years, data analyzed by WSJ Market Data Group show.
A higher gold-to-silver ratio is viewed by some investors as a negative economic indicator because money managers tend to favor gold when they think markets might turn rocky and discard silver when they are worried about slower global growth crimping consumption. Industrial uses account for about 55% of demand for silver, according to the Silver Institute, leading some traders to link it more with base metals like copper and others.
The precious metals ratio last stayed above 80 in early 2016, when worries about a Chinese economic slowdown roiled markets, and in 2008 during the financial crisis. The ratio’s recent rise comes as speculators have turned bearish on silver and inventories in warehouses have risen, a sign there could be too much supply.
“There’s just not many people looking to buy silver at this point in time,” said Walter Pehowich, senior vice president at Dillon Gage Metals. “There’s a lot of silver that comes out of the refineries, and they can’t find a home for it.”
The amount of silver stored in depositories approved by CME Group Inc. jumped 16% to 251 million troy ounces from the start of August to the end of February.
Hedge funds and other speculative investors were the most net short or bearish, they’ve ever been in the week ended March 20, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data going back
to 2006, breaking the record previously set during the week ended Feb. 27. That week, new short bets outnumbered bullish bets by 36 to 1.
And more than $350 million flowed out of silver-backed exchange-traded funds in February, the largest monthly outflow since September, according to Silver Institute and Thomson Reuters GFMS data.
Some analysts think silver’s underperformance is a negative sign for precious metals broadly because it is a less actively traded commodity, making it more vulnerable to bigger price swings on the way up and down. Money in gold-backed exchange-traded funds totals about $100 billion, according to the World Gold Council. That number for silver is about $11 billion.
While investors have flocked toward gold with equity markets wobbling, money managers seeking safety or alternative assets haven’t favored silver.
“It’s not seeing great hedge demand because it’s just easy to go to gold,” said Dan Denbow, who manages the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund . “Gold is a bit more predictable.”
Some analysts said worries that the global economy could slow down have also hurt silver. Similar concerns following mixed economic data and protectionist trade policies have dragged down copper and other industrial metals, with some investors betting that slower growth will weaken commodity demand.
A well-known conductor of electricity, silver is used in everything from medical devices to household appliances. It is also a primary component in the photovoltaic cells used in solar panels, which some analysts view as the fastest-growing source of silver demand. Tariffs announced in January on the devices could halt that momentum, analysts say. The tariffs are aimed mainly at Asian manufacturers and are as high as 30%.
“The concerns about growth are hindering the silver buyers right now,” said George Gero, a managing director at RBC Capital Markets . “Silver is not thought of as bullion or as a store of value. It’s still thought of as an industrial component.”
Higher interest rates have also cooled sentiment, as they tend to boost Treasury yields and make commodities less attractive. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday and signaled it could pick up the pace of interest-rate increases to keep economic growth in check after next year.
Clarity on trade policies and interest rates could ease market jitters and reverse the relationship between gold and silver, some analysts said.
“It has little to do with market sentiment,” said Nathan Thooft, senior managing director of global asset allocation at Manulife Asset Management . “I would be in the reversion camp of this being a buying opportunity for silver.”
David Rosenberg: "It Was Black Friday Before Black Monday"
"It could never happen again..." is the constant refrain of the asset-gatherers and commission-takers around the world as they prepare to defend their livelihoods from yet another delusion-clarifying plunge back to reality for stock prices.
Well, after this week's bloodbathery - and tearing down of the social-media-will-remake-the-global-economy narrative - many are starting to recognize that all is not well... and perhaps, just perhaps, the support pillars of this flimsy potemkin village we call 'the stock market' have already crumbled...
Dollar funding markets are extremely stressed and The Fed's balance sheet contraction (and its implicit tightening of liquidity) is not helping...
Oil trader Vitol hit by profit drop in tough markets
Decline follows blockbuster 2016 as price rebound makes trading harder
Vitol, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, suffered a drop in profits last year, as tough market conditions made it more difficult to make money from storing cheap barrels of crude and selling them later.
The privately owned company posted net income of $1.5bn in the year to December, down from more than $2bn in 2016, which was one of its best years on record, according to people familiar with the results.
