Writing about Companies with an Unfair Advantage, Unfair Advantage

Unfair Advantage

Writing about Companies with an Unfair Advantage

I write about companies that have an unfair advantage. I might invest in them as well.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>Luxury stocks are quietly having a midlife crisis.</li><li>Despite looking optically expensive on a trailing earnings basis, luxury names are trading at their cheapest levels in the last five years.</li><li>Stocks like LVMH, Hermès, and Ferrari are all down 20%+ over the past year. Not exactly what you’d expect from brands that sell handbags for the price of a car.</li></ul>

Luxury stocks are quietly having a midlife crisis.Despite looking optically expensive on a trailing earnings basis, luxury names are trading at their cheapest levels in the last five years.Stocks like LVMH, Hermès, and Ferrari are all down 20%+ over the past year. Not exactly what you’d expect from brands that sell handbags for the price of a car.

What Happened to My Rolexes, Champagnes and Birkins? Luxury Is Not so Pricey Anymore $MC.PA, $RM...

Founder, CEO, GSBR Research

Garvit Bhandari

Founder, CEO

Leading Provider of Equity and Investment Research

GSBR Research

We are an independent equity research provider focused on covering global markets. The aim of the research is to provide an unbiased view of the fundamentals of the company.

<ul>
<li>The EU consumer discretionary sector is mixed but improving, though the recovery remains uneven across goods and services.</li>
<li>Tourism remains the standout, surpassing pre-pandemic levels with a record 2.99 billion nights in 2024. Hospitality, travel, and leisure therefore remain relatively bright spots.</li>
<li>Non-Food retail volumes returned to year-on-year growth in 2025, yet large-ticket categories such as autos and durables continue to lag the broader discretionary recovery.</li>
</ul>


The EU consumer discretionary sector is mixed but improving, though the recovery remains uneven across goods and services.
Tourism remains the standout, surpassing pre-pandemic levels with a record 2.99 billion nights in 2024. Hospitality, travel, and leisure therefore remain relatively bright spots.
Non-Food retail volumes returned to year-on-year growth in 2025, yet large-ticket categories such as autos and durables continue to lag the broader discretionary recovery.


EU Consumer Discretionary Sector - Mixed Trends

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>Our outlook remains bullish on MSCI ACWI. Discussed in latest Int’l Compass (1/9/2025) how viewed the pullback as buying opportunity and were watching for $116-$117 support to hold on ACWI-US.</li>
<li>$116 support held perfectly and we expect upside to continue following 1+ month bull flag breakouts, followed by successful retests of support, on ACWI-US and the S&amp;P 500.</li>
<li>We also upgraded Germany to overweight last week, with RS on the DAX breaking out from a 2-year base. U.S. (SPX) and Germany are our only two country overweights.</li>
</ul>


Our outlook remains bullish on MSCI ACWI. Discussed in latest Int’l Compass (1/9/2025) how viewed the pullback as buying opportunity and were watching for $116-$117 support to hold on ACWI-US.
$116 support held perfectly and we expect upside to continue following 1+ month bull flag breakouts, followed by successful retests of support, on ACWI-US and the S&amp;P 500.
We also upgraded Germany to overweight last week, with RS on the DAX breaking out from a 2-year base. U.S. (SPX) and Germany are our only two country overweights.


Remain Risk-On With Market Dynamics Improving; 6+ Month Base Breakouts for MSCI ACWI Ex-US and EAFE

Head of Research, Krungthai XSpring

Waraporn Wiboonkanarak

Head of Research

A full service Thai brokerage

Krungthai XSpring

Krungthai XSpring is a full service broker. The company provides a wide range of investment services such as Securities Brokerage, Derivative Agent Business, Securities Borrowing and Lending, Securities Trading, Underwriting, Financial Advisory, Wealth Advisory, Private Fund Management and International Markets Securities Trading. 

In terms of credibility, Fitch Ratings has assigned Krunghtai XSpring a long-term rating of AA- and a national short-term rating of F1+ with stable outlook.

Macroeconomics

<ul><li>Technically, the SET Index is expected to move sideways with the resistance at 1,364/1,370 points and the support at 1,346/1,340 points.</li><li>KTX expects China's 4Q24 GDP to show signs of recovery, with consensus estimating GDP growth of 5.0% YoY and 1.6% QoQ (compared to 4.6% YoY and 0.9% QoQ in 3Q24).</li><li>The Easy e-Receipt 2.0 tax reduction measure (from January 16 to February 28, 2025) is expected to generate cash flow of Bt70bn and boost the economy by approximately 0.38%, benefiting the commerce sector.</li></ul>

