(New York)

Barron’s has published a very curious article. The piece takes a look at the market and spends a great deal of time showing how the current stock market is both technically and fundamentally sound. The economy is good, market momentum is strong, the rally has good breadth—the whole nine yards. Yet, its overall tone is that investors need to be worried, and prepare themselves for the inevitable downturn. One way to prepare would be to cut out the weakest stocks in your portfolio (likely all with gains, but less than others) as these are likely to fall harder than the best performing stocks. Additionally, consider cashing in some chips, and also, importantly, defining clearly when you will pull out, whether it is when a trend line is broken or at a 10% loss etc.

FINSUM: This market is very rich, but also incredibly hard to time (as always). However, there could still be a lot of gains before a correction arrives.

(Seattle)

In a sign that should make all retail employees shudder, Amazon has finally launched its staff-less store. The store has no staff and no checkout, a development the company calls “just walk out” shopping. Shoppers are tracked by sensors all over the store, and the system allows Amazon to just automatically charge them when they leave. The concept is technically called Amazon Go, and this newest convenience store is Amazon’s thirteenth brick and mortar location in the US.

FINSUM: In our view, this is absolutely genius. While we hate the idea of fewer retail jobs, and don’t support that, Amazon is basically developing a way to get rid of the tedious checkout line.

(Detroit)

The Wall Street Journal has published that we consider an important and engaging piece about the US auto industry and its disconnection with the direction of the rest of the world. While other major markets, like Europe and Asia, are moving to an ever-cleaner, ever-smaller, ever more electric paradigm, the US is moving further into the “bigger is better” mantra and cutting fuel standards. The disconnection has at its heart two components—the first is Trump’s very different view of climate change and environmental regulation, and the other is cheap gasoline.

FINSUM: We don’t think this disconnect is any cause for alarm in the near-term, but investors should consider that if political winds change (such as in the mid-term elections), then regulations could change quickly, leaving US automakers with a bad product mix.

(San Francisco)

Apple debuted its most important product in years just a few months ago—the iPhone X, but it may be closing in on what could not only be a great new product, but a new segment. That new device would be Apple’s version of the smart speaker business led by Amazon’s Echo and Google’s devices. Apple’s version is called the HomePod, and had its debut delayed from late last year to early this year, missing the holiday season. Of course, the device itself may be secondary the the digital personal assistant system, in Apple’s case Siri, as it is this bit of software which keeps users in the company’s ecosystem, which means higher spending.

FINSUM: The devices are merely vehicles for the digital assistants, which are in turn genius products for keeping consumers spending on services.

(Washington)

The SEC has just made an announcement that those in financial industry, and beyond, were waiting for. That announcement was that the SEC has now all but grounded all hopes of having bitcoin ETFs. There has been a remarkable amount of hype about the chances of launching bitcoin ETFs in the hope of getting more mainstream investors involved in the asset class. However, the SEC dashed those hopes, saying “Until the questions identified above can be addressed satisfactorily, we do not believe that it is appropriate for fund sponsors to initiate registration of funds that intend to invest substantially in cryptocurrency and related products”.

FINSUM: This was effectively an unsolicited warning not to try to shirk investor protection rules in efforts to create bitcoin ETFs. It looks like the SEC is taking a hard line here.