What we’re reading (10/16)
“Morgan Stanley Powers Through Coronavirus Recession With Higher Profit, Revenue” (Wall Street Journal). The banks seem to be doing OK. “Morgan Stanley on Thursday said its quarterly profit rose 25% from a year ago, another big U.S. bank to skate unscathed through the rockiest economy in years. Profit of $2.72 billion, or $1.66 a share, was higher than a year ago and beat analysts’ forecasts. Revenue rose 16% to $11.66 billion.”
“Walmart CEO Doug McMillan To Congress: Get A Stimulus Deal Done” (CNBC). “Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Thursday called on Congress to work together and pass a stimulus deal to help American families and small businesses. ‘For both sides, I think what they need to keep in mind is that there are Americans that need them, that don’t really care about politics, aren’t really tied up in this election and they just need some help,’ he said, in an interview on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box.’”
“Amazon Just Had Its Biggest Prime Day Ever. But This Year, It’s Not Hyping That Up” (CNN Business). “Each year Amazon has held Prime Day, the retailer has touted that the savings event shattered prior Black Friday or company sales records. But this year, Amazon took a different tack in its annual announcement on results from the shopping event, playing up how small businesses benefited from Prime Day instead. The change comes as Amazon faces intense scrutiny from lawmakers about its power over independent merchants that sell goods through its website and other tactics that critics argue stifle competition.”
“‘Young And Dumb’ Traders Have Created A ‘Total Nightmare’ In The Stock Market, Fund Manager Warns” (MarketWatch). Cole Smead at Smead Capital Management thinks Millennials are dumb. But—reminder!—the market is just the aggregation of tens of thousands of individual investors’ assessments. The “wisdom of the crowd”-type thinking suggests that when the market is doing one thing and you’re doing another, you should be very cautious in assuming it’s the market that’s wrong, instead of you.
“Flashy Global Law Firm Accused Of Bilking Trusting Nebraska Senior Citizen” (Dealbreaker). “There’s no older or more successful trick in the fraudster’s playbook than selling something worthless and/or nonexistent to a credulous senior. And so when the fast-talking cosmopolitan lawyers at Jones Day were charged with selling off a German pipe maker about to go belly-up, they (allegedly) knew exactly who to turn to [Warren Buffett]].”
