Market scorecard
Last night US markets were mixed. The broader S&P 500 was slightly lower as regional banks continued showing signs of strain, while the Nasdaq closed higher after Google showcased its artificial intelligence tools. Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares are up 11.3% in the last week, which is fantastic!
In other company news, JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) shares rose 7% after promoting its finance chief to the CEO role. Elsewhere, Disney (NYSE:DIS) closed down 8.7% (worst performer in the S&P 500) reporting falling income from its traditional television business, and losing about 300 000 Disney+ subscribers in North America and four million worldwide. Oops.
In summary, the JSE All-share was down 1.00%, the S&P 500 fell 0.17%, but the Nasdaq was 0.18% higher.
Byron's beats
Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) released results last week which received mixed reviews. Revenues beat by 3.4% and earnings beat by 12% but the share still dropped 5% on the day. The company expects 11% revenue growth over the next year, well ahead of inflation. On the back of that they have increased their dividend by 6.8% and are doing share buybacks at a rate of around $4 billion per year. These are all positive developments.
You may be surprised to hear that Starbucks is one of our best performing stocks over the last year. It's up 48% since May 2022 versus the S&P which is up 3% over that same period. That's a better return than both Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), highlighting why it's important to have a diversified portfolio representing different growth themes.
Starbucks is an amazing brand, has a huge loyalty program and continues to expand around the world. Their recent labour issues in the US also seem to be subsiding. One of their first stores which voted to unionise, did an about-turn and dropped that rubbish idea.
The new CEO Laxman Narasimhan certainly has a big job ahead of him. His comments to date have focused on simplifying the business and getting back to basics. Making good coffee is not rocket science. I like the idea of keeping it simple.
One thing, from Paul
Today's "Friday life advice" is to be highly consistent. Do things right, every single day, without fail. Take care of the details, very diligently, and your reputation will spread far and wide.
As James Clear said this week: "All you need for exceptional results is average effort repeated for an above-average amount of time."
Jay Fai is a 74-year-old who operates a street food restaurant in Bangkok that has a Michelin Star. Her iconic dish is a crab omelette, which she fries in a wok while wearing a beanie and ski goggles (see below). She's the only chef and she's been at work every day since the 1980s from 2pm to 1am, without fail.
Ok, maybe that's a bit extreme. However, she's famous, and charges $75 per meal, compared to her "competitors" down the alley who can only charge $2. There are long queues outside her place, at all hours.
Read more about her here: The queen of Bangkok street food.
Michael's musings
As mentioned above, the Google (also known as Alphabet) share price is up 11.3% over the last five trading days thanks to recent upgrades to Bard, its AI bot. You might remember that when Bard first launched, it's performance was distinctly underwhelming. It seems that with the latest upgrade, it is now ahead of Microsoft's ChatGPT.
The biggest advantage Bard has over ChatGPT is that Bard is connected to the internet, meaning that you can get live data. ChatGPT can only give information up till 2021. A cool feature is that Bard is integrated into Google search, allowing users to double-check everything it says with search results. Sometimes these AI bots talk absolute nonsense, so it is important to be able to quickly distinguish fact from fiction.
Google is going the same route as Microsoft by integrating Bard's functionality into all of their apps. There was some worry that Alphabet would be left behind in the AI race. It is good to see that they are firm contenders.
Bright's banter
Kanye West (also known as Ye) and Adidas (ETR:ADSGN) have reached an agreement to resume selling YEEZY products. The collaboration between the two entities was previously severed after Kanye West made a series of anti-Semitic comments.
As part of the renewed partnership, a portion of the proceeds from the sales will be donated to organizations affected by Ye's remarks. Additionally, West will receive the same 15% commission rate that was in place during their prior agreement.
Adidas CEO Bjoern Gulden addressed investors and stated that they wanted to sell the merchandise rather than destroying it all. The unsold YEEZY stock has an estimated retail value of $1.3 billion. Adidas has opted for a middle-ground approach in addressing this issue.
Signing off
Asian markets are mixed this morning (are they ever anything else, lol). Japan is in the green but South Korea, Hong Kong and mainland China have seen modest declines.
US equity futures are a little higher in early trade. We are in the green for the week so far, let's not screw it up on the last day, ok?
The Rand has weakened to around R19.42 to the US Dollar. Our local currency is in a tailspin as the threat of sanctions from the US grows. The SA government is squirming. We are ruled by idiots.
Well done for surviving a 5-day work week. Happy Mother's Day on Sunday to all the mothers on our mailing list.