In today’s briefing:
- Ohayo Japan | Muted Mood; TSMC Placing Its Chips on Japan
- China to Provide Visa-Free for Six Countries – Why and The (Possible) Impact
- Semiconductors. The Downturn Is Over. Or Is It?
- Furniture/Furnishings Weekly – A Glance at Big-Box Retailers Shows Mixed Top Line
- The Highlights – Cannabis News for the Week Ending November 24, 2023
- Water Tower Hour Recap – KEY POINTS The State of the Restaurant Industry
- Weekly Sustainable Investing Surveyor – Week Ended November 24, 2023
Ohayo Japan | Muted Mood; TSMC Placing Its Chips on Japan
- Overseas: SPX -0.1%, Nasdaq -0.1%; Consumer stocks outperformed after record breaking Black Friday sales; US Home Sales impacted by 8% mortgage rates.
- Today: NKY Futs +0.3% v cash. JPY/$ 148.6; Kagome raising food prices; Yahoo data breach; ASICS to double retail presence in India
- JapanX: TSMC is betting big on Japan. The Taiwanese chip maker is reportedly contemplating the establishment of a third chip manufacturing plant in Japan.
China to Provide Visa-Free for Six Countries – Why and The (Possible) Impact
- China is expanding its list of countries allowed to enter visa-free. A good gesture to make China more friendly to foreigners and one step closer to global best practices
- Chinese major airlines and airports can become more desirable global aviation hubs, assuming they play their cards right
- Doubt much can change in a year, but the seeds are sown for stiffer competition for airlines with a hub-and-spoke strategy in North Asia
Semiconductors. The Downturn Is Over. Or Is It?
- Global semiconductor sales have increased MoM for seven months in a row. PC & Smartphone unit shipments have bottomed and are on the rise. Memory has bottomed.
- Silicon wafer inventories are piled high, ASML, TEL facing down zero growth in 2024, foundry utilisations are (mostly) in the doldrums with further ASP cuts looming on the horizon.
- Multiple data points suggest we’ll still be talking about this downturn well into 2024
Furniture/Furnishings Weekly – A Glance at Big-Box Retailers Shows Mixed Top Line
- During the past two weeks, key big-box retailers reported the quarter ended in October, providing near real-time views into the state of the consumer and retailing.
- Top-line results were mixed.
- Our Read: Consumer spending continues to retreat from the pandemic bubble, with consumers moving down market to low-price and bargain retailers.
The Highlights – Cannabis News for the Week Ending November 24, 2023
- It was a holiday-shortened week for US stocks, and this will be a briefer edition of The Highlights.
- The US cannabis MSOS ended the week -2.32%, while the global YOLO ETF was +2.43%.
- Volumes were light, especially on Friday, when Ascend’s (CSE: AAWH, OTCQX: AAWH) US listing traded just $11,553 in volume.
Water Tower Hour Recap – KEY POINTS The State of the Restaurant Industry
- On the latest edition of The Water Tower Hour, WTR’s Head of Business Development Tim Regan interviewed WTR’s Head of Consumer Discretionary Lynne Collier to discuss the state of the restaurant industry, her outlook for 2024, and key takeaways from the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference (RFDC) in Las Vegas on November 13-15.
- Key takeaways from RFDC. The tone of the conference was more upbeat than last year given the expectation of better cash flows in 2024.
- Thus far in 4Q, restaurants are seeing better same-store sales (SSS) and traffic after the lull in September, creating more optimism for operators.
Weekly Sustainable Investing Surveyor – Week Ended November 24, 2023
- The WTR Sustainable Index was up by 0.5% W/W versus the S&P 500 Index (up 1.0%), the Russell 2000 Index (up 0.5%), and the Nasdaq Index (up 0.9%).
- Energy Technology (12.4% of the index) was down by 1.8%, while Industrial Climate and Ag Technology (49.4% of the index) was up 0.5%, ClimateTech Mining was down 1.9%, andAdvanced Transportation Solutions was up 1.3%.
- Top 10 Performers: CLIR, NVLH, NXH, EFOI, IRBT, TMC, GCEI, PEV, PNPN, FTCI
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