Create a cool app that people can use to order a cab. Lie to limo and cab drivers about earnings potential, creating chaos amongst your competitors.
Poach as many cab drivers as possible, even if that means oversupplying market with livery cars.
Use growth to raise more capital.
Invest capital to create autonomous car technology that will replace the drivers you just hired.
Launch self driving cars, lay off all workers. Reap the benefits of not having to share fares with drivers.
Fin (cue dystopian society music).
NYC medallion owners are going bankrupt, en masse, thanks to a 50% drop in medallion prices — due to the advent of Uber and Lyft.
At Capitol One and Bank United, distressed loans are greater than 50%, more than 3x last year’s level.
“This is the portion of our loan portfolio that we keep the closest eye on, for obvious reasons,” Rajinder Singh, then BankUnited’s chief operating officer, told investors last January.
Shares of $MFIN, formerly known as TAXI, a play on NYC medallions, have been ravaged.
Once the Fed gets around to raising rates again, the remainder of the taxi medallion owners will be destroyed — just in time for Uber to unleash their self driving cars on the masses and cool new update to their app.
NYC employs 42,000 cab drivers, 13,000 of which are yellow cabs. Nationwide, over 230,000 men and women drive taxis, most of whose are targeted for full unemployment by Uber.
The gurus at Goldman have spoken. European markets, buoyed by the clowns at the ECB, will enjoy twice the returns in 2017 than their American counterparts.
Due to the Fed’s intervention, by jacking up rates, Goldman sees limited upside here. Once those pesky elections are concluded overseas, Europe will shine like a S. African diamond.
It’s worth noting, from current levels, they only see very little gains ahead, less than 4%. You’re probably better off taking the year off and practicing your dart throwing skills, than investing in stocks, according to Goldman.
European equities will catch up to their U.S. peers once the uncertainty surrounding near-term elections is lifted, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index will return 8 percent including dividends by end-2017, boosted by a weak euro, strong global growth and recovered oil prices, according to Christian Mueller-Glissmann, managing director of portfolio strategy and asset allocation at Goldman Sachs in London. The S&P 500 Index will return 4 percent, Goldman predicts, as optimism about economic growth in the U.S. fades and mutes the stock rally. The return forecasts are in local currencies.
“U.S. equities will net still be up, but less than Europe, which is catching up,” Mueller-Glissmann said in an interview at Goldman’s offices in London. “What is generating optimism in the U.S. right now are the tax cuts and fiscal spending, and both of those might be watered down over the course of the year. We have a pretty good set-up for Europe to do well.”
“It will be tough to deliver on all of the promises while rates are catching up and valuations are extremely high,” he said, referring to the U.S. Goldman’s asset allocation strategy is overweight European equities and underweight U.S. stocks over a 12-month horizon. It’s neutral on the Stoxx 600 and overweight the S&P 500 over a three-month timespan.
Banks are among Goldman’s preferred sectors in Europe this year, as they benefit from a steeper yield curve. Investors can buy bank stocks to hedge their portfolios’ sensitivity to higher rates, Mueller-Glissmann said. Other strategists have warned the link between banks and bond yields will eventually fade.
Goldman predicts the Stoxx Europe 600 Index will end the year at 380, 3.7 percent higher than its closing level on Friday, while it estimates the S&P 500 will end the year at 2,300.
This is all very well and good. The IMF have made demands to their puppets in Greece, which if not met, will result in the entire EU bailout to crumble to pieces. Most assuredly, this would result in markets reeling from the shock — plunging freely towards the pits of hell.
The condensed version of the aforementioned crisis, which is definitely beginning to loom, has to do with lack of progress by the Greek government to balance a budget.
Should the IMF pullout, Germany has stated that a new deal would need to be voted on by national parliaments. The world is a much different place now, than when the last bailout was forged. With nationalism running high across Europe, there’s no guarantee that a new Greek bailout will pass now, at least not without drama.
The result of this chicanery is a notable divergence between German bonds and the PIGS (Portuguese, Italian, Spaniard, Greek).
The spread between Portuguese and German bunds is now 372bps.
Almost two-thirds of the actions creditors have demanded for the disbursement of the next tranche of emergency loans have yet to be completed, the government conceded in a memo discussed between Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and bailout auditors last week in Brussels, a person familiar with the matter said.
Even though the memo laid out a series of commitments to ensure the work will be completed, creditors said the proposals weren’t good enough, a separate official said. The people asked not to be named as the contents of the memo haven’t been made public.
Europe’s most indebted state is locked in talks with officials representing the European Stability Mechanism, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF over the terms attached to the loans keeping it afloat since 2010.
