Investors Look Beyond US Equities
- In contrast to Morgan Stanley, $MS, which reported a positive EPS surprise of 4.80% on record wealth management revenue, Goldman Sachs $GS reported a negative EPS surprise of -36.8% on reduced investment banking and asset management revenue. In addition, sales and profits for both businesses fell compared to the previous year's period.
- Global fund managers have reduced their exposure to the US stock market to its lowest level in 17 years to look for possibilities in European and developing market equities, as Wall Street has lost favor with investors.
Source: Ft.com
As China reopens, Oil demand goes up.
- According to the International Energy Agency, the oil demand is expected to reach an all-time high in 2023 as China loosens its Covid-19 limitations, which might lead to an increase in petroleum prices in the year's second half.
- According to the IEA's first monthly oil report of 2023, demand for crude oil might increase by 1.9 million barrels per day to reach a record 101.7 million barrels per day, while the developing effects of western sanctions on Russia could constrain the supply.
- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) anticipated that Chinese oil demand would increase by 510,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year after contracting for the first time in years in 2022 as a result of Covid containment measures.
- On the supply side, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Tuesday that oil output from the country's main shale regions is expected to increase by roughly 77,300 bpd to a record 9.38 million bpd in February.
Source: Statista.com
CEOs at the World Economic Forum are talking about ChatGPT-style AI in Davos 2023
- The idea of a slide-generating bot called ChatBCG after the management consultancy business permeated Davos gatherings. The firm said on its website that there was too much demand for it to continue running.
- Businesses like CarMax Inc. have already utilized the technology from Microsoft and OpenAI, for example, to produce thousands of summaries of customer reviews when promoting used cars.
- According to Prince in an interview, Cloudflare uses this technology to create code on its Workers platform. In addition, he stated on the fringes of the annual convention that Cloudflare is also investigating how such tech can respond to queries faster for its free-tier users.
Other News:
- As optimism grows at Davos, the IMF updates its estimates. As China relaxes its coronavirus rules, the US experiences a boom in green investments, and western Europe adapts to the effects of Russia's war in Ukraine, business leaders and top government officials have voiced optimism about the state of the world economy.
- Investors speculated that declining inflation would enable central banks to pause raising interest rates faster than previously anticipated, which led to a slight uptick in European equities and US futures on Wednesday.
- $MSFT will try to save costs by eliminating 10,000 workers.
Source: Yahoo Finance