Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Will Marshall, Planet Lab co-founder and CEO, joins ‘Squawk on the Street’ to discuss the company going public via SPAC. Marshall explains what going public will do for the company going forward.
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/12/08/planet-labs-goes-public-via-spac.html
ASTR Mon I accumulated a bunch more at $8.60 (my avg now about $8.80 this cycle). Connected to the new PL, it has suddenly getting some action, maybe just in sympathy with Planet Labs, not sure.
The news recently about launch for NASA;
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211206005293/en/
Astra Announces Launch for NASA from Cape Canaveral in January
Astra to begin operating out of second US spaceport
SLC-46, Cape Canaveral. Photo credit: John Kraus
SLC-46, Cape Canaveral. Photo credit: John Kraus
SLC-46, Cape Canaveral. Photo credit: John Kraus
December 06, 2021 09:00 AM Eastern Standard Time
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Astra Space, Inc. (“Astra”) (Nasdaq: ASTR) today announced that it plans to deploy its first satellite in orbit for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in January 2022. The launch from Cape Canaveral will be conducted out of Space Launch Complex 46 (SLC-46) and will be Astra’s first launch out of Cape Canaveral.
“Launching out of the Cape allows us to serve customers with mid-inclination delivery needs, broadening our market”
Tweet this
“This historic launch site has been prepared for a new commercial launch partner in less than year, which is a tremendous milestone for our combined team, and illustrates how SLD 45 sets the pace for access to space,” said Brigadier General Stephen Purdy, Commander of Space Launch Delta 45 and Director of the Eastern Range. “SLD 45, Space Florida, and Astra have moved at a rapid speed to demonstrate critical and responsive launch capabilities. We are excited to welcome Astra to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.”
Astra and Space Launch Delta 45, a part of the United States Space Force, enabled Astra to launch out of Cape Canaveral in record time - shortening the multi-year approval time to months.
“Launching out of the Cape allows us to serve customers with mid-inclination delivery needs, broadening our market,” said Martin Attiq, Chief Business Officer at Astra. “This is an additional step in our global spaceport strategy and positions us to serve the broad low earth orbit (LEO) market.”
Astra's launch will be livestreamed in partnership with NASASpaceFlight. Updates will be shared on Astra’s Twitter feed, @astra.
About Astra
Astra’s mission is to improve life on Earth from space by creating a healthier and more connected planet. Today, Astra offers the lowest cost-per-launch dedicated orbital launch service of any operational launch provider in the world. Astra delivered its first commercial payload into Earth orbit in 2021, making it the fastest company in history to reach this milestone, just five years after it was founded in 2016. Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR) was the first space launch company to be publicly traded on Nasdaq. Visit astra.com to learn more about Astra.
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements made in this press release are “forward-looking statements”. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “expect”, “estimate”, “plan”, “outlook”, and “project” and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements reflect the current analysis of existing information and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including Astra’s failure to meet the projected launch targets. As a result, caution must be exercised in relying on forward-looking statements. Due to known and unknown risks, actual results may differ materially from Astra’s expectations or projections including the following factors, among others: (i) delays in projected development and launch targets, including as a result of the decisions of governmental authorities or other third parties not within our control, weather and other suboptimal conditions that may make it difficult to perform a launch attempt; (ii) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (iii) the ability of Astra to meet its financial and strategic goals, due to, among other things, competition; (iv) the ability of Astra to pursue a growth strategy and manage growth profitability; (v) the possibility that Astra may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; (vi) the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on Astra, (vii) the ability to manage its cash outflows during its pre-revenue business operations and (vii) other risks and uncertainties discussed from time to time in other reports and other public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Astra.
We Rate Planet Labs A Buy As The SPAC Merger Completion Looms
Dec. 07, 2021 7:40 PM ETPlanet Labs PBC - Class A (PL)11 Comments16 Likes
Cestrian Space Select profile picture
Cestrian Space Select
Marketplace
Growth, Long-Term Horizon, Aerospace & Defense, Tech
Contributor Since 2021
Cestrian Capital Research, Inc is an SEC-registered investment research business, covering the space and tech sectors. If you like our work, sign up for our FREE newsletter, here: https://newsletter.cestriancapitalresearch.com
Summary
Planet Labs is likely to complete its merger with the SPAC shell DMYQ shortly.
This Google-backed Earth observation business features solid revenue growth, improving gross margins, and what looks to be a high level of support from SPAC shareholders.
It's early days for the stock as a public security but there's much to like about the business.
We rate the stock a Buy and own the name in staff personal accounts.
Looking for more investing ideas like this one? Get them exclusively at Cestrian Space Select. Learn More »
Person Hidden in Bush Peeping with Binoculars and Spying Others
maradek/iStock via Getty Images
DISCLAIMER: This note is intended for US recipients only and in particular is not directed at, nor intended to be relied upon by any UK recipients. Any information or analysis in this note is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice and nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Cestrian Capital Research, Inc., its employees, agents or affiliates, including the author of this note, or related persons, may have a position in any stocks, security or financial instrument referenced in this note. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice. Companies referenced in this note or their employees or affiliates may be customers of Cestrian Capital Research, Inc. Cestrian Capital Research, Inc. values both its independence and transparency and does not believe that this presents a material potential conflict of interest or impacts the content of its research or publications.
The Only Way Is... Up?
There's a famous quote about the stock market - it goes something like this: Nobody knows which way the market will move tomorrow, but I will tell you the direction of its move over the next 10 years, and that is... UP. And by and large that quote has held true. When a new hot sector comes along, and venture capital money flows into it, generally you can say... I'm not sure which of these companies will move up or down tomorrow, but I can tell you the direction of their move over the next ten years, and that is... UP.
This is the best way to look at space sector investments in our view. If you've read our work on the sector you've seen us say over and over since we got started on this beat in 2017 that the sector is early stage, risky, featuring heavy customer concentration and even heavier capex, and all in all not for the faint of heart. Now that a slew of space sector companies have made the public market their home, thanks to the SPAC boom, that view has not changed.
If you want an easy and relaxing time, consider following Mr. Buffett's advice and buy a passive S&P 500 tracker, feed it cash every now and then, and spend the rest of the time not looking at the screen but instead playing golf. Well, at least until the Big One hits. If on the other hand you wish to try your luck riding out the long-run gains we think are available among these new space stocks - you may like to consider owning Planet Labs (currently, the snappy-sounding dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV (DMYQ), soon to trade as PL).
Planet Labs is one of the venture capital-backed space startups that sprang up over the last decade or so as launch costs began to fall and satellite hardware costs follow suit. The company provides Earth observation services to government and commercial clients. "Earth observation" is a very widely used term and that wide definition leads to confusion in investors' minds about exactly what companies in the sector do for a living.
The clearest definition of this we've yet heard came directly from Spire Global (SPIR) CEO Peter Platzer. We recently hosted a live subscriber-only Q&A session with Platzer - he was asked the inevitable question, what's the difference between Spire, Planet and so forth. His answer was - satellites typically do one of three things: Watch, listen, or speak. Optical range satellites watch; RF range satellites listen; transmission spacecraft (think high throughput transponders used by Sirius XM, DirecTV and others) talk.
Planet uses optical-range spacecraft to image the Earth, collect and analyze data, and supply both images and data to its customers. It operates in the modern idiom i.e., it runs a large number of small devices with a high repeat-pass rate (eg. 10x/day average revisits by its SkySat devices). You could think of Planet as an iPad vs. the mainframe operated by Maxar Technologies (MAXR). If you want a high-powered, weapons-grade full-on security service-rated pass over your target, pay Maxar a whole lot of money. If you want a fast view of what's going on, and you want to monitor changes using that high repeat rate, you pay Planet less money. Simple. Planet's September investor presentation remains worth reading if you haven't already.
Financials on Planet will become clearer as the company delivers sequential SEC reports in its fully de-SPAC'd role. Until then we can highlight what we know from the scant material published thus far.
Source: Company SEC filings, Cestrian Analysis
The revenue line can be treated as reliable, and it shows solid growth, albeit at a declining rate. The company will need to arrest that decline and re-accelerate if it's going to deliver a medium-term gain in the stock price. Gross margin has improved materially - for a business like this, dependent on many third parties for satellite componentry and so forth, 40% isn't so bad. EBITDA you can take with a large pinch of salt, since we don't have the full underlying operating income, depreciation & amortization and stock-based compensation schedules; and as for cash flow, well, no idea, since we don't have time-series capex and change in net working capital data. Let's assume cash flow is ugly vs. EBITDA but let's also hope it can improve over time.
The balance sheet at the completion of the SPAC deal should look sound. Current indications are that at least $590m of net cash will land on the operating company's balance sheet. Don't be under the illusion that this is sufficient - it isn't, and at some point the company will raise further cash likely as dilutive equity until such time as debt becomes viable.
The stock chart is so young that it tells you nothing at all, yet.
Source: TradingView (full page chart here)
But that big move up you see at the far right edge of the chart? That's the market feeling good about the high level of shareholder acceptances in the SPAC deal. And we agree with that sentiment. We think Planet will be a speculative buy for some time yet, but a Buy it is in our view. In space as in all things innovation, low cost is the strategy to back. Nobody got poor buying a basket of cost leaders in the tech industry as it has evolved, and we think that's going to be true in space too - Rocket Lab (RKLB), a very low-cost launch provider, is proving this out already.
So as the SPAC deal completion is in the air, and the new ticker beckons, we rate Planet a Buy. If you own the stock or are thinking of doing so, we suggest you will consider the rather spiky risk profile of cash-burning companies this young in their lives as public securities. In staff personal accounts we solve for that with allocation size. We own DMYQ very happily on that basis and we're excited to see what comes next in the company's evolution once the SPAC deal is behind them.
Cestrian Capital Research, Inc. - 7 December 2021.
Space Select brings you exclusive space stock picks from leading independent research business, Cestrian Capital Research, Inc.
