Smartkarma Daily Briefs

• Stocks surged Monday, bouncing back from last week’s losses, boosted by a tech rebound and eased Middle East tensions
• Japan and Europe will cooperate in recycling EV batteries by establishing a system to share information
• Ricoh has acquired German startup Natif AI, leveraging its artificial intelligence (AI) technology for automatic information extraction from text.

• With US inflation figures higher than expectations, there is an increase in risk that the Fed’s next move may be a hike.  Some HSI constituents are set to benefit.
• Orient Overseas International (316 HK), Budweiser Brewing APAC (1876 HK), and Galaxy Entertainment Group (27 HK) have significant USD net cash position and will be gainers.
• Sunny Optical Technology Group (2382 HK) and Haier Smart Home (6690 HK) have large China operations but they are net long on USD balance and this will make them beneficiaries.

• After a bumper bonus during Covid, the fashion sector saw calmer spending in the last 18 months as the big return to shops led to more muted growth online. 
• The overall EC fashion market grew around 4-7% depending on how you measure it, but online market share actually fell as people went back to shops.
• This in-depth review highlights the key trends in the sector as well as the winners by sales growth among retailers and fashion brands.

• New quarterly data from Zions shows huge growth in time deposits, and also far worse credit metrics in commercial real estate and home equity loans
• Cadence reveals incredibly high growth of net charge offs in the year, but also far worse credit costs and NPLs
• None of this should surprise, and we remind that often banks reveal worsening credit metrics with some lag – it not always immediate, neat, simple

• Power Industry in India is no stranger to regulations – the industry has battled with regulatory changes since India’s independence in 1947.
• Most of these changes in recent years, have focused on strengthening the sector and making it more efficient. Some of these regulations have worked, while others have failed miserably.
• The Electricity Amendment Bill of 2021, is different. It focuses on the root causes of the problem and devises solutions accordingly, rather than try fixing them with a Band-Aid (as previous regulations did).

• Its a quarter too soon to go dumpster diving in the automotive semiconductor industry. Another round of cuts is likely coming. Consider this my earnings preview.

• I have leaned bearish automotive semiconductors for a few months, and I think the call has been mostly correct.

• For me, the beginning of my bearishness started when I highlighted that China would try to murder the supply aspect of the market for the foreseeable future

• The year is 1999, India’s total GDP back then was less than RBI’s Forex Reserves today .
• It had been a few years since economic liberalization of 1991 and internet companies were all the rage in international stock markets.
• Domestically too, in India, a little known Indian software business by the name of Infosys has started to grab headlines .

• Our Commercial/Contract Furniture Index was up 0.6% for the week, notably outperforming the three market indexes and the Mass Retailers Index (down between 1.4% and 3.2% for the week).
• Our Residential Manufacturers & Suppliers Index (down 3.5%) and Home Goods Retailers Index (down 2.9%) were more in line with the broader market indexes.
• Home goods retailer Beyond sold the Wamsutta brand/IP to Indo Count Global for $10.3 million as the firm focuses on integrating its purchase of Bed, Bath, and Beyond into its portfolio of online properties.

• AI detectors are not very effective, leading to the solution of grading AI-generated essays as regular essays
• Chat GPT essays are currently at a C level, serving as the baseline for comparison
• The use of AI in industrial applications, specifically robotics, is a growing area of interest for investment and development

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• The WTR Sustainable Index was up down 3.9% W/W versus the S&P 500 Index (down 3.0%), the Russell 2000 Index (down 2.8%), and the Nasdaq Index (down 5.4%).
• Energy Technology (12.0% of the index) was down by 6.6%, while Industrial Climate and Ag Technology (58.1% of the index) was down by 2.2%, ClimateTech Mining was down 5.9%, and Advanced Transportation Solutions (23.4% of index) was down 6.7%.
• Top 10 Performers: FSR, PNPN, VTNR, AMMP, TLO, WML, KNDI, GOEV, BMI, CRGE