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US public companies, manufacturers and retailers that make up more than half of the S&P 500 index, came out with strong sales per share of 24% increase in 2022 over 2019. This means slower growth is expected ahead in 2023, says Justin Lahart in the WSJ.  The shift to consuming more services such as dentist visits and tourism from buying washing machines and appliances will mean slower sales for these large companies that are manufacturers and retailers. Fed chairman Jay Powell's higher interest rates will also limit growth in sales in 2023. Overall the US economy may barely skirt a recession, and this depends on which forecaster one talks to.

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Kate Bingham, head of the Vaccine Task Force in Britain is commended for her intelligent approach in placing bets on vaccines in different technologies, "four buckets" as she calls them. This includes the Moderna and Pfizer in the mRNA technology and the viral vector Astra Zeneca, J&J vaccines. This approach made the British vaccination drive effective by being supported by a resilient supply system.

The Indian government has supported the effort to get several companies to make the Sputnik Russian vaccine in India in an effort to diversify supplies. Reddy Labs is one of the major manufacturers working on the Sputnik vaccine in 2021.

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The old Fifth Avenue NYC building that Lord & Taylor department store opened in 1914 is remodeled by Amazon for offices that will have 2000 employees or a fifth of its New York workforce. Konrad Putzier of the WSJ looks at the problems of renovating old spaces in cities across the US. The cost is a factor as it cost Amazon $978 million. Renovating it means staying within what the old Italian Renaissance based design would allow without too much cost. This means less natural lighting, putting more interior meeting space which does not require windows. Only the new rooftop 2 floors have flexibility to put in modern windows. 

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Starmer says he would not bring in lower environmental or food standards than the EU or reduce worker's rights. He was speaking at a meeting in Canada bringing together liberal and centre left politicians. He said "most of the conflict" after Brexit has arisen because the UK wants to "do things different from our EU partners." And he added "We don't want to diverge, we don't want to lower standards, we don't want to rip up environmental standards, standards that work, food standards and all the rest of it" He was responding at a Q&A in Montreal.

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Soli Ozel, a professor of international relations and political science at Istanbul's Kadir Has University and columnist for Haberturk, Turkish daily newspaper, says the street protests in Turkey resemble the "Green Movement" in Iran of four years ago. Iranian protests were predominantly educated and middle class urbanites, and the same is true in Turkey. The AKP party is likely to continue its control but its legitimacy inside Turkey and in the world is being questioned. The recent elections in Iran resulted in a moderate being elected as Iranian voters rejected the politics of the Ahmadinejad period. Turkey is different in one respect in that it is a democracy with liberal democraic values and the rule of law. He gives credit to the AKP party for making housing, health care and education more accessible to the rural areas of Turkey and broadening its middle class. Voters are likely to reject the authoritarian tendencies of the Erdogan government and its sense that the majority simply prevails without a respect for the views of the opposition and other opinion essential for the functioning of democracy. Economic conditions have hurt the middle class and all segments of society in Iran after international sanctions. In Turkey changing economic conditions after an unsustainable credit boom based economic expansion could also play a part. Ultimately says Ozel this is about the Turkish identity as a modern state based on liberal democratic values....

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With the surge in travel that might even exceed prepandemic levels in the US this summer, being better prepared helps. Some tips in the WSJ- morning flights have fewer delays than later in the day, TSA Precheck $78 for 5 years or Clear at $189 a year are a good way to avoid lines, the Delta or United App that lets you know how far your gate is and where to be dropped off at the airport, packing right,  the drop off, and food and drink.

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PG&E, the giant California electricity company says it will file for bankruptcy as it faces $30 billion in liabilities arising from wildfires in California, more than all its assets. This will be a distraction for the new Governor of California, Mr. Newsom, who brings a new agenda to tackle problems in the state to increase opportunity and provide better health care.