We cover the full range of stocks, from new-entrant SPAC deals such as RocketLab, Blacksky or Planet, through to the major prime contractors such as Raytheon or L3Harris, taking in established independents such as Maxar and Iridium.
Our member community includes many longstanding space sector investors and space sector professionals, which means our chatroom is unusually well informed!
Join Cestrian Space Select today.
This article was written by
Cestrian Space Select profile picture
Cestrian Space Select
445 Followers
Author of
Cestrian Space Select
Specialist space sector service; capital gain, income & speculative picks.
Growth, Long-Term Horizon, Aerospace & Defense, Tech
Contributor Since 2021
Cestrian Capital Research, Inc is an SEC-registered investment research business, covering the space and tech sectors. If you like our work, sign up for our FREE newsletter, here: https://newsletter.cestriancapitalresearch.com
Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of DMYQ, SPIR, MAXR, RKLB either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. Business relationship disclosure: See disclaimer text at the top of this article.
Additional disclosure: Cestrian Capital Research, Inc staff personal accounts hold long positions in, inter alia, DMYQ, SPIR, MAXR and RKLB.
11 Comments
Like This Article
Share
Print
Comment
Recommended For You
Comments
Sort byNewest
About This Article
Ticker Covered
PL
Author's rating at publication
Bullish
Author's Rating History
Author's full rating history »
About PL
Symbol Last Price % Chg
PL
11.14
3.01%
1D
5D
1M
6M
1Y
5Y
10Y
Market Cap
$425.21M
PE
-
Yield (FWD)
-
Rev Growth (YoY)
-
Short Interest
1.63%
PL Ratings
SA Author
Very Bullish
4.50
Wall Street
Very Bullish
5.00
Quant
Not Covered
-
More on PL
Planet Labs rallies for second straight day after SPAC closing
dMY Technology stockholders approve merger with Planet
50% Pop Coming For Planet Labs
50% Pop Coming For Planet Labs
Satellite firm Planet Labs to use SPAC money for investment, customer boost
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4473961-planet-labs-at-buy-spac-merger-completion
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3778325-planet-labs-rallies-for-second-straight-day-after-spac-closing
Planet Labs rallies for second straight day after SPAC closing
Dec. 08, 2021 10:37 AM ETPlanet Labs PBC - Class A (PL)By: Clark Schultz, SA News Editor3 Comments
Wooden blocks with word SPAC. Special-purpose acquisition company. A easy way stock exchange financial instrument for attracting investments. Development of new simplified procedures for investment
Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock via Getty Images
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) is up 2.68% after gaining more than 9% yesterday in its post-SPAC public debut.
The company has raised more than $450 million in VC funding, most of which has gone to building out its satellite fleet, which has 450 launched since a 2010 founding
Wall Street analysts are quiet so far on Planet Labs, but the stock has pretty good backing on Seeking Alpha. Chris DeMuth and Cestrian Space Select both have favorable writeups. Read all the SA author breakdowns on Planet Labs.
Now Read: We Rate Planet Labs A Buy As The SPAC Merger Completion Looms
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4473961-planet-labs-at-buy-spac-merger-completion
We Rate Planet Labs A Buy As The SPAC Merger Completion Looms
Dec. 07, 2021 7:40 PM ETPlanet Labs PBC - Class A (PL)11 Comments16 Likes
Cestrian Space Select profile picture
Cestrian Space Select
Marketplace
Growth, Long-Term Horizon, Aerospace & Defense, Tech
Contributor Since 2021
Cestrian Capital Research, Inc is an SEC-registered investment research business, covering the space and tech sectors. If you like our work, sign up for our FREE newsletter, here: https://newsletter.cestriancapitalresearch.com
Summary
Planet Labs is likely to complete its merger with the SPAC shell DMYQ shortly.
This Google-backed Earth observation business features solid revenue growth, improving gross margins, and what looks to be a high level of support from SPAC shareholders.
It's early days for the stock as a public security but there's much to like about the business.
We rate the stock a Buy and own the name in staff personal accounts.
Looking for more investing ideas like this one? Get them exclusively at Cestrian Space Select. Learn More »
Person Hidden in Bush Peeping with Binoculars and Spying Others
maradek/iStock via Getty Images
DISCLAIMER: This note is intended for US recipients only and in particular is not directed at, nor intended to be relied upon by any UK recipients. Any information or analysis in this note is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice and nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Cestrian Capital Research, Inc., its employees, agents or affiliates, including the author of this note, or related persons, may have a position in any stocks, security or financial instrument referenced in this note. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice. Companies referenced in this note or their employees or affiliates may be customers of Cestrian Capital Research, Inc. Cestrian Capital Research, Inc. values both its independence and transparency and does not believe that this presents a material potential conflict of interest or impacts the content of its research or publications.
The Only Way Is... Up?
There's a famous quote about the stock market - it goes something like this: Nobody knows which way the market will move tomorrow, but I will tell you the direction of its move over the next 10 years, and that is... UP. And by and large that quote has held true. When a new hot sector comes along, and venture capital money flows into it, generally you can say... I'm not sure which of these companies will move up or down tomorrow, but I can tell you the direction of their move over the next ten years, and that is... UP.
This is the best way to look at space sector investments in our view. If you've read our work on the sector you've seen us say over and over since we got started on this beat in 2017 that the sector is early stage, risky, featuring heavy customer concentration and even heavier capex, and all in all not for the faint of heart. Now that a slew of space sector companies have made the public market their home, thanks to the SPAC boom, that view has not changed.
If you want an easy and relaxing time, consider following Mr. Buffett's advice and buy a passive S&P 500 tracker, feed it cash every now and then, and spend the rest of the time not looking at the screen but instead playing golf. Well, at least until the Big One hits. If on the other hand you wish to try your luck riding out the long-run gains we think are available among these new space stocks - you may like to consider owning Planet Labs (currently, the snappy-sounding dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV (DMYQ), soon to trade as PL).
Planet Labs is one of the venture capital-backed space startups that sprang up over the last decade or so as launch costs began to fall and satellite hardware costs follow suit. The company provides Earth observation services to government and commercial clients. "Earth observation" is a very widely used term and that wide definition leads to confusion in investors' minds about exactly what companies in the sector do for a living.
The clearest definition of this we've yet heard came directly from Spire Global (SPIR) CEO Peter Platzer. We recently hosted a live subscriber-only Q&A session with Platzer - he was asked the inevitable question, what's the difference between Spire, Planet and so forth. His answer was - satellites typically do one of three things: Watch, listen, or speak. Optical range satellites watch; RF range satellites listen; transmission spacecraft (think high throughput transponders used by Sirius XM, DirecTV and others) talk.
Planet uses optical-range spacecraft to image the Earth, collect and analyze data, and supply both images and data to its customers. It operates in the modern idiom i.e., it runs a large number of small devices with a high repeat-pass rate (eg. 10x/day average revisits by its SkySat devices). You could think of Planet as an iPad vs. the mainframe operated by Maxar Technologies (MAXR). If you want a high-powered, weapons-grade full-on security service-rated pass over your target, pay Maxar a whole lot of money. If you want a fast view of what's going on, and you want to monitor changes using that high repeat rate, you pay Planet less money. Simple. Planet's September investor presentation remains worth reading if you haven't already.
Financials on Planet will become clearer as the company delivers sequential SEC reports in its fully de-SPAC'd role. Until then we can highlight what we know from the scant material published thus far.
Source: Company SEC filings, Cestrian Analysis
The revenue line can be treated as reliable, and it shows solid growth, albeit at a declining rate. The company will need to arrest that decline and re-accelerate if it's going to deliver a medium-term gain in the stock price. Gross margin has improved materially - for a business like this, dependent on many third parties for satellite componentry and so forth, 40% isn't so bad. EBITDA you can take with a large pinch of salt, since we don't have the full underlying operating income, depreciation & amortization and stock-based compensation schedules; and as for cash flow, well, no idea, since we don't have time-series capex and change in net working capital data. Let's assume cash flow is ugly vs. EBITDA but let's also hope it can improve over time.
The balance sheet at the completion of the SPAC deal should look sound. Current indications are that at least $590m of net cash will land on the operating company's balance sheet. Don't be under the illusion that this is sufficient - it isn't, and at some point the company will raise further cash likely as dilutive equity until such time as debt becomes viable.
The stock chart is so young that it tells you nothing at all, yet.
Source: TradingView (full page chart here)
But that big move up you see at the far right edge of the chart? That's the market feeling good about the high level of shareholder acceptances in the SPAC deal. And we agree with that sentiment. We think Planet will be a speculative buy for some time yet, but a Buy it is in our view. In space as in all things innovation, low cost is the strategy to back. Nobody got poor buying a basket of cost leaders in the tech industry as it has evolved, and we think that's going to be true in space too - Rocket Lab (RKLB), a very low-cost launch provider, is proving this out already.
So as the SPAC deal completion is in the air, and the new ticker beckons, we rate Planet a Buy. If you own the stock or are thinking of doing so, we suggest you will consider the rather spiky risk profile of cash-burning companies this young in their lives as public securities. In staff personal accounts we solve for that with allocation size. We own DMYQ very happily on that basis and we're excited to see what comes next in the company's evolution once the SPAC deal is behind them.
Cestrian Capital Research, Inc. - 7 December 2021.
Space Select brings you exclusive space stock picks from leading independent research business, Cestrian Capital Research, Inc.
We cover the full range of stocks, from new-entrant SPAC deals such as RocketLab, Blacksky or Planet, through to the major prime contractors such as Raytheon or L3Harris, taking in established independents such as Maxar and Iridium.
Our member community includes many longstanding space sector investors and space sector professionals, which means our chatroom is unusually well informed!
Join Cestrian Space Select today.
This article was written by
Cestrian Space Select profile picture
Cestrian Space Select
445 Followers
Author of
Cestrian Space Select
Specialist space sector service; capital gain, income & speculative picks.
