ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) has already changed some activities, including parts of finance like fraud prevention, but not yet fund management and stock-picking. That seems odd: machine learning, a subset of AI that excels at finding patterns and making predictions using reams of data, looks like an ideal tool for the business. Yet well-established “quant” hedge […]
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A BOA constrictor swallowing capitalism. A cyclone dragging the economy into its vortex. If you look back at how people described Walmart a decade ago, it is eerily similar to how Amazon is viewed now. The supermarket chain has “a scale of economic power we haven’t encountered before”, warned “The Walmart Effect”, a best selling […]
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ON NOVEMBER 30th, as oil tsars from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia met in Vienna, Venezuela’s former oil minister, Eulogio del Pino, once one of their number, was seized by armed guards at dawn in Caracas, and taken to jail. His arrest was not publicly acknowledged in Vienna. His replacement, […]
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MCDONALD’S drew ridicule in China when it changed its registered name there to Jingongmen, or “Golden Arches”, in October, after it was sold to a Chinese consortium. Some on Weibo, a microblogging site, thought it sounded old-fashioned and awkward, others that it had connotations of furniture. The fast-food chain was quick to reassure customers that […]
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FOR millennia, man has broken rocks. Whether with pickaxe or dynamite, their own or animal muscle, in a digger or a diesel truck, thick-necked miners have been at the centre of an industry that supplies the raw materials for almost all industrial activity. Making mining more profitable has long involved squeezing out more tonnes of […]
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ANOTHER week, another record. The repeated surge of share prices on Wall Street is getting monotonous. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has passed another milestone—24,000—and the more statistically robust S&P 500 index is up by 17% so far this year. Emerging markets have performed even better, as have European shares in dollar terms (see chart). […]
Read moreDisney CEO Bob Iger was considering running for president in 2020, but that’s all over if Disney buys Twenty-First Century Fox‘s assets in a more than $60 billion mega-merger, CNBC’s David Faber reports. CNBC reported Wednesday that Iger will likely remain at Disney to oversee any potential merging of the two companies. Disney would extend […]
Read moreThe analyst who accurately called oil’s bottom in in 2015 sees a boom for U.S. shale producers. Tom Kloza, who runs the Oil Price Information Service, is crediting OPEC for his optimistic 2018 forecast. “OPEC basically gave a Christmas gift to U.S. shale producers,” the company’s global head of energy analysis said this week on […]
Read moreLG may soon start to supply some of the displays used in the iPhone X, according to The Korea Herald. Apple currently uses OLED panels from Samsung for the iPhone X. The Korea Herald said that LG may begin shipping as many as 60 million displays for the iPhone in June, provided a deal between […]
Read moreCNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday he doesn’t blame investors for buying into the bitcoin frenzy, but once again he warned that the digital currency’s run could end badly. Earlier this week, Cramer said the cryptocurrency was a pure gamble, and those interested in the cryptocurrency should just go to Vegas. Bitcoin rocketed even higher on […]
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