Cover story on growing competition for TSLA in EV market; positive feature on SNE; cautious on consumer staples Cover story: With electric cars increasingly likely to supplant gas-powered models, major automakers are working on new technologies and initiatives that could benefit customers and shareholders, a sign TSLA will face growing competition.
Features: 1) Positive on SNE: Japanese electronics giant is finally thriving, with sales of camera chips for smartphones, videogame systems, and software up, while profits from its TV and music divisions are strong; 2) Cautious on PG, CL, KO, UN: Investors who could once count on consumer staples’ slow and steady earnings growth and high dividends can no longer do so as industry trends drag on stalwarts.
Tech Trader: The success of FB “has made it easy to forget that social networking remains a challenging business model,” leaving many companies—including SNAP and TWTR—struggling to find footing.
Trader: “There are plenty of reasons to worry the Fed will continue to raise interest rates, which would explain the 0.064-percentage-point increase in the 10-year Treasury on Friday”; The yield curve is the big issue for banks right now, but investors may be making too much of it, says Chris Verrone of Strategas Research Partners; Many of the moves in high-yield bonds last week were as much a matter of catching up to stock moves as something dire lurking under the surface, according to Evercore ISI.
Profile: Scott Kimball of the BMO TECH Core Plus Bond fund doesn’t hitch the portfolio to sweeping macroeconomic views or use derivatives (top 10 corporates: IBM, ABT, ATVI, GS, HNZ, Coach, EBAY, BDX, Mexichem Sab). Health & Wealth Roundtable: At Barron’s fifth annual gathering, four top advisors—Kathleen Weber of Weber Russo Group, Ann Marie Etergino of RBC Wealth Management, Barbara Archer of High-Tower, and Rob Vinder of The Vinder Group—discuss how to have a healthy and stress-free retirement.
Follow-Up: Positive on PYPL: Payments company has had a strong year, with shares up 87%, but despite the surge there’s likely more upside ahead.
European Trader: Positive on AMS: Company’s sensor technology helps power the AAPL iPhone X’s face identification feature, and though shares have tripled this year, they still have room to rise..
Asian Trader: Positive on Nintendo: The company’s move to ramp up production of its Switch console and the addition of new games for its devices should help it during the holiday season, and shares could rise by 25%.
Emerging Markets: “The dramatic arrests of prominent Saudis by their own government has unnerved some investors and raised questions about the timing and structure” of the Saudi Aramco IPO.
Commodities: Oil prices are set to rise during the next few months, even though West Texas Intermediate crude has already reached a two-year high.
Streetwise: Reverberations from the palace coup in Saudi Arabia are likely to be felt for a long time, complicating the difficulty investors already face trying to understand the “opaque workings” of the government.
