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Tuesday May 17, 2016

// May 17th, 2016 // Comments Off on Tuesday May 17, 2016 // Daily News

Goldman Sachs just did a U-turn on this $10T opportunity

CNBC.com

Goldman Sachs has taken a renewed bullish stance on internet services in China and the opportunities that are available for investors, after six years of showing little interest in the sector.
“For the first time since 2010, we have a high degree of confidence in the long term growth and potential (operating) profit pool for China internet,” a team of analysts, led by Piyush Mubayi, said in a research note released on Tuesday.
The bank said the “total addressable market” could involve revenues of approximately $10 trillion by the end of 2020 and an “immense online profit opportunity” of around $70 billion in the same time period if the industry is “run solely to maximize profitability.” Sectors include gaming, online advertising, e-commerce, cloud computing and internet finance.
The big names in the report are hardly surprising, with the investment bank singling out major players such as Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba. Tencent is an internet service provider headquartered in Shenzhen and is the “dominant gaming platform in China,” according to the bank. It also has a “powerful social network” asset in Weixin.
Hedge funds betting against China eye Soros moment
A worker moves an automotive tire down a conveyor belt at the Continental Tire Sumter plant distribution warehouse in Sumter, South Carolina.
The stock has popped 636 percent in the last five years but the analysts suggest another 24 percent upside for the next twelve months with a “conviction buy” rating. Alibaba is expected to rally 30 percent in the next year via its dominant position in Chinese e-commerce. Meanwhile, Baidu is described as the “default search engine” in the country with a 38 percent fillip to its share price expected in the next year.
Other notable firms it includes are Ctrip, JD.com, NetEase and VIPShop.
China has a population of over 1.3 billion and a government paper last year said it had 649 million internet users by the end of 2014 (with 557 million of those using handsets), according to Reuters. This is double the amount of people living in the United States.
The demographics look good but China has been at the epicenter of many market tremors in the last year as slowing growth in the country – and how the central bank deals with that – has spread ripples across the globe. Stock markets in Shanghai have seen steep one-day falls and have dragged down the major U.S. benchmarks.
This may offer some caution for investors reading Goldman Sachs’ research, but over the longer term many economists remain bullish on the world’s second-largest economy. Certain American firms looking to muscle in on the Chinese market could however cause some disruption.

Today’s Inspiration

Always Available

by Joyce Meyer – posted May 17, 2016

…The upright shall dwell in Your presence (before Your very face).
—Psalm 140:13

The fact that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us proves His willingness to always be available to speak to us and help us when we need Him. As we continue to grow spiritually, we will experience temptation, but God has given us the Holy Spirit to enable us to resist it and make right choices instead of wrong ones.

Nevertheless, no human being is perfect and we will make mistakes. But God’s forgiveness is always available to us through Jesus Christ. Receiving this forgiveness strengthens us and enables us to keep moving forward with God. It also puts our hearts at peace, sets us free, and helps us hear God’s voice clearly.

Feeling defeated and condemned by every mistake we make weakens us. Instead of using our energy to feel bad about ourselves, we should use it to make sure ours hearts are tuned to God’s voice as He leads us into greater strength and deeper relationship with Himself. His forgiveness and His Presence are always available to us through the Holy Spirit. As you seek God today, I encourage you to receive His love and mercy. His arms are open and He is waiting to spend time with you.

God’s word for you today: Remember that the Holy Spirit is always available to you.

Tuesday May 10, 2016

// May 10th, 2016 // Comments Off on Tuesday May 10, 2016 // Daily News

This market is riddled with trap doors: Evercore strategist

CNBC.com

A weakening dollar has eased concerns about U.S. companies’ overseas performance, but Evercore ISI portfolio strategist Dennis Debusschere warned on Tuesday that bad news can only translate into good news for so long.
The greenback has weakened because central banks have been suppressing volatility and U.S. economic data have been deteriorating, Debusschere said. As a result, economic performance and volatility have diverged, he added.
But over time, the two tend to converge, Debusschere said. That creates a “trap door scenario” in which the bottom could fall out of U.S. markets, he said.
“This idea that bad is good in the sense that it weakens the U.S. dollar on a go-forward basis, is always good until it’s not,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
So while the weaker dollar has gotten the U.S. economy out of the woods for the time being, stock multiples are now very high relative to their underlying fundamentals, he said. Those valuations have run up in part because volatility is artificially low, according to Debusschere.
“The market is riddled with trap door scenarios as long as that continues,” he said.
David Lebovitz, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, said the divergence between the stock market and underlying fundamentals is concerning.
“We need to see some earnings growth later this year. Otherwise the fundamental thesis for stocks starts to go out the window,” he told “Squawk Box” on Tuesday.

Today’s Inspiration

Putting Smiles on Faces

by Joyce Meyer – posted May 10, 2016

Therefore encourage (admonish, exhort) one another and edify (strengthen and build up) one another….
—1 Thessalonians 5:11

God created Adam and Eve, He blessed them, then told them to be fruitful and multiply and use all the vast resources of the earth that He gave them in the service of God and man.

Are you being fruitful? Is your life causing increase? When you get involved with people and things, do they increase and multiply? Some people only take in life, and they never add anything. I refuse to be that kind of person. I want to make people’s lives better. I want to put smiles on faces.

We must all make sure that we are not like the rich man in the Bible who had so much that all of his barns were full with no room for more. Instead of giving any of it away, he decided that he would tear down the barns he had and just build bigger ones and collect more stuff for himself. He was a foolish man. He could have decided that he would use what he had to bless others, but he must have been a fearful, selfish man, who only had room in his life for himself (see Luke 12:16-20).

God called the man a fool, and said, This very night they [the messengers of God] will demand your soul of you; and all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? The man was going to die that night, and all he would leave behind was “stuff.” He had an opportunity to make the world a better place. He could have added to many lives and put smiles on thousands of faces. Instead, he fearfully and selfishly only cared about himself.

Forget about yourself and start doing all you can to help others. Encourage, edify, lift up, comfort, help, give hope, relieve pain, and lift burdens. If that is your goal, you will be one of those rare individuals who actually make the world a better place and put a smile on every face.

Trust in Him: What are you going to do today to put smiles on faces? It won’t just happen—you have to be intentional about it. Listen for God to show you what to do and then trust that it will bless them…and you!