Vitol, which does not make its full financial information public, declined to comment.
Stripping out $300m of gains from assets sales, underlying net income was $1.2bn, against $1.6bn in 2016, the people said.
The results show how the recovery in oil prices to around $70 a barrel had made it more difficult for groups like Vitol to make money from storing cheap barrels of crude and selling them later at a higher price.
These so-called “cash-and-carry” trades helped the industry deliver bumper profits in 2015 and 2016, making it one of the few beneficiaries of the oil price crash.
But a shift to a market structure called backwardation — where contracts for spot delivery are more expensive than those in the future — has crimped earnings.
In December, Trafigura, the world’s third-biggest oil trader, said its oil and petroleum products business had posted a 22 per cent decline in gross profits in the year to September, although this had been offset by a strong performance from its metals unit.
At the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne last week, Vitol’s chairman Ian Taylor acknowledged that 2017 had been a tougher year for the company, without providing further details.
“It’s probably very good for the world that the oil price is in a very nice sweet spot. However, that’s not very good for trading,” he said in his first interview since stepping down as chief executive this month.
During his more than 30 years at the company, Mr Taylor has transformed Vitol from a small Dutch fuel trader into a global behemoth trading more than 7m barrels of crude and products a day — enough to supply the fuel needs of the UK, Germany, Spain and France combined.
He is being replaced by Russell Hardy, the group’s head of operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Mr Taylor said the company’s strategy was unlikely to change under Mr Hardy. Unlike rivals Glencore and Trafigura, which also trade metals, Vitol is focused on energy markets.
For the first time in years, buying and selling metals is proving more attractive than shifting barrels of oil — a reversal of the trend for much of this decade. But Mr Taylor said Vitol had no plans to start trading aluminium, copper or zinc.
“You need proper scale, you can’t dabble in it,” he said, referring to metals trading. “I am afraid that bus has left the station and sadly we are not on it. We will just have to accept we are not on it and have to work twice as hard to make some money out of oil or gas.”
Looking ahead to 2018, Mr Taylor said the sale of stakes in refining and service station businesses would boost earnings.
Vitol and private equity company Carlyle recently announced plans for a stock market listing of Varo Energy, their European refiner and petrol station operator.
That sale could be followed by an initial public offering of Vivo Energy, an African fuel service station business, and possibly Viva Energy Australia, which acquired Royal Dutch Shell’s Australian oil refining and marketing business in 2014.
Crop uncertainty drives vanilla price back to record level
Foodmakers turn to alternatives as flavour extract becomes more expensive than silver
Ice cream and cake makers hoping for cheaper vanilla will be disappointed as uncertainty about this year’s crop in the world’s top grower Madagascar has driven the price of the spice back to record levels.
Vanilla prices soared to its record $600 a kilogramme last year after a cyclone hit the tropical island off the south-east coast of Africa, sending buyers scrambling to secure supplies of the flavouring extract.
Prices eased off below $550/kg at the end of last year on hopes of a good crop in 2018, but are now back at $600 amid uncertainty over crop levels.
The flowering period of the vanilla orchid, which produces vanilla beans, has ended and the pods are now growing.
“We won’t know the production [levels] until June,” said Mélanie Legris at Eurovanille, the French trading company.
Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron and at current levels is more expensive than silver, which is trading just above $530/kg. Madagascar supplies 75 to 80 per cent of the world vanilla bean market, and other producers including Indonesia and India do not grow enough to make up for sudden fluctuations in Madagascan vanilla pod production.
The squeeze on vanilla beans has also pushed up the price of by-products of the beans.
The price of “spent” vanilla specks — ground vanilla made from used beans that are then dried, ground and sterilised — has jumped from about $40 a kilogramme to $150, said traders.
In most cases, the spent specks are used as a “visual enhancement” said Naushad Lalani at Sentrex Ingredients, a US maker of essences and food flavouring ingredients.
Using spent beans allows foodmakers to list vanilla beans as an ingredient and put a picture of a vanilla pod or flower on the packaging, although the actual flavour may come from a non-vanilla bean source.