Growth, Long-Term Horizon, Aerospace & Defense, Tech
Contributor Since 2021
Cestrian Capital Research, Inc is an SEC-registered investment research business, covering the space and tech sectors. If you like our work, sign up for our FREE newsletter, here: https://newsletter.cestriancapitalresearch.com
Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of DMYQ, SPIR, MAXR, RKLB either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. Business relationship disclosure: See disclaimer text at the top of this article.
Additional disclosure: Cestrian Capital Research, Inc staff personal accounts hold long positions in, inter alia, DMYQ, SPIR, MAXR and RKLB.
11 Comments
Like This Article
Share
Print
Comment
Recommended For You
Comments
Sort byNewest
About This Article
Ticker Covered
PL
Author's rating at publication
Bullish
Author's Rating History
Author's full rating history »
About PL
Symbol Last Price % Chg
PL
11.07
2.41%
1D
5D
1M
6M
1Y
5Y
10Y
Market Cap
$425.21M
PE
-
Yield (FWD)
-
Rev Growth (YoY)
-
Short Interest
1.63%
PL Ratings
SA Author
Very Bullish
4.50
Wall Street
Very Bullish
5.00
Quant
Not Covered
-
More on PL
Planet Labs rallies for second straight day after SPAC closing
dMY Technology stockholders approve merger with Planet
50% Pop Coming For Planet Labs
50% Pop Coming For Planet Labs
Satellite firm Planet Labs to use SPAC money for investment, customer boost
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3778325-planet-labs-rallies-for-second-straight-day-after-spac-closing
Planet Labs rallies for second straight day after SPAC closing
Dec. 08, 2021 10:37 AM ETPlanet Labs PBC - Class A (PL)By: Clark Schultz, SA News Editor3 Comments
Wooden blocks with word SPAC. Special-purpose acquisition company. A easy way stock exchange financial instrument for attracting investments. Development of new simplified procedures for investment
Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock via Getty Images
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) is up 2.68% after gaining more than 9% yesterday in its post-SPAC public debut.
The company has raised more than $450 million in VC funding, most of which has gone to building out its satellite fleet, which has 450 launched since a 2010 founding
Wall Street analysts are quiet so far on Planet Labs, but the stock has pretty good backing on Seeking Alpha. Chris DeMuth and Cestrian Space Select both have favorable writeups. Read all the SA author breakdowns on Planet Labs.
Now Read: We Rate Planet Labs A Buy As The SPAC Merger Completion Looms
PL getting a little life. Trending up at the moment. $11.44 a high so far.
Notification Filed by National Security Exchange to Report the Removal From Listing and Registration of Matured, Redeemed or Retired Securities Initial Filing Amendments (25-nse)
December 08 2021 - 09:22AM
Edgar (US Regulatory)
Alert
Print
Share On Facebook
NOTIFICATION OF REMOVAL FROM LISTING AND/OR REGISTRATION UNDER SECTION 12(b) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934.
Commission File Number 001-40166
Issuer: dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV
Exchange: NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE LLC
(Exact name of Issuer as specified in its charter, and name of Exchange where security is listed and/or registered)
Address: 1180 North Town Center Drive
Las Vegas,
NEVADA
89144
Telephone number: (702) 781-4313
(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of Issuer's principal executive offices)
Units, each consisting of one share of Class A common stock and one-fifth of one redeemable warrant
(Description of class of securities)
Please place an X in the box to designate the rule provision relied upon to strike the class of securities from listing and registration:
o 17 CFR 240.12d2-2(a)(1)
o 17 CFR 240.12d2-2(a)(2)
x 17 CFR 240.12d2-2(a)(3)
o 17 CFR 240.12d2-2(a)(4)
o Pursuant to 17 CFR 240.12d2-2(b), the Exchange has complied with its rules to strike the class of securities from listing and/or withdraw registration on the Exchange. 1
o Pursuant to 17 CFR 240.12d2-2(c), the Issuer has complied with its rules of the Exchange and the requirements of 17 CFR 240.12d-2(c) governing the voluntary withdrawal of the class of securities from listing and registration on the Exchange.
Pursuant to the requirements for the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE LLC certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the requirements for filing the Form 25 and has caused this notification to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned duly authorized person.
2021-12-08 By Lauren Frawley Regulation Analyst
Date Name Title
PL a little slow out of gate. Guess it doesn't have the criteria for clown pumping, fine with me. I got in premarket at 10.6 avg. Did a small trade and then got back in at $10.35. We'll see how it goes into next yr.
So, when can we change tickers here. PL Planet Labs
In PL early morning at 10.60 avg
5:29 PM EST, 12/07/2021 (MT Newswires) -- Planet Labs said late Tuesday it closed a merger deal with blank-check company dMY Technology Group Inc. IV (DMYQ) that would take the satellite imagery and Earth data provider public.
The merged entity is called Planet Labs PBC and its shares and warrants will begin trading under the PL ticker on the New York Stock Exchange starting Wednesday.
The transaction generated more than $590 million in gross proceeds, including a private investment in public equity from Alphabet unit Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and other investors.
Price: 11.03, Change: +0.22, Percent Change: +2.04
http://www.mtnewswires.com Copyright © 2021 MT Newswires. All rights reserved. MT Newswires does not provide investment advice. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.
You might have a point. I don't watch the TV too much either and most all my news comes from print or PC. But I do observe the attack on all forms of media (except tightly controlled conservative extremist portions) overwhelmingly come from the GOP right wing factions. Goes for the biggest percentage of misinformation also. Has dominantly been created, nourished, and exasperated by the right wing conservative side.
Maybe some shorts are having a good day thinking that it will be an even better day tomorrow. You never know. LOL
How so? Given, that most opinion pieces are not fair but are what the author sees as causes and consequences to the facts (exceptions of course to the just plan bs opines based on nothing), just curious on your input.
An opinion piece based on a lot of facts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/07/media-has-given-republicans-free-pass-assaulting-democracy/
Opinion: The media has given Republicans a free pass on assaulting democracy
By Jennifer Rubin
Columnist
Today at 10:00 a.m. EST
The mainstream media’s fixation with false equivalency between the two political parties and fear of criticism from the right has led to distorted coverage and misleading characterizations of the assault on democracy.
Voter suppression is called “tighter voting requirements.” The Republican’s descent into authoritarianism and its dalliance with violence is explained away as “polarization.” Meritless cases to overturn the election are described as “lawsuits stemming from the 2020 election,” and rarely is it made clear that “concerns about fraud” is a red herring or that the 2020 election was the most reviewed and reaffirmed in history (thanks to the slew of audits).
The media talks about the “lack of civility” in politics. But when do Democrats post videos depicting violence against Republicans? When do they follow Republican members down the halls of Congress to harass and scream at them?
Marc Elias, the Democrats’ top voting rights lawyer, writes for Democracy Docket: “Avoiding discussing partisanship leaves out the who, the what and the why of what is happening to American democracy. Without the context of partisanship, a person has no way to make sense of who is supporting voter suppression laws, what these laws are doing or why all of this is even happening.” He adds:
Now, imagine if instead, the report stated: Republicans in 49 states have introduced more than 425 bills to restrict voting access, while Democrats introduced nearly 1,000 bills to expand it. Suddenly, it all makes sense. The inclusion of partisan information makes the seemingly contradictory claims understandable and clear.
Only one party, the GOP, protects members who post violent, outrageous material. Only one overwhelmingly opposed a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. Or tossed a party member out of her leadership position for refusing to lie about the Donald Trump-inspired effort to overturn the election. Or filibustered debate on any voting rights reform (with the exception of a single Republican senator from Alaska).
Not every Republican voting rule is designed to suppress minority voting or subvert the administration of elections, but voting suppression and election subversion comes from the Republican Party only. Even when high turnout favors Republicans (as in the Virginia gubernatorial race), Democrats still want to make voting easier. In short, one party is committed to democracy, and one is committed to subverting it to serve its interests.
The media assiduously covers the reluctance of Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) for their reluctance to fiddle with the filibuster, but Republicans senators are rarely if ever grilled about their opposition to reauthorizing Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, their refusal to consider meaningful police reform or their failure to censure (let alone remove) radical members of their party such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.).
Why isn’t Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) quizzed as to how his party can take direction from a former president who plotted to overthrow the election? Why isn’t every Trump-picked candidate quizzed as to whether they buy the “big lie” of a stolen election and asked to renounce violence? Will debate moderators confront Republican candidates with questions as to whether President Biden won the election and whether they would oppose state legislative efforts to overturn the will of their voters by submitting an alternative slate of presidential electors to the House in 2024?
Part of the problem in identifying the source of the threat to democracy stems from the mainstream media’s refusal to recognize that we no longer live in a political world in which two political parties engage within acceptable bounds of democracy. But Democrats are apparently also temperamentally unsuited to calling out their opponents as anti-democratic or un-American. (How else would one describe the cheering for an unpeaceful transfer of power?)
Democratic consultants tell elected officials not to dwell on Trump, but they wind up giving a pass to the anti-democratic movement he unleashed. Some Democrats members talk about the need to reform the Electoral Count Act, but few if any bluntly state: “Unless we tighten the law, we cannot trust Republicans in the Trump cult to refrain from subverting the 2024 presidential election.”
And Biden, who’s been focused on trying to “reduce the temperature” (hard, when Republicans are torching democracy), has hesitated to label Republicans as anti-democratic or to make their aversion to democracy an issue for 2022. (To the contrary, he’s been holding on to the filibuster as if its survival is crucial to our democracy, thereby giving cover to Republicans.)
As the Republican Party strays further from democratic norms and standards of civil conduct, the refusal to pin blame on them for erosion of democracy serves to provide cover for their illiberal conduct and anti-democratic sentiments. A democracy that can no longer recognize existential threats is in no position to defend itself against shameless foes.
Did anyone expect anything else? "I don't like the way your asking about the crimes I committed, so I'm not going to bother even lying to you."