IMF staff said in a draft report obtained by Bloomberg that the current structure of Greek public finances is “fundamentally inefficient, unfair, and ultimately socially unsustainable,” adding to doubts about whether the Fund will eventually re-join the Greek bailout. Euro area governments — notably Germany — have said failure to get the IMF on board would require a new agreement, which needs to be approved by national parliaments.
In addition to asking for a lower income tax threshold and pension cuts for current retirees, a demand the Greek government doesn’t accept so far, the IMF is also pushing for the European creditors to off more debt-relief measures.
“We believe that Greece’s debt burden can be manageable if the agreed reforms are fully implemented,” a spokesman for the euro area’s crisis fund said Sunday.
A European official told reporters in Brussels last week that Greece must resolve the standoff by the next meeting of euro area finance ministers on Feb. 20, before as many as five European nations hold elections that will make negotiations politically difficult.
This was one of those moments that the second you heard it, you knew what it meant.
Wall Street loves their low wage’d immigrants. When you fuck with the plantation workers, there will be hell to pay for it. Hence, we’re seeing a sharp decline in stocks today, all to do with panic and protest, crying, and loathesome despair.
Then Trump did a presser where he said “people thought the market would go down under me. Pffff. People who know me, know what I’m about and the market went up massively.”
Well fuck me running sideways in a field filled with cactai. This is an ominous statement.
Aside from dooming the market, Trump made fun of a few people, said regulations were going out. He signed an executive order declaring that for every 1 regulation enacted, two must be revoked. In other words, all of the shills at the EPA are out of work, completely homeless.
Stocks are haranguing lower. Expect carnage and bloodshed. For the sake of digital finance, we need a market crash. Maybe we’ll even get an Exodus oversold signal. Its been more than 6 months since the last one, unprecedented lack of volatility.
I never understood why someone would want to be tethered to a fucking tracking device, willingly. Criminals have been wearing fitbits for decades, under the watchful eye of law enforcement to make sure they weren’t leaving their home-jails. Enterprising criminals would spend countless hours trying to jimmy their way out of the fuckers — totally uninterested in the number of steps they were taking. They were only interested in robbing another bank. But you fuckers, you stupid shits, need to know how many steps you’re take on a daily basis and become somewhat elated by reaching meaningless goals, like 10,000.
What does that even mean? You didn’t build those steps, someone else did.
Listen up, fat face. Quit eating so much fat and carbs. Go to the gym at least 3 times per week and do a lot of dead lifts. You’ll be alright in 6 months by following Fly’s fitness regimen.
Now where’s my $199? I’ll slap a fucking watch on your wrist that will tell you to quit eating those fucking pizza pies and/or to get off your fat asses, quit watching Netflix, and go lift something heavy.
As a company, Fitbit is doomed, not because their tech is retarded (which it is), but because they haven’t a moat for their idiot tracking device.
Via Briefing.
Lowers Q4 EPS to ($0.51-0.56) from $0.14-0.18 vs $0.17 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; revs to $572-580 mln from $725-750 mln vs $734.57 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. The company expects non-GAAP fourth quarter gross margin to be materially below its previously issued 46% guidance due to excess inventory and other related charges as follows: One-time write downs of tooling equipment and component inventory of ~$68 million. Increased rebates and channel pricing promotions of ~$37 million which is recorded as a reduction in revenue and others.
“Fourth quarter results are expected to be below our prior guidance range; however, we are confident this performance is not reflective of the value of our brand, market-leading platform, and company’s long-term potential. While we have experienced softer-than-expected holiday demand for trackers in our most mature markets, especially during Black Friday, we have continued to grow rapidly in select markets like EMEA, where revenue grew 58% during the fourth quarter. To address this reduction in growth and what we believe is a temporary slowdown and transition period, we are taking clear steps to reduce operating costs. Looking forward, we believe Fitbit is in a unique position to stimulate new areas of demand by leveraging the data we collect to deliver a more personalized experience while developing upgraded versions of existing products and launching additional products to expand into new categories.”
Sees FY17 ($0.22-0.44) vs $0.64 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees revs $1.5-1.7 bln vs $2.39 bln Capital IQ Consensus. Preliminary non-GAAP free cash flow guidance of ~negative $50 to $100 million.
Long-term non-GAAP gross margin of ~45% versus previous 50% target.
Fitbit is taking direct action to reduce the expense basis of the co while maintaining necessary investments to drive future growth and maintain its global leadership position in the wearables market.
Targeting a reduction in the 2016 exit operating expense run rate of ~$200 million, to ~$850 million for 2017, which includes realigning sales and marketing spend and improved optimization of research and development investments.
Conducting a reorganization of its business, including a reduction in force, that will impact ~110 employees, constituting ~6% of the co’s global workforce, creating a more focused and efficient operating model. The cost of these reorganization efforts is expected to be ~$4 million to be recorded in the first quarter of 2017.
