Author: Cattolica Investment Club

2nd March, 2024 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded its 13th biennial ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi with a significant breakthrough: another two years extension of the moratorium on e-commerce tariffs lasting until 2026. Indeed, the negotiations failed to reach consensus on sticking points like the treatment of agriculture and fisheries subsidies. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala raised the issue of WTO's resilience in turbulent conditions, yet insisted on the importance of addressing the outstanding issues. The meeting's agenda was hindered by the anger over inflation and foreign competition that had developed in great economies. The climax of the trade negotiations was the announcement of the preservation of the e-commerce exclusion which seemed to be contrary to what was said about the failure of the negotiations. Doubts about the WTO's…

Introduction Today we will analyze one of the most contemporary and dynamic subjects - sustainable investments. Green investing or Sustainable investing (sometimes known as ethical investing, socially responsible investing or impact investing), is multidimensional but still focuses on financial performance. Incorporating the environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards into the investment process implies the implementation of numerous activities, including consideration of socio-environmental consequences and financial goals recognition, for achieving positive results for society and environment. The constant rise of importance of this concept in recent years is one of the main features that can be noticed thanks to a few factors. One is that people are starting to be aware of the looming global crisis in the environmental, and social spheres. Sustainability-related topics including climate change, resource depletion, class struggles…

Nvidia (NVDA) (Purchased 0.24 units @ $471.73) was up on Friday by almost 4% but was outshined by AMD, that saw a +5% performance thanks to AI server demand from Dell Technologies, that posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings and registered a +30% performance on Friday. The fourth quarter revenue was $22.3 billion, above analysts’ expectations even if it was down 11% from last year. The main factor that made the stock value jump were orders for AI-optimized servers, which grew around 40%. EPS of $1.59 and net income of $1.16 billion were below analysts’ estimates, but the net income was up 89% since last year. Talking about its fiscal year, Dell had revenue of $88.4 billion, ahead of analysts’ projections and almost doubled the expected net income of $4.9 billion, posting…

US stocks went on to close the best February result for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq in nearly a decade, after investors digested a crucial inflation reading. The S&P 500 closed with a +0.5% finishing at 5,095.88, the Nasdaq grew even more with a +0.9% closing the day at its highest close on record. Meanwhile the Dow Jones popped 0.1% reaching 38.996,39 at close. C3.ai stock jumped 26% on Thursday after the company beat expectations after reporting an adjusted loss of $0.13 per share, beating expectations $0.28 per share. This growth comes as Wall Street’s artificial intelligence has yet to show signs of slowing down, with C3.ai as the latest beneficiary of the frenzy around it. The software  firm posted earnings on Wednesday that beat expectations, sending the stock as…

Wednesday's report showed that the US economy grew at a 3.2% annual pace from October through December. The data came slightly lower than the 3.3% estimates. Bitcoin skyrocketed to $64,000 on Wednesday morning, going above $60,000 for the first time since November 2021. The bullish atmosphere initially started with the possibility of an ETF launch. After being approved, Bitcoin moved flat until February 7, when the movement to $64,000 started. Another bullish event for Bitcoin is the approaching halving, which will take place in April. The halving by reducing mining reward by half, thus limiting supply. The share price of Salesforce (CRM) decreased by 5% in the extended trading after the company announced earnings per share and revenue that topped estimates but fell short of the revenue forecast for the…

Today, Dave Ramsden, deputy governor of the Bank of England, released an important statement  about the inflation trend in the UK during the Association for Financial Markets in Europe meeting.  According to Ramsden, the general increase in the level of prices seems to be persistent, although  factors like services’ prices as well as salaries growth have experienced a remarkable decrease in the  last months. He also stated that it is vital to understand if this prices’ growth will continue for a period  of time that is sufficiently long before taking into consideration drastic cuts in BoE rates’ levels, which  are already high.   Macy’s (M) (+3.37% at 4:00 PM EST) just reported 2023 Q4 revenue and earnings. According to the  data of the Cincinnati based company, there was a decline in…

Google recently encountered significant backlash for its AI image generation tool, prompting a rapid reassessment and temporary suspension of the service: the controversy stemmed from numerous historical inaccuracies and questionable outputs produced by the tool, resulting in widespread criticism and a notable decline in Alphabet's shares, which fell almost 4% on Monday to $138.51 as of early afternoon. The image generator, integrated into Google's Gemini suite of AI models, permitted users to input prompts to generate images, however, it quickly drew attention for its flawed depictions, including instances of racially diverse portrayals within historically specific contexts. This debacle highlighted broader concerns within the AI industry regarding ethics and oversight. Margaret Mitchell, a prominent figure in AI ethics and former leader of Google's AI ethics group, emphasized the necessity for nuanced…

Despite the robust performance of the U.S. economy and the flourishing tech sector, the year 2024 has seen a surge in workforce reductions within the technology industry, raising concerns and signaling a significant shift in the landscape of employment and investment strategies. While indicators such as Nvidia's impressive earnings and the soaring Nasdaq index suggest a thriving tech environment, the reality for tech workers paints a starkly different picture. According to Jeff Shulman, a professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, these layoffs reflect the evolving dynamics of work and technology, as well as a shifting investor preference towards growth over profitability. Data from Layoffs.fyi reveals a concerning trend: the number of tech dismissals in 2024 has surpassed that of the previous year, with over 42,000 employees…