7 Weekend Reads
January 21, 2024
Hackers breached Microsoft to find out what Microsoft knows about them. “On Friday, Microsoft disclosed that the hacking group it calls Midnight Blizzard, also known as APT29 or Cozy Bear — and widely believed to be sponsored by the Russian government — hacked some corporate email accounts, including those of the company’s “senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions.””
OpenAI’s Sam Altman in talks with Middle East backers over chip venture. “Sam Altman is in discussions with Middle Eastern investors and chip fabricators including TSMC about launching a new chip venture, as the OpenAI chief executive seeks to satisfy his company’s growing need for semiconductors while reducing its reliance on Nvidia.”
CEOs of Saks, Barnes & Noble: Big Pivots Can Pay Off (as Long as They’re Customer-Focused). “Both of these brands have endured for more than 125 years. That doesn’t happen without a certain level of agility, and in both cases the key to that agility was a deep understanding of its customer, coupled with a willingness to change. It sounds simple, obvious in fact — to be successful a retailer must understand what its customers want and deliver it. But if it was easy there would be a lot more centenarian retailers out there, and the fact is, there aren’t.”
The Real Reason You’re Paying for So Many Subscriptions. “How much do you spend on subscriptions every month? OK, now guess again. Because whatever number you came up with wasn’t nearly big enough. Think about everything that’s available through a monthly subscription these days. Your favorite streaming service. Also, three more streaming services. This newspaper! Cable TV. Music. Audiobooks. Makeup. Salads. Razors. Substacks. Toothbrushes. Your dinner. Your dog’s dinner. The number of subscriptions you have to manage is enough to make your head spin, at which point you could use a subscription to help you meditate.”
After a Sugar High of Free Money, These Billion-Dollar Technologies Need a Nap. “While the nature of the venture-capital industry is to make bets, these technologies have received billions of dollars in investment and are yet to show a path to success. Some investors have warned us since 2015, at least, that the venture-capital industry and the companies it supported were in a place of irrational exuberance—and those predictions are finally coming to pass.”
Billionaires Wanted to Save the News Industry. They’re Losing a Fortune. “As the prospects for news publishers waned in the past decade, billionaires swooped in to buy some of the country’s most fabled brands. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought The Washington Post in 2013 for about $250 million. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotechnology and start-up billionaire, purchased The Los Angeles Times in 2018 for $500 million. Marc Benioff, the founder of the software giant Salesforce, purchased Time magazine with his wife, Lynne, for $190 million in 2018.”
New York Says 29% of Its Hospitals Are Financially Distressed. “Health-care facilities across the US are still recovering from the depredations of the pandemic, which paused elective procedures and spiked costs for staff and supplies. For hospitals in New York, an aging population that is shifting to Medicaid and Medicare is making it even harder for facilities to rebound. Seventy-five of the state’s 261 hospitals, or 29%, are struggling…”
The strategies behind our Thematic Models:
Aging of the Population - Capturing the demographic wave of the aging population and the changing demands it brings with it.
Artificial Intelligence – Software, chips, and related companies that facilitate the collection and analysis of large data sets and autonomous generation of solutions given non-machine language prompts.
CHIPs Act – Capturing the reshoring of the US semiconductor industry and the $52.7 billion poised to be spent on semiconductor manufacturing.
Cloud Computing – Companies that provide hardware and services that enhance the cloud computing experience for users, such as co-location, security, and edge computing.
Consumer Inflation Fighters - Companies poised to benefit as consumers stretch the disposable spending dollars they do have.
Core Holdings – Companies that reflect economic activity and are large enough to not get pushed around by day-to-day market trends. Low-beta, large-cap names able to better withstand economic turmoil.
Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity -The buildout and upgrading of our Networks, Data Storage Facilities, and Equipment.
Data Privacy & Digital Identity - Companies providing the tools and services that verify authorized users and safeguard personal data privacy.
EV Transition - Capturing the transition to EVs and related infrastructure from combustion engine vehicles.
Guilty Pleasure – Companies that produce/provide food and drink products that consumers tend to enjoy regardless of the economic environment and potential long-term health hazards associated with excessive consumption.
Homebuilding & Materials – Ranging from homebuilders to key building product companies that serve the housing market, this model looks to capture the rising demand for housing, one that should benefit as the Fed returns monetary policy to more normalized levels.
Luxury Buying Boom - Tapping into aspirational buying and affluent buyers amid rising global wealth.Market Hedge Model – This basket of daily reset swap-based broad market inverse ETFs protects in the face of market pullbacks, overbought market technicals, and other drivers of market volatility.
Market Hedge Model – This basket of daily reset swap-based broad market inverse ETFs protects in the face of market pullbacks, overbought market technicals, and other drivers of market volatility.
Nuclear Energy & Uranium – Companies that either build and maintain nuclear power plants or are involved in the production of uranium.
Precision Ag & Agri Science – Companies that look to address shrinking arable land by helping maximize crop yields utilizing technology, science, or both.
Rebuilding America - Turning the focused spending on rebuilding US infrastructure into revenue and profits.
Safety & Security – Targeted exposure to companies that provide goods and services primarily to the Defense and security sectors of the economy.
Space Economy – Companies that focus on the launch and operation of satellite networks.
The strategies behind our Dividend Income Models:
Monthly Dividend Model – Pretty much what the name says – this model invests in companies that pay monthly dividends to shareholders.
ETF Dividend Model – High-yielding ETFs that provide a range of exposures from domestic equities, international equities, emerging market equities, MLPS, and REITs.
ETF Enhanced Dividend Model – A group of high-yielding ETFs that utilize options to enhance yield through collecting option income.