As expected, just delay tactics;
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/07/politics/mark-meadows-not-cooperating-january-6/index.html
Mark Meadows to halt cooperation with January 6 committee
Zachary Cohen
By Gloria Borger and Zachary Cohen, CNN
Updated 10:34 AM ET, Tue December 7, 2021
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows will no longer cooperate with the House select committee investigating January 6 insurrection, according to a letter from his attorney to the panel, which was obtained by CNN on Tuesday.
"We agreed to provide thousands of pages of responsive documents and Mr. Meadows was willing to appear voluntarily, not under compulsion of the Select Committee's subpoena to him, for a deposition to answer questions about non-privileged matters. Now actions by the Select Committee have made such an appearance untenable," the letter from George J. Terwilliger II stated.
"In short, we now have every indication from the information supplied to us last Friday - upon which Mr. Meadows could expect to be questioned -= that the Select Committee has no intention of respecting boundaries concerning Executive Privilege," Terwilliger added.
CNN first reported last week that Meadows had begun cooperating with the committee, handing over thousands of documents and agreeing to appear for an interview this week.
Meadows' about-face is due in part to learning over the weekend that the committee had "issued wide ranging subpoenas for information from a third party communications provider," the letter notes.
"As a result of careful and deliberate consideration of these factors, we now must decline the opportunity to appear voluntarily for a deposition," Terwilliger writes.
Terwilliger writes that Meadows would answer written questions "so that there might be both an orderly process and a clear record of questions and related assertions of privilege where appropriate."
This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.
It would be nice, but I'm afraid it will be a lot of foxes doing a lot of lip service to the hens.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/12/07/biden-tax-havens-pandora-papers/
Biden calls for sweeping new push to expose and punish financial corruption
The announcement comes ahead of a congressional hearing sparked by the Pandora Papers on the role of South Dakota and other U.S. tax havens
By Debbie Cenziper and Will Fitzgibbon
Today at 9:00 a.m. EST
President Biden has introduced sweeping new strategies to fight financial corruption, pledging a government-wide campaign to identify and punish bad actors who move illicit wealth in the United States and around the world.
Calling the effort a core national security interest, the administration said it would work with Congress to bring more scrutiny to trust companies, lawyers and other financial gatekeepers, seek to identify owners “hiding behind opaque” corporations and target those involved in real estate transactions used to hide or launder money.
The administration has also promised to ramp up anti-corruption investigations at the Treasury Department and other federal agencies and elevate U.S. efforts to partner with anti-money laundering regimes in other countries. The plan includes a call for greater diplomatic efforts to defend investigative journalists who expose corruption.
The so-called United States Strategy on Countering Corruption, announced by the White House Monday, represents the “most sweeping anti-corruption reform drive in American history," said Josh Rudolph, a member of the National Security Council staff in the Obama and Trump administrations.
“Spanning dirty money, diplomacy, foreign aid, accountability, and more ... the only historic comparison is all the legislation enacted after Watergate, but with that not possible in today’s Senate and the threat now transnational, Biden is combating corruption even more sweepingly through executive action as a national security imperative,” he said.
The plan, if properly backed by money and other resources, would bring badly needed reforms to industries open to exploitation, including the growing U.S. trust industry, said Ian Gary, executive director of the nonpartisan Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition.
“Current law encourages the U.S. trust industry to compete on the basis of providing anonymity and shirking public accountability,” he said. “This effectively weaponizes our otherwise strong rule-of-law financial systems against us, undermining our national security and our democratic institutions domestically and internationally.”
The announcement from The White House came ahead of a scheduled Congressional hearing to probe the rise of the United States as a global tax haven. The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, citing the Pandora Papers, plans on Wednesday to focus on why South Dakota and other states enacted customer-friendly laws that have allowed the wealthy to move and hide assets in the United States.
The revelations were part of a global investigation by The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and The Washington Post, which described South Dakota trusts that held assets connected to people and companies accused of fraud, bribery or human rights abuses in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Foreign money secretly floods U.S. tax havens. Some of it is tainted.
“Millions of Americans are right to feel the system is rigged when they see the powerful and big business tycoons hide their money,” subcommittee chair Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ), said . “The sunlight of the Pandora Papers investigation exposed yet more ways those at the top avoid paying their fair share in taxes that ultimately cheats us all, especially working-class Americans.”
Based on more than 11.9 million secret documents, the Pandora Papers also uncovered the financial secrets of 35 current and former world leaders and hundreds of politicians and public officials, including the King of Jordan and the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya and Ecuador.
More than a dozen countries have announced probes into activities revealed by the Pandora Papers, including an investigation of Ecuador’s president, Guillermo Lasso. In the United States, a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed the most significant overhaul to anti-money laundering rules since 9/11.
The hearing Wednesday will address “blind spots” in U.S. laws that allow affluent people to take advantage of the growing trust industry, according to the subcommittee’s memo on the hearing.
“We will focus on investments in the U.S. and try to understand why South Dakota and other states have enacted laws that are friendly or advantageous for those hiding wealth and/or avoiding taxes,” according to the memo.
Read key takeaways from the Pandora Papers investigation
South Dakota Gov. Kirsti L. Noem (R) declined an invitation by the committee to participate, saying she had prior commitments. The committee is scheduled to hear from several witnesses, including Vanderbilt University Law School professor and taxation expert Beverly Moran.
“The Pandora Papers were a huge shock to most Americans who realized that the United States is a tax haven and that all sorts of bad actors are pouring money into the U.S.,” she said. “At the very least, we should be applying the same rules to this industry as we apply to organized crime so that the lawyers, accountants and bankers who help the tax haven industry have some limits on what they do and promote.”
Only made about half that with RIVN at about 12% (all out currently). All that pumping and couldn't get the 25%. Maybe later. RIVN trending down at the moment at about $113.
Al Root
Wall Street seems to agree that Rivian Automotive is a stock to own. Analysts arrive at that conclusion in very different ways, though. However they justify Rivian ratings, analysts still prefer shares of the electric-truck startup to Tesla stock.
Brokers, beginning Sunday, launched coverage of Rivian (ticker: RIVN) after the company completed its initial public offering in early November. Brokers have to wait 25 days to publish research, if they worked on the IPO.
Now nine out of 13 analysts, about 70%, who cover Rivian stock rate it at Buy. The average analyst price target is $134 a share.
All 13 Rivian analysts also cover Tesla ( TSLA), and seven of them rate Tesla stock at Buy. None of the 13 analysts, however, has a two ratings-tier gap, according to Bloomberg data. In other words, none goes as far as to say sell one and buy the other. That would be two tiers -- skipping over Hold. The biggest difference in Rivian and Tesla ratings among the analysts is equivalent to the difference between a Buy and a Hold.
The new bullish skew sent Rivian stock up almost 12% Monday, closing at $116.78 a share. The S&P 500 index and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.2% and 1.9%, respectively.
The analyst consensus is Buy, but how each analyst gets there is different. Barron's has looked at seven of the 13 new ratings so far. Sales estimates in 2030, from Buy-rated analysts, range from $66 billion to $123 billion .
That's a gap wide enough to drive an electric truck through. Investors should remember that valuation methodologies differ, too. Lower 2030 sales doesn't mean an analyst can't be as bullish as someone else. In fact, one of the lowest 2030 sales estimates corresponds to the highest price target on the Street.
For Rivian, analysts are using, for the most part, price-to-sales multiples and discounted-cash-flow, or DCF, models to value the stock and generate price targets. In the DCF models, discount rates range from 8% to 14%, and terminal growth rates -- how quickly earnings are growing in the last year of a DCF -- range from 3% to 11%.
A discount rate in a DCF is, essentially, the rate investors will earn on the stock if they pay the target price. Lower rates translate into higher target prices. What's more, how fast a stock is growing in the long run also pushes up target prices.
It's hard to project something out to 2030. Sill, investors should know there are many ways to arrive at any target price -- as Rivian financial models show. In the shorter run, estimates aren't as spread out.
For 2022, sales estimates range from $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion with an average of $3.3 billion . For 2023, sales estimates range from about $8.1 billion to $8.9 billion with an average of $8.2 billion .
Investors can use those numbers to begin to track 2022 and 2023 performance at Rivian.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-07-21 1046ET
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
https://www.axios.com/conservative-social-media-crypto-publishing-internet-56a77cbd-89c6-480a-a8a4-6092b7eea481.html
Dec 6, 2021 - Politics & Policy
Right wing builds its own echo chamber
Axios
Sara Fischer, Dan Primack
Data: Apptopia; Table: Axios Visuals
Conservatives are aggressively building their own apps, phones, cryptocurrencies and publishing houses in an attempt to circumvent what they see as an increasingly liberal internet and media ecosystem.
Why it matters: Many of these efforts couldn't exist without the backing of major corporate figures and billionaires who are eager to push back against things like "censorship" and "cancel culture."
It's still not clear whether demand will match supply.
Driving the news: Rumble, a conservative alternative to YouTube, agreed to go public at an implied $2.1 billion valuation via a SPAC merger.
The SPAC is sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm led by billionaire and Trump fundraiser Howard Lutnick.
"I'm excited to support Rumble and its ability to operate the neutral video platform," Lutnick said in a statement.
Donald Trump's new social media company, called Truth Social, also plans to go public via a SPAC and on Saturday said that it secured $1 billion in so-called PIPE financing.
The SPAC is currently trading at a market value of $1.6 billion, down from its $4.5 billion peak in late October. Truth Social has yet to name a CEO.
Gettr, a social app launched by ex-Trump aide Jason Miller, has not disclosed all of its investors, but Miller has acknowledged that one of the app's funders is the family foundation of Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.
Aside from social networks, conservatives are pushing to create alternatives to other tech tools and communication platforms.
Book publishing: Trump allies recently launched a book publishing house called Winning Team Publishing, run by former Trump campaign aide Sergio Gor and Donald Trump Jr. The imprint will publish the ex-President's first book, a coffee table tome that's picture-focused.
Cloud storage: Trump's new social media company will be hosted online by RightForge, an internet infrastructure company that courts conservatives. As Axios' Margaret Harding McGill notes, relying on a conservative web hosting service could help Trump avoid the same issues Parler faced when Amazon pulled its web services following the Capitol siege.