Technically, the SET Index is expected to move sideways with the resistance at 1,364/1,370 points and the support at 1,346/1,340 points.KTX expects China's 4Q24 GDP to show signs of recovery, with consensus estimating GDP growth of 5.0% YoY and 1.6% QoQ (compared to 4.6% YoY and 0.9% QoQ in 3Q24).The Easy e-Receipt 2.0 tax reduction measure (from January 16 to February 28, 2025) is expected to generate cash flow of Bt70bn and boost the economy by approximately 0.38%, benefiting the commerce sector.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MUFG) / Technical Analysis

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MUFG) (8306 JP)

<ul>
<li>Our bullish outlook on global equities (MSCI ACWI) remains intact. Actionable Themes today include Financials, Energy, and Consumer Discretionary (European Luxury Retailers)</li>
<li>We view this pullback as a buying opportunity and we are watching for $116-$117 support to hold on ACWI-US; this is an important resistance-turned-support level dating back to July 2024.</li>
<li>Europe and Japan are on the cusp of major breakouts above critical resistance levels of 5000-5120 on the EURO STOXX 50 and 2740-2820 on the TOPIX</li>
</ul>


Our bullish outlook on global equities (MSCI ACWI) remains intact. Actionable Themes today include Financials, Energy, and Consumer Discretionary (European Luxury Retailers)
We view this pullback as a buying opportunity and we are watching for $116-$117 support to hold on ACWI-US; this is an important resistance-turned-support level dating back to July 2024.
Europe and Japan are on the cusp of major breakouts above critical resistance levels of 5000-5120 on the EURO STOXX 50 and 2740-2820 on the TOPIX


Opportunity Within Europe and Japan; EURO STOXX 50 and TOPIX/Nikkei 225 Near Major Breakouts

France

Hermes International designs, produces, and distributes personal luxury accessories and apparel.  The Company operates a chain of boutiques under the Hermes name that sells items such as leather, scarves, men's clothes, ties, women's fashions, perfume, watches, stationery, shoes, hats, gloves, and jewelry.

Price Gauge
52-week Range	0.00 - 0.00
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Hermes International (RMS FP)

What Happened to My Rolexes, Champagnes and Birkins? Luxury Is Not so Pricey Anymore $MC.PA, $RM...

Luxury stocks are quietly having a midlife crisis. Despite looking optically expensive on a trailing earnings basis, luxury names are trading...

Unfair Advantage

EU Consumer Discretionary Sector - Mixed Trends

EU consumer discretionary sector shows mixed but improving performance, with tourism leading the way while large-ticket categories lag behind.

GSBR Research

Remain Risk-On With Market Dynamics Improving; 6+ Month Base Breakouts for MSCI ACWI Ex-US and EAFE

Remain Risk-On With Market Dynamics Improving; 6+ Month Base Breakouts for MSCI $ACWI ex-US and $EAFE; U.S. Dollar $DXY and 10-Year Yields $TNX...

Vermilion Research

China's Retail Sales and 4Q24 GDP

Technically, the SET Index is expected to move sideways with the resistance at 1,364/1,370 points and the support at 1,346/1,340 points. KTX...

Krungthai XSpring

Opportunity Within Europe and Japan; EURO STOXX 50 and TOPIX/Nikkei 225 Near Major Breakouts

Opportunity Within Europe and Japan $HEDJ $DXJ; EURO $STOXX 50 and $TOPIX/Nikkei 225 Near Major Breakouts. $ACWI above $116. Buys in Financials,...

Vermilion Research

Price Gauge

52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

P/E

Dividend (Yield)

What Happened to My Rolexes, Champagnes and Birkins? Luxury Is Not so Pricey Anymore $MC.PA, $RM...

Luxury stocks are quietly having a midlife crisis. Despite looking optically expensive on a trailing earnings basis, luxury names are trading...

Unfair Advantage

EU Consumer Discretionary Sector - Mixed Trends

​EU consumer discretionary sector shows mixed but improving performance, with tourism leading the way while large-ticket categories lag behind.

GSBR Research

Remain Risk-On With Market Dynamics Improving; 6+ Month Base Breakouts for MSCI ACWI Ex-US and EAFE

Remain Risk-On With Market Dynamics Improving; 6+ Month Base Breakouts for MSCI $ACWI ex-US and $EAFE; U.S. Dollar $DXY and 10-Year Yields $TNX...

Vermilion Research

China's Retail Sales and 4Q24 GDP

Technically, the SET Index is expected to move sideways with the resistance at 1,364/1,370 points and the support at 1,346/1,340 points. KTX...

Krungthai XSpring

Opportunity Within Europe and Japan; EURO STOXX 50 and TOPIX/Nikkei 225 Near Major Breakouts

Opportunity Within Europe and Japan $HEDJ $DXJ; EURO $STOXX 50 and $TOPIX/Nikkei 225 Near Major Breakouts. $ACWI above $116. Buys in Financials,...

Vermilion Research

EU consumer discretionary sector shows mixed but improving performance, with tourism leading the way while large-ticket categories lag behind.