Congratulations, Sundar
By Sat, Jan 18, 2020
Hey Scoopers,
The stock market ended Thursday in the green, fueled by all sorts of trade deals and agreements — more on that in the “Overall Market” section.
Beyond the overall market, investors were happy to see one jewelry company didn’t blow the holiday season, while one Chinese company found itself dragged into a downward spiral of regulatory approvals once more — more on that in the “What’s Up?” and “What’s Down?” sections.
Oh, and by the way, send your congratulations emails to Sundar Pichai from Alphabet who just joined a new club — more on that in the “Water Cooler” section.
But, first, here is a recap of what happened in the market:
Market Recap
- U.S. markets: All three indices finished Thursday in the green, with the Nasdaq leading the pack by more than 1% upward movement.
- Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin’s price was the same place it was yesterday, hovering near the $9,000 mark but not quite there yet.
Top 3 Marijuana Stocks to Buy Now
Not all marijuana stocks are the same, in fact, some won’t go anywhere. I’ve uncovered 3 that are each set up for 10 – 50x growth in 2020, and reveal them in my latest research report (Yours FREE).
It’s Completely Free, Download Your Copy Here
All sorts of trade agreements
We talked about the U.S.-China trade deal, phase one, in the last edition of the Daily Scoop (Read More). To that, add the USMCA (U.S.-Mexico-Canada) trade deal passing the Senate today, and the stock market had enough excitement to go around for another green, upward movement.
The USMCA is a revised version of NAFTA that was renegotiated via President Trump’s initiatives. Before it gets implemented, USMCA still needs to be signed by the President himself, and Canada must go through its own legislative process. Trade agreements signal certainty to the stock market, and that’s why we wrapped Thursday in the green.
OMG, they didn’t blow it.
So, what happened?
Shares of Signet Jewelers (Ticker: SIG) were up more than 40% on Thursday. You would imagine that such a drastic stock price jump is due to an exemplary performance. However, the company’s same-store sales were up only slightly more than 1% during the holiday season. We know, it’s almost ridiculous. The company announced the holiday season was a success for several of its brands such as Kay Jewelers and Jared.
What’s going on here, you’d asked. The stock market is a game of expectations. Everyone was expecting a much lower performance from SIG. However, the growth, although small, surprised investors enough to create such a reaction. It’s as if investors said to themselves, OMG, SIG didn’t blow it this time. Let’s celebrate…
The downward spiral of regulatory approvals in China
So, what happened?
Shares of Quadian (Ticker: QD) were down more than 19% on Thursday. The company wanted to replicate the LendingClub’s (Ticker: LC) model in China, however, it faced several regulatory challenges in that pursuit. It ended up pivoting to wealth management services and that was supposed to be the turnaround to bring back excitement about the future of the company. Thursday, the company withdrew its 2019 financial guidance, sighting regulatory uncertainties as to the main reason. The moral of the story is that dealing with regulatory approvals is a significant undertaking that drags a company into a downward spiral for a long time.
The Online Wealth365 Summit January 20-25th
|
|
Congratulations, Sundar Pichai
So, what happened?
Get your congratulations emails ready, and address it to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet (Ticker: GOOG) / GOOGL). Under Sundar’s leadership, the company has joined the trillion-dollar club. This means Alphabet is now among a handful of the companies in the world that are worth more than $1 trillion in market capitalization.
Despite all the recent cultural clashes the company and its employees are going through, the core business is doing well, and cash is pouring in. Congratulations, Sundar, you made it to a new club.
About the Author
The authors of this Scoop are the editorial team at Stock Card, led by Hoda Mehr. Hoda Mehr is CEO and Co-founder of Stock Card and the host of Renegade Investors podcast. She runs a community of 40,000 stock market investors and manages Stock Card's successful flagship portfolio, Roll with Our CEO, on Stock Card Portfolio Store. Hoda is an Economist with an MBA from Concordia, John Molson School of Business. She applies behavioral economics, data journalism, and storytelling to all aspects of her work. Before starting Stock Card, Hoda worked as a strategy and insights lead at technology companies including Symantec, Aimia and Sony. Create a free account to do your stock market research easily and mistake-free: Stock Card Stock Card