Crypto: A new cryptocurrency called "Magacoin" has already caught the attention of high-profile conservatives, per The Guardian.
Phones: A young Bitcoin entrepreneur is developing a "Freedom phone," a device being marketed to conservatives.
Yes, but: While politicians seem eager to find new, unregulated avenues for political speech, data from Apptopia shows that consumers aren't sprinting toward new alternatives.
Conservatives flocked to a slew of alternative social networks during the election an in the weeks following Donald Trump's de-platforming amid the Capitol insurrection, but downloads have since slowed.
The bottom line: Conservative media has been a powerhouse for a long time, but this phase of its expansion isn't just about more or louder conservative voices — it's about building an entire conservative ecosystem.
Go deeper
Yes, it sure is. Definitely shows that DWAC is just a share selling scheme (not that we didn't know that anyway). No different than the stinky pinkies from the past. I'm sure that's the "deal to good to refuse" involves quite a few of the shares being printed and sold. It was always that Trump and his ilk could be compared to the scams of the past and owners of dirty pinks and dirty CEO's. And of course it's the main part of Rumps MO to shout out statements continuously that have no facts or proofs behind them, just made up bs for the cult and partners in crime. The bigger the lies, the more the sheep believe, and they know it, and use it to the full extent.
Rump has always used the courts as his private defender and this "investigation" will just be part of his everyday way of life. Rump believes he owns the courts, and to a great degree he's right. Just continuously wear down his victims and marks draining them of time and money and succeeding to just dragging out things and continuing to get away with murder and mayhem for his own purpose and grift.
Now he's got most of the GOP and their followers behind him doing the same thing. Making their own "alternative facts", using fuzzy math to eliminate any numbers in equations and certain equations entirely that might stop them from their intended results of bs, and just brute force where those things don't work. Numes suing everything is no joke and followed the play that rump has played his entire life. Drain money and time from the less powerful adversaries. Most of the GOP doing the same tactics along with owning the courts to their favor, suppressing the vote, and using Stalin's theory of control of counting the votes to their benefit. Devious and well thought out plans that are succeeding in causing detriment and destruction for generations to come.
Also this is an attempt to control more media and mass following in the same way Russian, China, and the like do, and the way they have had with Faux. If they succeed they win, if it fails they win, millions maybe billions raped from people along with keeping the sheeple in line with continuous falsities.
Paying crimes in the midst of an enabling right-wing copycat city.
DWAC is one of the last stands against everything wrong of todays problems and really needs to be brought down and exposed. But we can only hope, will it happen, or just another drawn out criminal activity.
They said that Mon would be a slew of analysts ratings. And there was. Over largely bullish saying RIVN "the one" to challenge Tesla and rated better than they rated Tesla, faster growth. Wells Fargo equalweight $110; Morgan Stanley Overweight $147 target; BofA Securities $170 Buy rating; more, just examples. The worst rating I saw was something like "a good buy in the future, but wouldn't recommend now", but rest were from equalweight to overweight and outperform, 110-170 target that I saw, didn't read every one.
If they say it's so, people will go.
Also they announced earnings for Thursday, Dec 16 after market.
Well, that's a good thing. They say that the Christian thing to do is to look for something good from everyone. There you go.
Trump is backing a loser. Everyone in the state knows it.
Ted has a snowball's chance in hell of getting the nomination.
Why does that not surprise me.
Let's hope it's only starting. DWAC is a definite good place to start, 110% positive that it's doing something illegal, that's anything with Trump attached, just enforcement is the question.
From the looks of it, they plan on that popularity continuing and growing. They really need to step up their game and level with investigations and policies for SPACs.
https://stockanalysis.com/ipos/filings/
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/584523-doj-sues-over-texass-redistricting-plan
DOJ sues over Texas's redistricting plan
BY JOHN KRUZEL - 12/06/21 01:44 PM ESTThe
Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday sued Texas over the state’s new redistricting plan, alleging its map illegally undermines minority groups’ right to vote.
DOJ officials said that while the number of Latino and Black voters in Texas grew significantly over the last decade, the state’s new map dilutes minority voting strength in violation of federal law.
“The department’s career voting law experts have assessed Texas's new redistricting plans and determined that they include districts that violate the Voting Rights Act,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit.
The legal challenge comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in October signed into law a new congressional map that independent analysts say gives Republicans an unfair partisan advantage.
The Supreme Court has previously held that the practice of drawing manipulated congressional and legislative district maps for political advantage is not reviewable by federal courts. But redistricting plans that disproportionately harm minority groups remain illegal under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The new DOJ lawsuit, filed in federal court in El Paso, goes even further: It alleges that several districts contained in Texas’s new map were drawn with the specific intent of discriminating against minority voters.
“Our complaint today alleges that the redistricting plans approved by the Texas state legislature and signed into law by the governor will deny black and Latino voters an equal opportunity to participate in the voting process and to elect representatives of their choice in violation of the Voting Rights Act,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “Our complaint also alleges that several of those districts were drawn with discriminatory intent.”
Attempts to reach the offices of Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) were unsuccessful.
The once-per-decade redistricting process began in mid-August with the release of Census Bureau data, which in some states set off a scramble to manipulate voting maps for partisan gain.
Gerrymandering, the practice of drawing congressional and state legislative districts to dilute an opposing party’s voting power, has been around roughly since the nation’s founding. But some experts have warned that the Supreme Court’s weakening of the federal government’s ability to respond could contribute to unprecedented levels of map manipulation during this round of redistricting.
Call of Duty game testers plan walkout over layoffs
North Carolina appeals court stops candidate filings amid lawsuit...
Garland on Monday bemoaned a 2013 Supreme Court decision that eliminated DOJ’s so-called preclearance authority, which had allowed the department to screen proposed changes to voting procedures in states with a history of racial discrimination in elections before they took effect.
He reiterated his previous calls on Congress to restore preclearance authority, but said that in the meantime “the department will use all available authorities and resources to continue protecting the right to vote.”
--Updated at 2:39 p.m.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/584517-north-carolina-appeals-court-stops-candidate-filings-amid-lawsuit-over-new?utm_source=thehill&utm_medium=widgets&utm_campaign=es_recommended_content
North Carolina appeals court stops candidate filings amid lawsuit over new districts
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 12/06/21 01:14 PM EST 79
The North Carolina Court of Appeals on Monday suspended candidate filings for all U.S. House and state legislative seats as it weighs a lawsuit arguing that the state’s new political boundaries are unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was brought by the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters. The North Carolina State Board of Elections and the chairs of the Republican-led redistricting committees in the state General Assembly are the defendants in the lawsuit.
They have until Thursday to submit arguments to the court, according to an order signed by Eugene Soar, the clerk of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
Candidate filing in North Carolina was slated to begin on Monday at noon. Individuals seeking other offices, like U.S. Senate, will not be affected by the order.
Once the defendants in the lawsuit submit their arguments in the case, the court will consider whether to continue the suspension or allow the process to proceed.
Trump moves to boost Ted Budd in North Carolina Senate race
DOJ sues over Texas's redistricting plan
The Republican-controlled North Carolina state legislature approved the new political maps last month. The new maps create two new Republican-leaning districts and take away two previously Democratic-leaning districts.
Several lawsuits have been filed challenging the new maps, which Democrats argue amount to an unconstitutional gerrymander. In a statement on Monday, North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Bobbie Richardson hailed the Court of Appeals’ decision to suspend candidate filing.
“Today’s decision to delay the start of candidate filings is an important step towards ensuring that North Carolina voters aren’t represented by unconstitutional, partisanly gerrymandered maps,” Richardson said. “Voters should be able to select the individuals that represent them, not the other way around.”
One view of the market, there are many, but this does have a lot of valid points.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4473297-the-epic-2021-bubble-already-collapsed-we-just-entered-phase-2
The Epic 2021 Bubble Already Collapsed, We Just Entered Phase 2
Summary
Investors are scratching their heads about what's happening in the stock market. While indices keep trading at all-time highs, many individual stocks are crashing heavily.
Here's the explanation: The epic 2021 bubble, which I have been warning for several times, already collapsed many months ago.
However, due to the very specific characteristics of a bubble collapse, the indices continued rallying and are likely to continue doing so for the coming months.
In this article, I explain that we recently entered phase 2 of the bubble collapse and that phase 3 is likely to start in 2022.
How should you approach this very challenging stock market environment? I provide three valuable tips at the end of the article.
Looking for a helping hand in the market? Members of Insider Opportunities get exclusive ideas and guidance to navigate any climate. Learn More »
Bubble
Petrovich9/iStock via Getty Images
The major S&P 500 (SPY) and Nasdaq Composite (QQQ) indices are up over 20% year-to-date and trading near their all-time highs. 2021 has been a very strong year for "the stock market."
In contrast, there are dozens of stocks, especially in the small cap space, which are down 20%, 50% or even 80% from their yearly highs. "The market of stocks" has clearly been much more challenging in 2021.
Many investors are scratching their heads on what's happening with equities these days. How can such significant divergences between individual stock returns exist? Will this trend continue in 2022?
Investors who have been following my articles know that I have a clear theory for this phenomenon: The 2021 bubble. What we experienced in 2021 so far was the first phase of the collapse of this bubble. But there is more to come...
I believe that the recent downturn can be categorized as the second phase of the bubble collapse. Finally, I expect the last phase of the bubble collapse, phase 3, to occur in 2022. Indices will likely continue soaring until this final phase kicks off.
What exactly are these three phases and how should you position your portfolio with a further collapse of the bubble ahead of us? That's what I will discuss in this article. But before doing so, let's quickly recap how this bubble has been formed.
The Cause of The 2021 Financial Bubble
One word: COVID-19.
While markets have already been running hot prior to 2020, ironically it has primarily been the global health crisis which caused the bubble.