I was talking to a friend of mine last night about the Trump immigration ban, which is designed to freeze things until DHS can determine a better strategy to vet people coming into the country. We both agreed that part of the shock from the revelations stems from the fact we’ve been programmed to believe politicians just say stuff to get elected, and then rarely follow through on campaign promises.
The fact that Trump is doing every single thing he said he would in the campaign should instill the fear of God in Hillary Clinton, by the way. Just saying.
Like it or not, Trump got elected on the platform of a stronger border and immigration policy. You should have worked harder when it counted to get Hillary elected. The problem you had is the smug media, incessantly telling you Trump had zero chances of winning. Occam’s razor cuts both ways, doesn’t it?
Trump just fired off a few tweets, mocking Schumers tears, and also explaining why he did the ban immediately, instead of retard style warnings favored by Obama and Bush — which takes away the element of surprise.
When it comes to building walls, no country is better suited and experienced to offer its services than Israel. The entirety of Israel is being fenced and walled in, just like in the movie World War Z. Sometimes life imitates art and vice versa. Anyway, I haven’t seen many people discuss who might profit from the wall, aside from the occasional moribund concrete and steel plays. Recently I schooled you on galvanized metal and how important Zinc was in that process. Now I’m gonna tell you that we’re not just building a big old dumb wall, assholes. This isn’t going to be something you take a ladder to and get your family over.
This wall is going to be crawling with sensors and intermittent guard towers, robots — state of terror art technology to protect America from World War Z.
There are two companies in Israel who do this, one is $MAGS and the other is Israel’s largest defense company, who also helped build the Arizona-Mexican border fence for $87m, $ESLT.
Since Magal is a lot smaller, the upside is a lot greater.
Very soon, the company will demonstrate their technology for border security to DHS, hoping to land a lucrative contract. If they do, the stock will explode higher.
Source: Reuters
Executives from Magal’s U.S.-based Senstar unit will show off its FiberPatrol product at a Jan. 31 conference on border security. Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will talk to the gathering of defense contractors in Alexandria, Virginia, according to Magal Chief Executive Officer Saar Koursh. The system, which embeds fiber-optic sensors in long stretches of fences and walls, is already used for perimeter security at airports and seaports around the world, he said.
“We have the right product and we have the experience in Israel that helps in showcasing our product,” Koursh said in a telephone interview Jan. 26.
Magal was a major contractor on Israel’s West Bank barrier, a stretch of sensor-laden fences and concrete walls that was begun in 2002 to counter a wave of Palestinian suicide-bombings. The company has also helped build a fence along Israel’s border with Egypt, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented on Saturday as an example for Trump’s Mexican wall.
“President Trump is right,” Netanyahu said on Twitter. “I built a wall along Israel’s southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea.”
In the interview with Fox News, Trump said a wall would be effective in preventing illegal immigration from Mexico.
“All you have to do is ask Israel,” ,” he said. “They were having a total disaster coming across, and they had a wall. It’s 99.9 percent stoppage.”
Palestinians say much of the West Bank barrier intrudes on private land and refer to it as an “apartheid wall.” In an advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice said in 2004 that portions of the project built in occupied territory were illegal.
Here’s a little background on their tech.
Source: Jerusalem Post
The company has helped construct security barriers along the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, and has contracts to do the same in Kenya, Somalia and other countries.
Locally, Magal is better known as the Israeli company that helped develop the security fence around the Gaza Strip.
Koursh credits the steady rise in the stock since Trump’s victory to his company’s good PR, saying that Magal has become a household name in the field of perimeter protection and smart fences.
“Magal did the most border defense projects in history, we worked on over a thousand kilometers of border so far. In Israel we are the main service provider for the Defense Ministry, with 85% of our borders being done by Magal over the past 40 years,” Koursh told the Post.
“Now that Trump is in power there’s a lot of talk of finding solutions for the US borders, and we are a major player in that field. Even before the elections, most of our business comes from the US, in fact more than half of our company is located in North America and we are well known by American institutions and contractors,” he explained.
But Koursh wanted to two things clear, that Magal is not a fence company, and that the firm does more to protect the perimeters of strategic assets than it does borders. “We are not actually a fence company, we are a tech company. We don’t make fences, we make fences smart with tech solutions.
Our advantage is that as the leading company in this field we have the biggest portfolio of solutions, he told the Post.
According to Koursh, there are seven or eight technologies in the world that apply to perimeter security, and usually the other companies in the field offer one or two of these to their customers. “Over the years Magal has incorporated all related technological solutions, either through research and development or through acquisition,” These technologies include motion and shock sensors, temperature change sensors, sound detection and video motion detection tech. Magal has furnished more than 40,000 kilometers of perimeter around the world with its tech.
