Business

There are many observations to be made about the dramatic shifts shown in the chart below which demonstrates the top 20 companies by market cap over the past decade, but what, to us, stands out the most are two things:

1. after a decade of being either the world's biggest or second largest market capitalized company, Exxon has tumbled to 5th spot, something it did not do even during the peak of the financial crisis; and
2. after five years of being in the top spot, it is time for someone to finally dethrone the world's most popular smartphone maker.

Overnight China's finance ministry reported the latest data on state-owned firms profitability. At a cumulative CNY 2.04 trillion (or $316 billion) for the January-November period, this was another nearly double digit decline, or -9.5% from the year ago period, following a -9.8% drop for the 10 month period the month before.

Authored by David Swensen (Yale CIO) and Jonathan Macey, Op-Ed via NYTimes.com,

America's equity markets are broken. Individuals and institutions make transactions in rigged markets favoring short-term players. The root cause of the problem is that stocks trade on numerous venues, including 11 traditional exchanges and dozens of so-called dark pools that allow buyers and sellers to work out of the public eye. This market fragmentation allows high-frequency traders and exchanges to profit at the expense of long-term investors.

“Two things become clear in an analysis of the financial health of US hydrocarbon production: 1) the sector is not at all homogenous, exhibiting a range of financial health; 2) some of the sector indeed looks exposed to distress [and] lifelines for distressed producers could include public equity markets, asset sales, private equity, or consolidation. If all else fails, Chapter 11 may be necessary.” That’s Citi’s assessment of America’s “shale revolution”, which the Saudis have been desperately trying to crush for more than a year now. 

Switzerland are going to hold a referendum to allow citizens to decide whether or not they will ban the practise of fractional reserve banking.  The decision to hold the referendum comes after a petition receives more than 110,000 signatures calling for the central bank to be given the sole power to create money.