The ADP jobs report shows that the US labor market is cooling
U.S. firms scaled back hiring in November. Adding only 103k private payrolls compared 130k expected, according to ADP. Job cuts were seen in manufacturing, construction, and leisure/hospitality sectors. ADP’s report is based on payroll data covering +25 million US private-sector employees. Source: Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA, Bloomberg
The race for AI dominance in one graph 👇🏼
GPU Shipments
BREAKING: Crude oil prices drop below $70/barrel for the first time since July 2023
Since the September 28th high, oil prices are now down ~27%. Meanwhile, the national average gas price is down for 10-straight weeks to $3.25/gallon. Even as OPEC+ agreed to additional supply cuts last week, oil markets are selling off. A welcomed development for global liquidity, for inflation and for the Fed. Source: The Kobeissi Letter
Most of this year's Dax rally is driven by higher EPS expectations, not P/E expansion. Dax has gained 18% year-to-date while Dax P/E has expanded only 6% from 11.5 to 12.2
Source: Bloomberg, HolgerZ
Leadership
Source: European leadership
Here's one illustration of the US commercial real estate market meltdown: values of commercial real estate continues to get destroyed in Chicago...
A 155k SF office building in Chicago just sold for $17 million, or $109 per SF The seller took a huge 61% loss, paying $44 million for the building in 2017 Here's a worrying snippet from Crain's: "Thanks to remote work and higher interest rates, real estate investors can buy downtown office buildings on the cheap these days. Add a motivated seller trying to unload all of its office stock and the discount gets even steeper. Many office properties in the heart of the [Chicago] are now worth less than the mortgages tied to them, fueling a historic wave of distress." It will be interesting to see how bad the US commercial real estate meltdown gets (particularly in office) but it's certainly a story to keep an eye on in 2024 as big opportunities emerge". Source: TripleNetInvest
A picture is worth 10,000 words...
By: Raman Khanna
High R&D spending does NOT guarantee growth and/or high shareholder returns
The chart below courtesey of Eric | AI & Tech Investing shows semiconductor companies ranked by R&D over the last 12 months. $INTC $QCOM $NVDA $AMD $TSM lead the way. Intel has spent over $100B in R&D over the last decade. Despite that, they have the 2nd lowest shareholder return of all these companies (see addt'l chart below). Intel has generated $52.9B in revenue over the last twelve months. A decade ago, Intel generated $52.4B in revenue. An important cautionary tale for investors: R&D doesn't guarantee growth. Source: Eric | AI & Tech Investing
