Updates – Macro Trend

Friday, December 18, 2020 12:26 PM By Ian King and Dina Bass Move is potential threat to Intel’s data center chip business Software giant is using Arm designs for in-house processors (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. is working on in-house processor designs for use in server computers that run the company’s cloud services, adding to an industrywide effort to reduce […]

Everyone has an opinion on the return — or looming extinction — of business travel. Do the predictions match the view from the the top executives across corporate functions, and across all sectors of the global markets, who have actually done much of the corporate jet-setting themselves in recent years? Bill Gates says 50% of business […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. manufacturing output increased more than expected in November, boosted by motor vehicle production, though momentum could slow as a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 infections keeps workers at home and temporarily shuts down factories. Other data on Tuesday suggested that a benign inflation environment could persist for a while, with import prices […]

Infrastructure giant Balfour Beatty is to expand its deployment of technology that can manage power use at its sites and, it’s hoped, cut carbon emissions in the process. The system, dubbed EcoNet, has been developed alongside two other companies, Sunbelt Rentals U.K. and Invisible Systems. In a statement Monday, Balfour Beatty said the system worked by “controlling and […]

Amazon’s self-driving vehicle company, Zoox, is taking the wraps off of its first robotaxi.  Zoox on Monday debuted an electric, fully driverless vehicle that’s built for ride hailing. It’s a “carriage-style” car, which means that passengers face each other and there’s no space for a driver or passenger seat, since there’s no steering wheel. It has space […]

(Bloomberg) — A gauge of U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly increased in early December to the second-highest level since March, amid prospects for a vaccine coming soon to tame the pandemic. The University of Michigan’s preliminary sentiment index rose 4.5 points to 81.4, from a final November reading of 76.9, according to figures Friday that topped all […]

Consumers are spending more via Bank of America accounts this year, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, than they did in 2019, according to CEO Brian Moynihan. “When you look at what they’re spending year-to-date, they’ve spent more in 2020 than they did in 2019, and that is now across $2.7 trillion in money moved by our […]

BlackRock has raised equities to overweight for 2021, based on its view that the restart of the economy will accelerate with the distribution of vaccines. The firm is raising equities from neutral on a tactical basis, meaning over a six-to-12-month basis. From a long-term strategic view, BlackRock remains neutral on stocks, due to valuations and a […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for U.S.-made goods increased more than expected in October and business investment on capital was a bit stronger than initially thought as the manufacturing sector continues its steady recovery from the pandemic. The Commerce Department said on Friday that factory orders rose 1.0% after increasing 1.3% in October. Economists polled […]

Wall Street’s post-election rally and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rise to a new record above 30,000 is a bet that, among other things, a divided government during a Biden administration will be a good for corporations. One of the key “goldilocks” conditions: President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to raise corporate taxes to 28% as part of a […]