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The Dow Jones Average drops again 300 points on Dec 27, after a record 1000 point gain on Dec 26, 2018. All S&P sectors are no in the red for the year after losses for the quarter. Investor anxiety stems from the Fed winding down easy money policy, interest  rate increases, the trade war with China, and slower economic growth,

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There are problems with TikTok as social media app that are shown under The Enemy Within in Movement for Global Literacy of Lyrarc.com that relate to global literacy of children spending many hours on the app taking time away from homework and reading, when over half of American children 12-18  perform below basic requirements on reading proficiency tests. Similar loss of reading comprehension in UK and France. China can regulate its internet by restricting it in ways that won't hurt literacy in China. India has banned the app.  There are problems with TikTok that relate to literacy and cultural literacy that Democrats or Republicans or the Supreme Court have failed to bring up let alone address. These concerns should grow in the minds of Americans concerned about preserving the cultural literacy that has existed in the US for the last 200 years- it is about who Americans are as a Nation of immigrants from Europe of the Renaissance and the Modern World. US is a mix of population from European nations of 204 million, of a black population of about 48 million in 2025, 7 million native Americans, and Spanish speaking Americans of 62 million, Asian population of 25 million. The US is at a critical juncture in deciding what kind of a nation it will be. Will it lose it's basic character of a nation which draws its inspiration from European civilization's defining characteristics of the Renaissance, the evolution of science and democratic forms of government leading to creation of the Modern World. The 25 million Asians immigrated to the US for a large part seeking this kind of modernization of society from what they left behind and this is largely true of Spanish speaking immigrants and Spanish settlers who settled California, Texas and Florida as Spain settled the American colonies before the English and French. TikTok ban opposed decreased from 2023 to end of 2024 by 18% from 50% to 32%, according to Pew Research. Pew does not say that this is the result of growing use of TikTok by teenagers and children for entertainment by 12-15% in the period 2023-2025. Between 2021 and 2023 use of TikTok in the US increased by 12% from 21% to 33% from which we can extrapolate that it increased by about 12-15% between 2023 and 2025 if it is growing at the same pace. Politicians oblivious of the effects on cultural literacy in the US are allowing it to be embedded in the US in ways that hurt basic reading and cultural literacy skills. ...

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Todd Schlanger, senior investment strategist at Vanguard, is cited in this WSJ report saying the 60-40 strategy makes sense now because of lower stock valuations and higher bond yields. His forecast for Vanguard for a 60% stocks and 40% bonds globally diversified strategy is for a annualized 10 year median return of 5.4%. Schlanger says 60-40 strategy used to be a bellwether, and that strategy is an enduring strategy.

Stock valuations that Schlanger says are lower are reflected in the S&P 500 which is trading at 18.2 times its expected earnings over the next 12 months, down from 21.6 at the start of 2022. The 10 year average is 17.5.

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The Trump Accounts for children born 2025-2028 and the Dell $6.5 billion expansion to include earlier born children may be one of the single biggest actions to rebuild the bank accounts of the next generation. It looks at the shrivelled bank accounts of today's older generation with lack of enough savings for a medical crisis and says it has got to be different from now on. The median bank account of Americans over 65 and over is $13400 which means there is little for medical health emergencies and little for needs of older Americans. Median means half have less and half have more than $13400. This is astounding for the wealthiest nation at a time when the total wealth is the highest ever in history. This report by WSJ unfortunately does not mention this at all and dwells on how this is an opportunity for banks and investment companies to get in the door to get your business. DJT as US president with a mandate from lower income Americans has designed this so that it shows the value of careful investments of small seed money. With $1000 to begin with from the government, added amounts from parents and grandparents and invested in a mutual fund that tracks the S&P 500 it will grow with the economy for 18 years, doubling two to three times on the way. It would provide funds for education increasing enrollment in higher education, increase financial literacy by showing how money grows in broad S&P 500 type index funds such as Vanguard type funds. Much of the shriveling of bank accounts for the shocking figure of $13400 median for American 65+ year olds is a result of job losses, high health care costs, wage decline  with factories outshored, hits from 2009 financial crisis caused by bank irresponsible behaviour, drug epidemics and fentanyl allowed to pour into the country, covid pandemic and stock bubbles, decline in higher education enrollment, other. The US president DJT is seeing his mandate as one that reverses these adverse situations one by one to take America back to post war prosperity and rising incomes, rising bank acocunt savings and rising hopes and aspirations for the next generation. ...

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Did you know that 2.3 billion cycling tourism trips are taken in Europe each year according to the European Parliament? French cycling enthusiast and sports writer Claude Droussent, 65, puts together Cycling Atlas Europe, a book showing 350 one day cycling trips one can do in Europe. This follows Cycling Atlas North America also published by Rizzoli that he did with Greg Le Mond. It is intended to give people a chance to discover new places in a short few hours bike ride from where they are in a nature setting along mountainous terrain or along the coast. It is both adventure travel and discovery that is becoming popular after Covid. An app Strava provides an opportunity to talk to people who know about each ride.

