What we’re reading (5/4)
“About Half In U.S. Worry About Their Money’s Safety In Banks” (Gallup). “Amid turbulence in the U.S. banking system, nearly half of Americans are anxious about the safety of the money they have in accounts at banks or other financial institutions. A total of 48% of U.S. adults say they are concerned about their money, including 19% who are ‘very’ and 29% who are ‘moderately’ worried. At the same time, 30% are ‘not too worried’ and 20% are ‘not worried at all.’”
“Apple Finds Strength In India As Overall Sales Fall For Second Straight Quarter” (Wall Street Journal). “This is the third time in a decade that the iPhone maker has posted back-to-back quarters of falling revenue. The tech giant’s revenue for the three months ended April 1 was $94.8 billion, down 3% from the year-earlier period. Net income dropped 3% year-over-year to $24.2 billion. Apple exceeded analyst expectations, according to FactSet, of $92.9 billion in sales and $22.6 billion in net income for its fiscal second quarter.”
“Lyft Stock Plunges Nearly 15% On Weaker Than Expected Revenue Forecast” (CNN Business). “The ride-hailing company reported revenue of $1 billion for the quarter ending in March, marking a 14% year-over-year increase and beating Wall Street estimate’s. But the company forecast weaker-than-expected revenue for the current quarter, which was enough to jitter investors.”
“ESG Is Digging A Deeper And Deeper Hole For Itself” (RealClear Markets). “Though more than $50 trillion has been committed to ESG and other sustainable investment strategies, the world is no closer to achieving its net zero objectives, nor is the global economy more socially inclusive than it would have been otherwise. These are not my findings, mind you; they are the conclusions of Professors Davidson Heath, Daniele Macciocchi, Roni Michaely, and Matthew C. Ringgenberg, who studied the behaviors of hundreds of firms over the past decade. ESG funds haven’t done much incremental good. Neither are they doing very well. As an asset class, ESG equity funds have underperformed broad market indices by hundreds of basis points in recent years.”
“How Can Active Stock Managers Improve Their Funds’ Performance? By Taking A Vacation—A Long One” (Morningstar). “The difference between the static portfolio’s hypothetical returns and the funds’ actual returns would approximate the value the funds’ active managers added to, or subtracted from, performance by trading stocks along the way…We found the Do Nothing Active Portfolio would have earned nearly the same return as the actual active large-cap funds did in aggregate.”