The pandemic has led to several events that inflated the bubble:
The Fed printed $4.5 trillion and decreased interest rates to zero. By implementing these stimuli, it was aiming to combat record unemployment rates of 14.8% and recover the economic damage. This unprecedented amount of stimuli caused a major disruption in asset prices and increased the risk appetite of investors. Why would you not take risks if you have a powerful central bank to back you up with free money if things turn south?
As the global lockdown forced us to stay at home, many new people started investing. This new wave of investors primarily consisted of millennials who had no regard for valuations and loved taking high amounts of risks. On top of that, brokers like Robinhood did everything to win these new customers by easing their policies regarding high-risk practices such as buying with margin debt and playing with options.
The pandemic let to an acceleration of technological developments. As such, disruptive tech stocks became more attractive than ever given their soaring growth rates. Many investors believed these high growth rates would persist for many years. As such, these tech stocks were seen as great buying opportunities even when they were trading at extremely expensive valuations.
These three drivers were so strong that it led to a new paradigm of investing: Risk-averse strategies like Warren Buffett's were buried in the ground, while risk-taking strategies like Cathie Wood's were endorsed. Those who didn't follow the latter would be left behind with significant underperformance, almost every investor said.
Phase 1 Of the 2021 Bubble Collapse: Hyped Small Caps (February 2021)
I was becoming suspicious of the start of a stock market bubble when the S&P 500 reached pre-COVID highs and many hype stocks experienced massive gains in the summer of 2020.
It was eventually my analysis of the IPO market in December 2020, "2020 IPO Bubble Just Reached Dot-Com Levels," which made me confident in calling this a bubble. In this article, I explicitly warned investors about the risks with following overvalued hype stocks, but also suggested to stay invested in other (value) equities:
Following the herd by buying hyped stocks can be a very costly mistake which I strongly discourage investors to do.
However, selling out of all your stocks or going full short on the market is another mistake which can be as bad or even worse than the first one!
At our investment community Insider Opportunities we put our money where our mouth was, buying many undiscovered value stocks at great prices instead of following the hype.
For another month or two, the so-called "Cathie Wood investors," "TikTok investors" or "new normal investors" had their fun with investing in extremely expensive hype stocks. However, in February 2021 things changed drastically for hyped small caps with excessive EV/revenues multiples (or even zero revenues):
Company Return since 2021 peak EV/revenues ratio at peak
ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) -37% NA
Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE) -74% No revenues
Plug Power (PLUG) -49% No revenues
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) -50% 56x
Fastly Inc (FSLY) -55% 45x
Skillz Inc (SKLZ) -80% 69x
Lemonade (LMND) -74% 105x
AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) -51% 75x
C3.ai Inc (AI) -83% 88x
Fiverr (FVRR) -59% 60x
Calling the sell-off of these unprofitable, expensively valued, hyped stocks was not just a wild guess. It's a common phenomenon in financial bubbles that the weakest chains collapse much earlier than the rest of the market.
For example, this was exactly what happened during the dot com bubble. Many unprofitable, hyped small caps back then collapsed in 1999, while it took until March 2000 for the general Nasdaq Index to peak. Some examples include online groceries company Webvan (peak at December 1999), consumer health care company drkoop.com (peak at July 1999) and online toys seller Etoys.com (peak at September 1999).
These stocks more than halved before the Nasdaq Index peaked and eventually went out of business a couple of years later. I would not be surprised if some of the companies listed in the table above would declare bankruptcy in the coming years as well.
Phase 2 of The 2021 Bubble Collapse: Overvalued Mid Caps (November 2021)
Over the course of 2021 investors sold off overhyped small caps and searched for other investments to grow wealth in the market. Strongly growing mid cap tech stocks came into the picture as they provided similar potential with lower risks.
The amount of money that flew into these stocks was so significant that many of them gained hundreds of percentages over the course of 2021 in addition to an already strong 2020.
As a consequence of valuations having grown to unsustainable levels, these investments became extremely risky as well. As valuation risks became unbearable and macro-economic challenges increased, this asset class started to sell off significantly in November.
As shown in the table below, many mid-cap growth stocks are down double digits over the past two weeks, with some even losing as much as 50%:
Company Return since Nov. 15 2021 EV/revenues ratio at Nov. 15
CrowdStrike (CRWD) -22% 50x
Cloudflare (NET) -24% 112x
Asana (ASAN) -51% 84x
Upstart (UPST) -25% 31x
DocuSign (DOCU) -47% 29x
Bill.com (BILL) -28% 105x
Roku Inc (ROKU) -27% 14x
Unity Software (U) -27% 55x
DoorDash (DASH) -36% 17x
Sprout Social (SPT) -25% 39x
We believe that November 2021 might have been the start of the second phase of the bubble collapse, the phase where overvalued mid-caps plunge.
Again, history has proven that such high-quality but overvalued mid caps tend to sell off before the market indices do. Amazon (AMZN) and Intuit (INTU) are two great examples which belonged to this category during the dot com bubble. They peaked four months prior to the Nasdaq.
Chart
Data by YCharts
Note that it took these stocks respectively 10 and eight years to recover to their dot com highs despite the fact that the underlying fundamentals have been stellar.
There are growth investors who say valuations don't matter. I respectfully disagree.
While some of the stocks listed above might turn out to become stellar investments for the coming 20 years, investors need to be aware of the possibility that they will crash in the coming months and will need many years to recover to today's levels.
Phase 3 of The 2021 Bubble Collapse: Overvalued Large Caps and Indices (Spring 2022?)
If you read my article "QQQ: Be Prepared For The Biggest Tech Rally In Your Lifetime," you might think I'm crazy. First I'm predicting a huge rally for the Nasdaq and three weeks after I explain why the tech bubble will continue to collapse.
Well, let me explain this discrepancy. The top 10 holdings (out of a total of 100) represent 57.7% of the total Nasdaq Index. Therefore, the QQQ almost solely reflects the price movements of these big tech stocks.
Despite the general turmoil in financial markets over the past months, big tech stocks have stayed remarkably steady, even during the sharp tech sell-off in November:
Chart
Many investors see big tech stocks as the new safe haven. Indeed, their stocks face very low volatility, they have robust balance sheets, generate impressive operating margins (25.9% average) and grow consistently (20.8% average).
Given their strong fundamentals, these stocks deserve a higher P/E multiple. On average, the top 10 big tech stocks trade at a 79.1x P/E and if we leave out outlier Tesla they trade at a 48.9x P/E ratio.
Company QQQ weight P/E ratio Revenue 3-year CAGR 2018-2021 3-year PEG Operating margin
Apple Inc (AAPL) 11.87% 29.1x 11.3% 2.58x 29.8%
Microsoft (MSFT) 10.81% 36.9x 15.1% 2.44x 42.1%
Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) 7.65% 27.7x 20.5% 1.35x 30.3%
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 7.60% 67.2x 25.3% 2.66x 6.2%
Tesla Inc. (TSLA) 5.92% 351x 29.7% 11.82x 9.8%
NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) 5.21% 99x 27.5% 3.60x 35.5%
Meta Platforms Inc. (FB) 3.23% 22.1x 26.2% 0.84x 41.8%
Adobe Inc. (ADBE) 2.08% 55.6x 18.7% 2.97x 36.5%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) 1.81% 55.5x 21.9% 2.53x 22.8%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.55% 46.6x 11.4% 4.09x 3.7%
Average 79.1x 20.8% 3.49x 25.9%
It is time for me to correct a common misunderstanding about the dot com bubble. Many people believe that today is totally different with 2000 because two decades ago, companies were much less profitable than today. Well, that's wrong.
As you can see in my table below, the top 10 Nasdaq companies of 2000 generated an average operating profit margin of 25.5% (excl. Worldcom). Indeed, the tech leaders of 2000 were cash flow machines as much as the tech leaders are today.
One might even argue that the tech leaders of 2000 were fundamentally stronger companies than today, given that their growth rates were much higher (48.8% vs 20.8%).
Yes, P/E valuations are not that extreme right now. Interestingly though, the average PEG ratio of today (3.49x) is creeping very close to the dot com number (5.03x).
Company Market cap P/E ratio Revenue 3-year CAGR 1997-2000 3-year PEG Operating margin
Microsoft (MSFT) $713 bln 63x 24.4% 2.58x 47.6%
Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO) $633 bln 162x 42.8% 3.78x 17.1%
Intel Corp (INTC) $545 bln 52x 10.3% 5.04x 30.8%
Oracle Corp (ORCL) $313 bln 333x 15.0% 22.2x 30.4%
Sun Microsystems Technology Inc $200 bln 118x 22.3% 5.29x 15.7%
Worldcom Group $180 bln 35x 71.6% 0.49x -110.0%
Dell (DELL) $178 bln 75x 48.0% 1.56x 9.0%
Qualcomm Inc (QCOM) $131 bln 177x 69.1% 2.56x 22.6%
Yahoo Inc $127 bln 648x 150.6% 4.30x 26.8%
Applied Materials Technology (AMAT) $101 bln 76x 30.4% 2.50x 29.2%
Average 173.9x 48.8% 5.03x 25.5%
Big tech companies in 2000 were seen as safe haven as well. Later, investors discovered that these companies were not as indestructible as they believed and that prior growth rates were unsustainable. Astonishingly, the three-year revenue CAGR between 1997 and 2000 of 48.8% reversed to -2.2% during the 2000-2003 timeframe.
Investors need to be aware that the recent big tech growth rates are highly unsustainable. They benefited strongly from the pandemic and central bank stimuli. As these two tailwinds are easing in the coming quarters, we need to be prepared for a possible reversal to single-digit or even negative growth rates for big tech stocks soon.
As explained in my prior QQQ article, I believe money can keep rotating toward big tech stocks in the coming months, leading to a last extreme market rally. However, this is likely to stop when investors begin realizing that they need to factor in much lower growth rates in their valuation models.
I believe that the downturn of big tech and indices, phase 3, will start during spring of 2022.
How To Invest During This Bubble Collapse
At Insider Opportunities, we continue doing what we are good at: Investing in significantly undervalued stocks. By following the personal purchases of insiders, the leaders of the firm who know better than anyone else when their stock is undervalued compared to its growth perspectives, we are increasingly confident that our investments will generate strong mid-to-long term returns.
