What we’re reading (9/21)
“The Stock Market Is Afraid Again. Here's What That Means For Your Investments” (CNN Business). “It's been a wobbly week on Wall Street and CNN Business' Fear and Greed Index is flashing ‘Fear.’ The stock market is in a weird place. It has fallen in most of the trading sessions this month. The S&P 500 (SPX), which is the broadest measure of the US stock market, only has four higher closes this month, and one of those was more or less flat. Meanwhile, the Fear & Greed Index is sitting at 35, which signals fear.”
“How Evergrande Could Turn Into ‘China’s Lehman Brothers’” (Caixin). “For the past two months, hundreds of people have been gathering at the 43-floor [of] Zhuoyue Houhai Center in Shenzhen, where China Evergrande Group’s headquarters occupy 20 floors. They held banners demanding repayment of overdue loans and financial products. Police with riot shields had to be on site to keep things under control.” Per ZeroHedge: “at its core, [Evergrande] is just one giant shadow-banking black box whose time has finally run out.”
“SEC Is Investigating Activision Blizzard Over Workplace Practices, Disclosures” (Wall Street Journal). “Federal securities regulators have launched a wide-ranging investigation into Activision Blizzard Inc., including how the videogame-publishing giant handled employees’ allegations of sexual misconduct and workplace discrimination, according to people familiar with the investigation and documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed Activision, known for its Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush franchises, and several of its senior executives, including longtime Chief Executive Bobby Kotick, according to the people and documents.”
“The Trillion-Dollar Fantasy” (Institutional Investor). “As ESG investing has been accelerating, the planet has experienced the warmest two decades on record, Antarctica has been melting, U.S. income inequality has been gapping, and species have been disappearing at rates unseen for millennia. And the Dow Jones Industrial Average is hitting new highs and asset managers are collecting attractive fees to oversee a popular new investment category.”
“After Merkel” (The Economist). “Mrs Merkel has at times seemed more monarch than chancellor. She will leave office with sky-high approval ratings. Three of the four coalitions she led were ‘grand’ ones with the Social Democratic Party (spd), which suited her centrism but tranquilised politics. She has so dominated the centre that outright criticism of her has come to seem almost lèse-majesté. That has inspired a wave of free-speech martyrs on the conservative fringes, the closest Germany gets to a culture war. In Europe Mrs Merkel has been the indispensable leader. Beyond it, her stout defence of liberal values and her modest demeanour have been reassuring in an age of noisy populism and nationalist showmen.”
