In today’s briefing:
- Ohayo Japan | Nvidia Tops $4 Trillion
- Japan Morning Connection: Japan Set to Start Higher as Markets Look past Tariff Confusions
- Q1FY26 Banking Sector Report: How Repo Rate Cuts Are Reshaping the Sector?
- Cerabyte. Forever Data Storage At A Fraction Of Current Costs?
- Thematic Report on the Coffee Price Rollercoaster: Implications for India’s FMCG & Processing Sector
- The Overnight Report: Copper & Pharma Fright
- Monday Delight: 07/07/25
- Consumer Products Monthly WTR Consumer Index Lags S&P 600 in 2Q
- Sustainable Investing Surveyor Focus on CRC
- US EV Charging Infrastructure Tracker – June 2025
Ohayo Japan | Nvidia Tops $4 Trillion
- Nasdaq rose 0.9% to a record 20,611, led by Nvidia’s 1.6% gain and brief $4 trillion valuation milestone
- President Trump announced a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods, citing Brazil’s treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro, escalating trade tensions ahead of the August 1 tariff implementation deadline.
- Oasis Management, a Hong Kong activist fund, acquired a 5.19% stake in Casio for 15 billion yen, aiming to enhance shareholder value
Japan Morning Connection: Japan Set to Start Higher as Markets Look past Tariff Confusions
- KKR to sell a further 12.9% stake of Kokusai Elec, which sets the stage for big upside once dust settles.
- Home builders surging with mortgage applications at the highest levels since early 2023.
- Renewables up with AES and Bloom Energy posting big gains and JP names recently outperforming.
Q1FY26 Banking Sector Report: How Repo Rate Cuts Are Reshaping the Sector?
- Despite a 100-bps rate cut by RBI, banks face margin pressure as lending rates fall faster than deposit repricing.
- Credit growth has slowed sharply, while deposit growth is improving unevenly – tightening liquidity conditions, especially for private banks and SFBs.
- Valuations remain attractive despite near-term earnings stress, supported by stable asset quality, treasury gains, and long-term confidence in sector fundamentals.
Cerabyte. Forever Data Storage At A Fraction Of Current Costs?
- Cerabyte has a stated vision of achieving $1 per petabyte per month, a cost reduction of 1000x within the next two decades. That’s a bold vision.
- Magnetic tape storage continues to play a crucial role in data centers and its technology continues to advance with the latest LTO-10 cassette announced by Fujifilm in June 2025
- Microsoft’s Project Silica, launched in 2019, appears to take a very similar approach albeit there are as yet no stated plans for commercialisation.
Thematic Report on the Coffee Price Rollercoaster: Implications for India’s FMCG & Processing Sector
- Since 2021, coffee prices have surged up to 300%, driven by supply disruptions in major producers like Brazil and Vietnam. Recent price corrections provides relief still volatility remains high.
- The price fluctuations directly affect Indian coffee processors, with increased working capital requirements and lower PAT margin. Stabilizing prices can improve profitability and working capital cycles.
- FMCG giants like Nestle and Tata Consumer Products faced margin pressures due to volatile coffee prices. While recent declines provide relief, continued price uncertainty requires adaptive strategies for cost management.
The Overnight Report: Copper & Pharma Fright
- The RBA threw a spanner in the markets’ almost universally anticipated -25bps rate cut, but both ASX200 and the AUD recovered to the previous day’s levels.
- The RBA will now cut in August, right?
- After a muted overnight session, with more Trump tariff rumblings on copper and pharmaceuticals, the ASX200 futures suggest a slightly softer start to Wednesday.
Monday Delight: 07/07/25
- Each week, I’ll share five intriguing investment ideas that recently caught my attention. These ideas are meant to spark your research and help you kickstart the week ahead with fresh insights.
- Because these ideas are the result of my first-level idea generation process, they require more in depth research. Therefore, the ideas will often be concise, with occasional references to valuable work from other practitioners that I encourage you to explore.
- If you have something fascinating to share that could benefit me and the wider community, don’t hesitate to send it my way—I’d love to hear from you!
Consumer Products Monthly WTR Consumer Index Lags S&P 600 in 2Q
- The WTR Consumer Stock Index trailed the Small Cap S&P 600 in 2Q, declining 2.4% versus the 1.1% gain in the broader index.
- The underperformance of our index was mostly due to a larger decline in prospective earnings, coupled with a lesser expansion in its prospective P/E ratio.
- Our index saw prospective earnings decline 7.2% in 2Q versus a 5.0% decline in the S&P 600, while its prospective P/E ratio expanded 0.8x in 2Q to 15.7x versus the 0.9x expansion to 15.3x in the S&P 600.
Sustainable Investing Surveyor Focus on CRC
- The WTR Sustainable Index was up 0.5% W/W versus the S&P 500 Index (up 1.7%), the Russell 2000 Index (up 3.5%), and the Nasdaq Index (up 1.5%).
- Energy Technology (13.9% of the index) was up 6.8%, while Industrial Climate and Ag Technology (49.3% of the index) was up 2.7%, ClimateTech Mining was down 10.7%, and Advanced Transportation Solutions (20.9% of the index) was up 0.9%.
- Top 10 Performers: HCNWF, GWH, RUN, FLNC, LIS, STEM, FLUX, GRB, NRGV, AMTX
US EV Charging Infrastructure Tracker – June 2025
- The current EV charging infrastructure in the US remains inadequate and needs to grow rapidly to meet future demand.
- According to The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), U.S. will need 1.0 million Level 2 and 182,000 DC Fast charging points by 2030 to support the charging of electric vehicles.
- Based on the current growth rates, U.S. is likely to fall short of these numbers by 2030. The pace of growth needs to pick up rapidly.
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