Some artisanal ice cream makers were forced to stop producing vanilla ice cream last year as they could not get hold of affordable vanilla bean supplies, while others raised prices or switched to vanilla flavouring made from other sources.
Vanilla is one of the world’s most popular flavours, but only about 1 per cent of the extracts used in food and cosmetics come from real pods. Vanillin, the flavour molecule found in vanilla beans, is also extracted from petroleum, coal tar and wood as well as natural food sources such as rice bran and clove oil.
Demand for artificial vanilla flavouring is rising. There has been “a positive shift in demand for our bio-based sustainable vanillin product”, said Tone Horvei Bredal at Borregaard, the Norwegian group that makes vanillin from wood.
Vanilla pod prices were on the rise before the cyclone hit Madagascar, as leading foodmakers such as Unilever and Nestlé pledged to use natural ingredients in their products, spurning synthetic flavourings.
But the rising price of vanilla beans is forcing users away to natural alternatives. Demand destruction is a concern, Mr Lalani said. “People have migrated to natural alternatives. Will they ever come back to pure vanilla?”
Barrons weekend update: cautious cover story on Facebook; positive feature on TWX; cautious on DBX
* Cover story: FB faces a consumer and investor backlash in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal; “With more than two billions users, Facebook is a top target for privacy concerns, and it’s almost certain that the company will not walk away unscathed”; its challenge will be how quickly and effectively it can change.
* Features: 1) Cautious on FB: Shares look tempting after a recent drop, but investors must determine whether the potential backlash against Facebook’s privacy problems is already priced in; 2) Barron’s 2018 list of Best Online Brokers is topped by IBKR, Fidelity, AMTD, SCHW, and TradeStation; 3) Positive on TWX: As the Time-Warner/T antitrust trial gets under way, the media giant’s shares look appealing based on their underlying value and the telecom’s strong chances of winning approval for the deal; 4) Cautious on DBX: “Despite its spectacular debut, it’s fair to ask whether Dropbox has made all the easy money it can, and whether the next billion will come at a higher cost.”
* Tech Trader: Positive on MDB, SEND: Among smaller cloud software companies whose shares are soaring amid renewed mergers-and-acquisitions fervor in the sector; investors want such firms in their portfolios because their outperformance helps achieve alpha.
* Trader: Investors aren’t yet worried about tariffs, and the current situation would have to get more out of hand than it is today for tariffs to have a bigger impact on the market; Cautious on GIS: Shares merit some of their recent downside, but the company’s reduction in outlook appears tied to self-inflicted miscues, says BMO analyst Kenneth Zaslow, and its valuation gives reason for optimism; Cautious on THS: Matters look grim for the maker of private-label foods, but some bullish observers expect incoming CEO Steven Oakland to put the company back on track.
* Profile: David Semple, manager of the VanEck Emerging Markets fund, avoids cyclical companies whose fates are tied to commodities or exports predicated on cheap labor (top 10 holdings: Tencent Holdings, BABA, Samsung Electronics, Ping An Insurance, Sberbank of Russia, Naspers, HDFC Bank, JD, CIE Automotive, Beijing Capital International Airport).
* Interview: Stephanie Pomboy, founder of Macromavens, says the next crisis will come from the Federal Reserve, whose march to tightening will stress tapped-out consumers and overstretched companies.
* Small Caps: Positive on LZB: Shares could rise 20% within a year or two, propelled by higher consumer spending, a new deal to sell on AMZN, and successful efforts to reach millennials.
* European Trader: Cautious on Micro Focus: Shares of the business software company plunged last week, and while bulls say the dive is overdone, bears make a convincing case that there’s little hope for a quick turnaround.
* Emerging Markets: Moscow’s relationship with the West may be deteriorating, but as long as natural-gas sales to the EU are unhindered, “nothing short of armed conflict” with Russia will deter investors.
* Commodities: China’s planned launch of a yuan-denominated crude futures contract could become a benchmark for global oil transactions, but it must overcome a range of challenges first.
* Streetwise: Double-digit growth is crucial for tech companies such as FB, and slowdown will hurt the social site—but of greater consequence will be what happens to its reputation.