What we’re reading (8/17)
“S&P 500 Doubles From Its Pandemic Bottom, Marking The Fastest Bull Market Rally Since WWII” (CNBC). “The broad equity benchmark has rallied 100% on a closing basis from its Covid trough of 2,237.40 on March 23, 2020. It took the market 354 trading days to get there, marking the fastest bull market doubling off a bottom since World War II, according to a CNBC analysis of data from S&P Dow Jones Indices.”
“A New Theory Suggests That Day-To-Day Trading Has Lasting Effects On Stockmarkets” (The Economist). “In a recent working paper Xavier Gabaix of Harvard University and Ralph Koijen of the University of Chicago study how the aggregate value of America’s stockmarket responds to buying and selling. Researchers have studied flows before, typically finding noticeable effects as investors sell one stock and buy another. Messrs Gabaix and Koijen are interested in whether this finding scales up to move the market as a whole—a thesis that is consistent with the smaller-scale findings, but more provocative.”
“Retirement Planning Upgrade Turns Your 401(k) Into A Cash Machine” (Investor’s Business Daily). “Congress has given 401(k) plan sponsors like your employer the green light for offering investments that provide guaranteed lifetime income — annuities — to plan members like you. The introduction of annuities would add a major power tool to workers' retirement planning kits.”
“Weak Oversight Plagues Audits Of Billions In Private Assets” (Wall Street Journal). “Firms that audit private entities essentially police each other, often with no public disclosure. A Wall Street Journal analysis of the system shows that auditors give top grades to one another, hardly ever find fault with the biggest accounting firms and often don’t disclose failures among smaller auditors…[r]esearch by the government and data from the auditing industry trade group show significant flaws in audits of private organizations, particularly those done by smaller firms.”
“Michael Burry Of ‘Big Short’ Bets Against Cathie Wood’s ARKK” (Bloomberg). “Michael Burry, the investor made famous by “The Big Short” movie, has taken aim at one of Wall Street’s hottest stars. Burry’s Scion Asset Management owned bearish put contracts against 235,500 shares of the ARK Innovation ETF (ticker ARKK) at the end of the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing Monday. The new position was valued at almost $31 million, the filing says. The flagship exchange-traded fund of Cathie Wood and her firm Ark Investment Management lured billions in the past year after her thematic tech-focused bets trounced the market in 2020.”