In 2021, insiders have been buying heavily into small-cap value names who have underperformed as money rotate away from them into big tech. This asset class is currently reaching P/E ratios (14x) not seen since 2011. We believe that picking the right stocks out of them will generate solid returns in each market environment, even when the bubble collapses further.
For example, instead of following the herd into the high-risk fund ARKK, in March we started a significant position in the defensive asset manager Diamond Hill Group. This undiscovered stock with great fundamentals was trading at a 12x P/E and had 20% of its market cap in cash. This investment generated us 42% returns to date.
Over the past weeks, we're experiencing a new pattern among insiders. The smart money is increasingly buying stocks of growth stocks that were sold off heavily during this bubble collapse. As such, we are also cautiously allocating more money to unjustifiably sold off growth stocks. However, as we might achieve a further deterioration of this sector, it's important to be highly selective with growth stocks. Only pick out those with great balance sheets and an attractive valuation compared to growth perspectives. I will write a separate article soon about three very attractive growth stocks.
Lastly, we suggest to have enough cash (10-20%) or cash-equivalent investments (defensive stocks, bonds, etc.) available to benefit from more opportunities in the coming months.
Investor takeaway
Stock market movements have been highly disturbing in 2021: Indices continue reaching new all-time highs while tons of individual stocks went down drastically.
Understanding the three phases of a bubble collapse can give you an edge over other investors to better read this market:
Phase 1 - Hyped small caps collapse: The weakest chains of the bubble always collapse first. That's why you saw no-revenue hype stocks like SPCE or extremely overvalued small cap growth stocks like SKLZ getting slaughtered since February 2021. Most of these stocks will never recover to the peak levels they traded at last year.
Phase 2 - Overvalued mid caps collapse: Mid-cap growth stocks' valuation multiples expanded to unsustainable levels as money rotated into them. These are oftentimes much stronger businesses, but that does not justify 30-100x EV/sales ratios. It looks like November 2021 was the start of their collapse to more appropriate valuations. It will take many years for these stocks to recover to their 2021 peaks. However, some still have the ability to generate strong returns for the very long term.
Phase 3 - Overvalued large caps and indices: Big tech is attracting lots of investors as they are seen as the new safe havens. Investors are forgetting that even big tech stocks are not indestructible and might face negative growth rates soon. Once they realize this, valuations will need to come down substantially and will bring down stock market indices with them.
How should you approach the market going forward?
Continue investing in high-quality value stocks which have the ability to generate solid returns in each market environment.
Increasingly allocate money to unjustifiably sold off growth stocks. However, do it carefully and give more attention to valuations.
Keep a solid cash position or cash-equivalents available to capture more opportunities in the coming months.
One view of the market.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4473297-the-epic-2021-bubble-already-collapsed-we-just-entered-phase-2
The Epic 2021 Bubble Already Collapsed, We Just Entered Phase 2
Summary
Investors are scratching their heads about what's happening in the stock market. While indices keep trading at all-time highs, many individual stocks are crashing heavily.
Here's the explanation: The epic 2021 bubble, which I have been warning for several times, already collapsed many months ago.
However, due to the very specific characteristics of a bubble collapse, the indices continued rallying and are likely to continue doing so for the coming months.
In this article, I explain that we recently entered phase 2 of the bubble collapse and that phase 3 is likely to start in 2022.
How should you approach this very challenging stock market environment? I provide three valuable tips at the end of the article.
Looking for a helping hand in the market? Members of Insider Opportunities get exclusive ideas and guidance to navigate any climate. Learn More »
Bubble
Petrovich9/iStock via Getty Images
The major S&P 500 (SPY) and Nasdaq Composite (QQQ) indices are up over 20% year-to-date and trading near their all-time highs. 2021 has been a very strong year for "the stock market."
In contrast, there are dozens of stocks, especially in the small cap space, which are down 20%, 50% or even 80% from their yearly highs. "The market of stocks" has clearly been much more challenging in 2021.
Many investors are scratching their heads on what's happening with equities these days. How can such significant divergences between individual stock returns exist? Will this trend continue in 2022?
Investors who have been following my articles know that I have a clear theory for this phenomenon: The 2021 bubble. What we experienced in 2021 so far was the first phase of the collapse of this bubble. But there is more to come...
I believe that the recent downturn can be categorized as the second phase of the bubble collapse. Finally, I expect the last phase of the bubble collapse, phase 3, to occur in 2022. Indices will likely continue soaring until this final phase kicks off.
What exactly are these three phases and how should you position your portfolio with a further collapse of the bubble ahead of us? That's what I will discuss in this article. But before doing so, let's quickly recap how this bubble has been formed.
The Cause of The 2021 Financial Bubble
One word: COVID-19.
While markets have already been running hot prior to 2020, ironically it has primarily been the global health crisis which caused the bubble.
The pandemic has led to several events that inflated the bubble:
The Fed printed $4.5 trillion and decreased interest rates to zero. By implementing these stimuli, it was aiming to combat record unemployment rates of 14.8% and recover the economic damage. This unprecedented amount of stimuli caused a major disruption in asset prices and increased the risk appetite of investors. Why would you not take risks if you have a powerful central bank to back you up with free money if things turn south?
As the global lockdown forced us to stay at home, many new people started investing. This new wave of investors primarily consisted of millennials who had no regard for valuations and loved taking high amounts of risks. On top of that, brokers like Robinhood did everything to win these new customers by easing their policies regarding high-risk practices such as buying with margin debt and playing with options.
The pandemic let to an acceleration of technological developments. As such, disruptive tech stocks became more attractive than ever given their soaring growth rates. Many investors believed these high growth rates would persist for many years. As such, these tech stocks were seen as great buying opportunities even when they were trading at extremely expensive valuations.
These three drivers were so strong that it led to a new paradigm of investing: Risk-averse strategies like Warren Buffett's were buried in the ground, while risk-taking strategies like Cathie Wood's were endorsed. Those who didn't follow the latter would be left behind with significant underperformance, almost every investor said.
Phase 1 Of the 2021 Bubble Collapse: Hyped Small Caps (February 2021)
I was becoming suspicious of the start of a stock market bubble when the S&P 500 reached pre-COVID highs and many hype stocks experienced massive gains in the summer of 2020.
It was eventually my analysis of the IPO market in December 2020, "2020 IPO Bubble Just Reached Dot-Com Levels," which made me confident in calling this a bubble. In this article, I explicitly warned investors about the risks with following overvalued hype stocks, but also suggested to stay invested in other (value) equities:
Following the herd by buying hyped stocks can be a very costly mistake which I strongly discourage investors to do.
However, selling out of all your stocks or going full short on the market is another mistake which can be as bad or even worse than the first one!
At our investment community Insider Opportunities we put our money where our mouth was, buying many undiscovered value stocks at great prices instead of following the hype.
For another month or two, the so-called "Cathie Wood investors," "TikTok investors" or "new normal investors" had their fun with investing in extremely expensive hype stocks. However, in February 2021 things changed drastically for hyped small caps with excessive EV/revenues multiples (or even zero revenues):
Company Return since 2021 peak EV/revenues ratio at peak
ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) -37% NA
Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE) -74% No revenues
Plug Power (PLUG) -49% No revenues
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) -50% 56x
Fastly Inc (FSLY) -55% 45x
Skillz Inc (SKLZ) -80% 69x
Lemonade (LMND) -74% 105x
AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) -51% 75x
C3.ai Inc (AI) -83% 88x
Fiverr (FVRR) -59% 60x
Calling the sell-off of these unprofitable, expensively valued, hyped stocks was not just a wild guess. It's a common phenomenon in financial bubbles that the weakest chains collapse much earlier than the rest of the market.
For example, this was exactly what happened during the dot com bubble. Many unprofitable, hyped small caps back then collapsed in 1999, while it took until March 2000 for the general Nasdaq Index to peak. Some examples include online groceries company Webvan (peak at December 1999), consumer health care company drkoop.com (peak at July 1999) and online toys seller Etoys.com (peak at September 1999).
These stocks more than halved before the Nasdaq Index peaked and eventually went out of business a couple of years later. I would not be surprised if some of the companies listed in the table above would declare bankruptcy in the coming years as well.
Phase 2 of The 2021 Bubble Collapse: Overvalued Mid Caps (November 2021)
Over the course of 2021 investors sold off overhyped small caps and searched for other investments to grow wealth in the market. Strongly growing mid cap tech stocks came into the picture as they provided similar potential with lower risks.
The amount of money that flew into these stocks was so significant that many of them gained hundreds of percentages over the course of 2021 in addition to an already strong 2020.
As a consequence of valuations having grown to unsustainable levels, these investments became extremely risky as well. As valuation risks became unbearable and macro-economic challenges increased, this asset class started to sell off significantly in November.
As shown in the table below, many mid-cap growth stocks are down double digits over the past two weeks, with some even losing as much as 50%:
Company Return since Nov. 15 2021 EV/revenues ratio at Nov. 15
CrowdStrike (CRWD) -22% 50x
Cloudflare (NET) -24% 112x
Asana (ASAN) -51% 84x
Upstart (UPST) -25% 31x
DocuSign (DOCU) -47% 29x
Bill.com (BILL) -28% 105x
Roku Inc (ROKU) -27% 14x
Unity Software (U) -27% 55x
DoorDash (DASH) -36% 17x
Sprout Social (SPT) -25% 39x
We believe that November 2021 might have been the start of the second phase of the bubble collapse, the phase where overvalued mid-caps plunge.
Again, history has proven that such high-quality but overvalued mid caps tend to sell off before the market indices do. Amazon (AMZN) and Intuit (INTU) are two great examples which belonged to this category during the dot com bubble. They peaked four months prior to the Nasdaq.
Chart
Data by YCharts
Note that it took these stocks respectively 10 and eight years to recover to their dot com highs despite the fact that the underlying fundamentals have been stellar.