“Compared to the entire security tech market, perimeter security is a small sector, but within that sector we represent 10% of the global market. And considering the needs that Mr. Trump described in his campaign, I believe that Magal has the best and most appropriate solutions,” Koursh said.
Effectiveness of the fence.
Eblit Systems, Israel’s largest military contractor, has been working with the DHS since 2014 for Arizona’s border fence with Mexico.
Part of the human experience is learning how to deal with adversity, especially loss. Often times loss can send people spiraling into depression — causing great pain and anguish. Parents often shield their children from harsh truths with purposeful lies — designed to allay their fears. The ambrosia of lies is a very sweet drink, capable of sending the afflicted into an everlasting slumber of catatonic ignorance.
As is the case with the election of Donald Trump, rogue elements within the CIA, and leftists (communists) in the government, are employing similar parental tactics now, by telling their minions Trump will soon be impeached. “Betting” websites are now giving 11:8 odds of Trump finishing his first term — providing succor to an otherwise defeated cadre of self-loathing malcontents.
False tales are the elixir for the aggrieved, times tested over thousands of years.
Alas, we get to the bottom line. I will always give it to you straight, as I have zero motive in deceiving any of you — being a humble merchant of market intelligence software. I am neither a libtard or a conservatard. I am a deeply analytical person (extra Exodus) who knows trends and makes decisions based on the best information (extra $UEC) available to me.
The wall just got 10 feet higher, fuckers. Keep it up.
How can the left recover from a statement like this? Not only did he make all of them look like a bunch of pansy pussies, but also hypocritical by pointing out that Obama did the same god damned thing — and there wasn’t a peep.
In short, this isn’t about religion, but terror. This is a temporary ban, until our government can figure out a way to vet immigrants properly, instead of the dumb as shit way we do it now.
Finally, Obama set the precedent and the left was fondling his johnson for 8 long years.
UPDATE: The Daily Mirror ran an anti-Trump article, regarding London’s Khan calling for the UK to cancel his visit to the country until the ‘cruel’ ban on immigration ended, and then asked their readers if they agreed via an online poll.
The response was less than desirable, without question.
In response to Trump’s new immigration ban, Senators McCain and Graham, both of whom are avid haters and shit talkers of President Trump, they issued a joint statement to express their dismay.
Jan 29 2017
STATEMENT BY SENATORS McCAIN & GRAHAM ON EXECUTIVE ORDER ON IMMIGRATION
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) released the following statement today on the President’s executive order on immigration:
“Our government has a responsibility to defend our borders, but we must do so in a way that makes us safer and upholds all that is decent and exceptional about our nation.
“It is clear from the confusion at our airports across the nation that President Trump’s executive order was not properly vetted. We are particularly concerned by reports that this order went into effect with little to no consultation with the Departments of State, Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security.
“Such a hasty process risks harmful results. We should not stop green-card holders from returning to the country they call home. We should not stop those who have served as interpreters for our military and diplomats from seeking refuge in the country they risked their lives to help. And we should not turn our backs on those refugees who have been shown through extensive vetting to pose no demonstrable threat to our nation, and who have suffered unspeakable horrors, most of them women and children.
“Ultimately, we fear this executive order will become a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism. At this very moment, American troops are fighting side-by-side with our Iraqi partners to defeat ISIL. But this executive order bans Iraqi pilots from coming to military bases in Arizona to fight our common enemies. Our most important allies in the fight against ISIL are the vast majority of Muslims who reject its apocalyptic ideology of hatred. This executive order sends a signal, intended or not, that America does not want Muslims coming into our country. That is why we fear this executive order may do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our security.”
Naturally, our Tweeter in Chief had to respond.
Neocons Graham and McCain have been active agitators of Ruso-American relations — always upping their rhetoric whenever some ‘revelation’ comes forward by America’s faux news agencies. As a point in fact, it was Senator McCain himself who circulated the fake ‘dossier’ which depicted Trump as a urine hound and Russian hooker provocateur.
The Trump presidency is immensely polarizing, and the dichotomy between his passionate supporters and career politicians could not be greater.
Earlier today, I ran a poll on Twitter, asking my followers their opinion on Trump’s immigration orders. So far, 57% of them approve of it. During the elections, about 65% of my followers supported Trump, which means that a small portion of Trump’s supporters oppose these new immigration orders; but the majority of his supporters are in favor — which isn’t represented by main stream media coverage. If you were to simply tune into CNN, CNBC, MSNBC or read any of the major newspapers, you’d think 99% of Americans oppose these restrictions.
If you believe that, then you’re a sucker for fake news.
