Good Morning Everyone! As those of you following me on Twitter will know, my email system failed two weeks ago, which caused me to lose all my data for Emerge and Law4Startups. Unfortunately, this means our list is down from 6,000+ subscribers to just 2,500 that I had backed up.
Please share this link with your friends if they want to subscribe or resubscribe. Despite the setback, we are back to work today and working harder than ever to compensate for this failure. No matter what happens, we continue forth.
Onward and upward,
Liam | US Markets Year To Date: | Dow Jones | 32,803.47 | -9.73% | | S&P 500 | 4,145.19 | -13.03% | | Nasdaq | 12,657.56 | -19.10% | | Rusell 2000 | 1,921.82 | -14.41% | - Semiconductor chips are the new oil. Everyone is wondering why Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It wasn't a human rights mission, as was the public story; it wasn't to aggravate China; it was to meet with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) Chairman Mark Liu. TSMC is the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips making over 50% of the chips manufactured annually. For those confused, Apple and Nvidia don't make the chips; they just design them. This is a sign that the US used to go to war over oil, and now they will do it for semiconductor chips. They are essential to national security, and the US needs a strong relationship with TSMC. Follow Pelosi; she is a significant Nvidia shareholder.
- Canadian banks are expanding into the US. Canada has one of the strongest banking sectors in the world; the US, not so much. Banks in Canada are seizing the opportunity and moving into the US. Toronto-Dominion Bank just announced it was acquiring Cowen for $1.3B, having already purchased First Horizon for $13.4B. Canadian banks are the future of US banking.
- Earnings Highlights:
- Airbnb (ABNB) - Shares are up after the company's revenues increased 58% year over year, and they announced a $2B share buyback program. 🚀
- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) - Shares are up as the company saw its sales increase by 70%. The company did lower guidance for Q3 but is still on track for the 2022 fiscal year. 🚀
- Starbucks saw earnings and revenue growth and said there was no sign of reduced demand. Margins were down due to inflation. I think the drop in demand is coming. 🚨
| | GDP data released in the first week of August showed that the US economy had contracted by 0.9% in Q2 2022. The country's GDP fell by 1.6% in Q1 2022.
A recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. So it seems clear that the US is in a recession... WRONG! Technically the National Bureau of Economic Research gets to decide when the US is officially in a recession. Since WW2, however, not once has there been two consecutive quarters of GDP decline that hasn't been called a recession.
President Biden and the White House are arguing that the traditional definition was never official and that the US isn't a recession. They want a more holistic view of the economy to be considered. My take... it's a recession; we all know it. Take responsibility and move on. You know something is fundamentally wrong when the government spends more time arguing about the definition of a recession than actually fixing the economy! | Last week Mac Conwell (aka. MacTheVC) and I launched our new podcast Building Out Loud; it gives actionable advice to startup founders. Check it out here. | This week I'm fixing up my personal website. I'll have an updated version for you next week. | | | This newsletter is not legal, financial, or tax advice. Please consult an attorney before making any legal decisions, a financial advisor before making investment decisions and a tax specialist for any tax matters. I make no representations and take no responsibility for your actions based on this information. | | | |