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S&P forecast is for India's economy to be the third largest by 2030 at 6.3% annual growth. Positive consumer sentiment, domestic demand and increasing state investment are increasing growth to 7.8% and 7.6% in the second and third quarter 2023. A stable government that is focused on economic growth and capital investment projects increases the economic prospects of the Indian economy into 2024. Most of the northern and northwestern, and middle Indian states have investment coming from a coordinated push by state and federal government run economic sectors. Underlying this effort is building of infrastructure, shipping, transport and logistics, that will support growth of key industries to 2030, when the Indian economy is expected to be the third largest in the world. 

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About $78 billion in equities and ETF's bought in the US in the first quarter of 2023 excluding retirement accounts. Individuals have been buying at 5 times the rate between 2017-2019 says this report in WSJ. This is one of the reasons the S&P 500 is up 7.7% this year. Individual investments into money market funds remain at high levels, and there is less speculative investing. Saving for retirement remains a priority for investors. 401 (K) retirement accounts investments have held steady at 14% of income on average, including employer and employee contributions, according to Fidelity Investments. Younger investors shown in WSJ takes a conservative approach not taking a short term approach and maxxing out 401 (K) contributions, looking to the long run. 

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Ukraine has made progress in securing its situation in the Black Sea region through better surveillance and by reducing Russian naval advances in the Black Sea, according to one report. NYT's French says a look at different scenarios for the war in Ukraine shows a stalemate the most likely option. Ukraine's offensive in 2023 has advanced very slowly with Russia having heavily fortified its defences and having superior airpower. A route for Ukraine's grain exports was possible with UN & Turkey negotiated agreement for a Black Sea shipping route. Now that Russia has withdrawn from this agreement a new corridor is being established in the Black Sea using shipping routes that stay close to NATo countries borders on the Black Sea.

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After a good start the vaccination drive is slowing both in India and the US. Vaccine supplies need to be boosted in India and the government has given approval to the Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines to boost supplies. The Sputnik vaccine from Russia has also gained approval with new supplies of that vaccine expected in India. Vaccine skepticism is a problem in the US and Europe. Supplies of the Pfizer vaccine will be boosted in Europe with the EU contract for 1.8 billion doses signed recently. This should give the slow vaccination drives in France and Germany a boost.

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The App store an online software clearing house created by Apple has downloaded over 60 million programs for the iphone for users in the month Apple opened the App clearinghouse. Apple is letting creators of the software programs keep 70% of the profits keeping only 30% for costs inclduing expenses from credit card transactions and other expenses. It sees software as the differentiating factor that promotes its iPhones.

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Tim Cook talks to developers at a world wide virtual and in person event. 

Apple will introduce a new 13.5 inch Macbook Air with a inhouse M2 chip for $1195 on sale in July 2022. A new 13 inch Macbook Pro will also be made.

The new iPhone with 5G capability had sales of $191 billion in fiscal year ending in September 2021. iPhone sales up 6.2% in 2022 vs 39% in 2021 when the pandemic led to remote work on Apple and other PC's.

App store and ad sales up by 17% to $80 billion, larger than Mac and iPad sales. 

Apple Pay will break payments into 4 installments as an option. Messages will have an unsend or edit option for 15 minutes.

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How to know where inflation is headed is shown here in charts in the WSJ. One has to look at the charts for oil and energy costs, automobile costs which are about one fifth of the inflation, retail prices, travel costs, expectations that drive prices. As the pressures decrease for demand for goods in 2022 following a pandemic induced increase in demand the inflation is driven largely by energy and automobiles costs. Amazon is renting out the extra space that it does not need in warehouses is one report in WSJ today. Pharmaceutical companies such as J&J are also seeing an easing of demand as reported in WSJ. The bottlenecks at the port of Los Angeles are also easing with improved unloading of containers which eases flow of goods.

 

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Mr. Acton and Mr. Koum, co-founders of Whats App messaging service have left the company after disagreements with Mr. Zuckerberg of Facebook. They say they had no intention of seeing Whats App turning into a clearing house for ads. Initially following the acquisition there was an agreement that advertising would not be the focus for Whats App, and the Whats App founders were given a large degree of autonomy. This has changed as Facebook uses data it collects to target audiences for ads on its services.