What we’re reading (9/5)
“The Stock Market Shakeout Is Likely Not Over Yet, Even With Friday’s Comeback” (CNBC). “Stocks reversed some of their worst losses Friday, but they are still expected to be choppy in the week ahead as investors return from the long Labor Day weekend…[i]nvestors took profits in tech names in the past week, amid worries that the market and Nasdaq, in particular, had become too frothy…[t]here are a few economic reports in the coming week, with the most important Friday’s report of consumer inflation[.]”
Justice Department Reportedly Plans To File Antritrust Case Against Google As Early As This Month” (The Verge). The Department opened its probe into Google last June, apparently focused on possible anti-competitive behavior in the internet search business. Separately, the Department opened a bigger probe into “big tech” writ large last July.
“Big Oil Just Isn’t As Big As It Once Was” (Washington Post). ExxonMobil’s market cap is about 1/3 of what it was in 2008, when it was ~$500 billion. GOOG, AMZN, AAPL, FB, and MSFT are each worth more than the top 76 energy companies combined.
“This Market Mayhem Will Test Robinhood’s Newbie Investors” (CNN Business). “The sudden return of turbulence on Wall Street is a rude awakening for newbie investors who grew accustomed to a stock market that went almost exclusively in one direction: straight up…[b]ut markets don't go straight up forever. On Thursday, the Dow plummeted more than 800 points, or 2.8%, and the S&P 500 suffered its biggest one-day drop from a record high since May 1999[.]”
“Oh, Is Disclosing The Source Of Half Our Revenue On A Page Called ‘How We Make Money’ A Big Deal?” (Dealbreaker). Speaking of Robinhood, the new-ish trading platform wildly popular with Millennials that all of us can and should thank for essentially forcing commissions to go to zero across the brokerage industry: “[u]nfortunately for Robinhood, disclosing conflict-of-interest-sounding sources of roughly half of your revenue is the kind of thing the SEC can be a real stickler about, and so it’s likely to have at least $10 million less to spend[.]”