There are growth investors who say valuations don't matter. I respectfully disagree.
While some of the stocks listed above might turn out to become stellar investments for the coming 20 years, investors need to be aware of the possibility that they will crash in the coming months and will need many years to recover to today's levels.
Phase 3 of The 2021 Bubble Collapse: Overvalued Large Caps and Indices (Spring 2022?)
If you read my article "QQQ: Be Prepared For The Biggest Tech Rally In Your Lifetime," you might think I'm crazy. First I'm predicting a huge rally for the Nasdaq and three weeks after I explain why the tech bubble will continue to collapse.
Well, let me explain this discrepancy. The top 10 holdings (out of a total of 100) represent 57.7% of the total Nasdaq Index. Therefore, the QQQ almost solely reflects the price movements of these big tech stocks.
Despite the general turmoil in financial markets over the past months, big tech stocks have stayed remarkably steady, even during the sharp tech sell-off in November:
Chart
Many investors see big tech stocks as the new safe haven. Indeed, their stocks face very low volatility, they have robust balance sheets, generate impressive operating margins (25.9% average) and grow consistently (20.8% average).
Given their strong fundamentals, these stocks deserve a higher P/E multiple. On average, the top 10 big tech stocks trade at a 79.1x P/E and if we leave out outlier Tesla they trade at a 48.9x P/E ratio.
Company QQQ weight P/E ratio Revenue 3-year CAGR 2018-2021 3-year PEG Operating margin
Apple Inc (AAPL) 11.87% 29.1x 11.3% 2.58x 29.8%
Microsoft (MSFT) 10.81% 36.9x 15.1% 2.44x 42.1%
Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) 7.65% 27.7x 20.5% 1.35x 30.3%
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) 7.60% 67.2x 25.3% 2.66x 6.2%
Tesla Inc. (TSLA) 5.92% 351x 29.7% 11.82x 9.8%
NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) 5.21% 99x 27.5% 3.60x 35.5%
Meta Platforms Inc. (FB) 3.23% 22.1x 26.2% 0.84x 41.8%
Adobe Inc. (ADBE) 2.08% 55.6x 18.7% 2.97x 36.5%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) 1.81% 55.5x 21.9% 2.53x 22.8%
Costco Wholesale (COST) 1.55% 46.6x 11.4% 4.09x 3.7%
Average 79.1x 20.8% 3.49x 25.9%
It is time for me to correct a common misunderstanding about the dot com bubble. Many people believe that today is totally different with 2000 because two decades ago, companies were much less profitable than today. Well, that's wrong.
As you can see in my table below, the top 10 Nasdaq companies of 2000 generated an average operating profit margin of 25.5% (excl. Worldcom). Indeed, the tech leaders of 2000 were cash flow machines as much as the tech leaders are today.
One might even argue that the tech leaders of 2000 were fundamentally stronger companies than today, given that their growth rates were much higher (48.8% vs 20.8%).
Yes, P/E valuations are not that extreme right now. Interestingly though, the average PEG ratio of today (3.49x) is creeping very close to the dot com number (5.03x).
Company Market cap P/E ratio Revenue 3-year CAGR 1997-2000 3-year PEG Operating margin
Microsoft (MSFT) $713 bln 63x 24.4% 2.58x 47.6%
Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO) $633 bln 162x 42.8% 3.78x 17.1%
Intel Corp (INTC) $545 bln 52x 10.3% 5.04x 30.8%
Oracle Corp (ORCL) $313 bln 333x 15.0% 22.2x 30.4%
Sun Microsystems Technology Inc $200 bln 118x 22.3% 5.29x 15.7%
Worldcom Group $180 bln 35x 71.6% 0.49x -110.0%
Dell (DELL) $178 bln 75x 48.0% 1.56x 9.0%
Qualcomm Inc (QCOM) $131 bln 177x 69.1% 2.56x 22.6%
Yahoo Inc $127 bln 648x 150.6% 4.30x 26.8%
Applied Materials Technology (AMAT) $101 bln 76x 30.4% 2.50x 29.2%
Average 173.9x 48.8% 5.03x 25.5%
Big tech companies in 2000 were seen as safe haven as well. Later, investors discovered that these companies were not as indestructible as they believed and that prior growth rates were unsustainable. Astonishingly, the three-year revenue CAGR between 1997 and 2000 of 48.8% reversed to -2.2% during the 2000-2003 timeframe.
Investors need to be aware that the recent big tech growth rates are highly unsustainable. They benefited strongly from the pandemic and central bank stimuli. As these two tailwinds are easing in the coming quarters, we need to be prepared for a possible reversal to single-digit or even negative growth rates for big tech stocks soon.
As explained in my prior QQQ article, I believe money can keep rotating toward big tech stocks in the coming months, leading to a last extreme market rally. However, this is likely to stop when investors begin realizing that they need to factor in much lower growth rates in their valuation models.
I believe that the downturn of big tech and indices, phase 3, will start during spring of 2022.
How To Invest During This Bubble Collapse
At Insider Opportunities, we continue doing what we are good at: Investing in significantly undervalued stocks. By following the personal purchases of insiders, the leaders of the firm who know better than anyone else when their stock is undervalued compared to its growth perspectives, we are increasingly confident that our investments will generate strong mid-to-long term returns.
In 2021, insiders have been buying heavily into small-cap value names who have underperformed as money rotate away from them into big tech. This asset class is currently reaching P/E ratios (14x) not seen since 2011. We believe that picking the right stocks out of them will generate solid returns in each market environment, even when the bubble collapses further.
For example, instead of following the herd into the high-risk fund ARKK, in March we started a significant position in the defensive asset manager Diamond Hill Group. This undiscovered stock with great fundamentals was trading at a 12x P/E and had 20% of its market cap in cash. This investment generated us 42% returns to date.
Over the past weeks, we're experiencing a new pattern among insiders. The smart money is increasingly buying stocks of growth stocks that were sold off heavily during this bubble collapse. As such, we are also cautiously allocating more money to unjustifiably sold off growth stocks. However, as we might achieve a further deterioration of this sector, it's important to be highly selective with growth stocks. Only pick out those with great balance sheets and an attractive valuation compared to growth perspectives. I will write a separate article soon about three very attractive growth stocks.
Lastly, we suggest to have enough cash (10-20%) or cash-equivalent investments (defensive stocks, bonds, etc.) available to benefit from more opportunities in the coming months.
Investor takeaway
Stock market movements have been highly disturbing in 2021: Indices continue reaching new all-time highs while tons of individual stocks went down drastically.
Understanding the three phases of a bubble collapse can give you an edge over other investors to better read this market:
Phase 1 - Hyped small caps collapse: The weakest chains of the bubble always collapse first. That's why you saw no-revenue hype stocks like SPCE or extremely overvalued small cap growth stocks like SKLZ getting slaughtered since February 2021. Most of these stocks will never recover to the peak levels they traded at last year.
Phase 2 - Overvalued mid caps collapse: Mid-cap growth stocks' valuation multiples expanded to unsustainable levels as money rotated into them. These are oftentimes much stronger businesses, but that does not justify 30-100x EV/sales ratios. It looks like November 2021 was the start of their collapse to more appropriate valuations. It will take many years for these stocks to recover to their 2021 peaks. However, some still have the ability to generate strong returns for the very long term.
Phase 3 - Overvalued large caps and indices: Big tech is attracting lots of investors as they are seen as the new safe havens. Investors are forgetting that even big tech stocks are not indestructible and might face negative growth rates soon. Once they realize this, valuations will need to come down substantially and will bring down stock market indices with them.
How should you approach the market going forward?
Continue investing in high-quality value stocks which have the ability to generate solid returns in each market environment.
Increasingly allocate money to unjustifiably sold off growth stocks. However, do it carefully and give more attention to valuations.
Keep a solid cash position or cash-equivalents available to capture more opportunities in the coming months.
Yep. Numbers never lie. Just too many lies about numbers. LOL
Looks like ones are starting to pay the "experts" to tell what the ones who want to pay to hear it. LOL
Rivian Gets First Rating. It's a Buy and $130 Price Target. -- Barrons.com
DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 9:51 AM ET 12/5/2021
Symbol Last Price Change
RIVN 104.67up -6.1 (-5.5069%)
GM 59.71down -1.31 (-2.1468%)
QUOTES AS OF 04:00:00 PM ET 12/03/2021
Al Root
The Rivian ratings deluge has started. Investors should be happy.
Rivian Automotive (RIVN) picked up its first rating. It's a Buy from Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. His price target is $130, almost 25% higher than where Rivian closed for trading on Friday.
Ives calls Rivian an "EV stalwart in the making," adding the company "looking to strategically launch itself into an untapped market as SUV/Pickup Truck EVs are virtually nonexistent in the EV market today." Trucks and SUVs are very popular in the U.S., typically accounting for more than 60% of total passenger vehicle sales.
Given it's the first rating, it's the first chance for investors to look at estimates. Ives projects $3.6 billion in sales from about 45,000 vehicle deliveries in 2022 and $8.4 billion in sales from about 105,000 deliveries in 2023. The company isn't expected to generate profit in either year.
Ives target price implies Rivian stock should trade for roughly 15 times estimated 2023 sales. Shares of Tesla (TSLA), the EV leader, trade for about 11 times estimated 2023 sales.
It's a big, growth stock valuation, but Ives knows his way around growth stocks. He covers EVs and technology stocks such as Salesforce.com (CRM). On the automotive side of his coverage list, Ives rates shares of Tesla and General Motors(GM) both Buy. His price target for Tesla stock is $1,400 a share. His price target for GM is $85 a share.
The Buy ratings on GM, Tesla and now Rivian are predicated on Ives' belief that EVs will become the dominant form of personal transportation in coming years.
More Rivian ratings will follow this one -- most likely arriving on Monday. Wall Street brokers involved in an IPO have to wait 25 days to launch coverage. Including weekends, the prohibition has now lapsed.
Rivian investors will welcome some Buy ratings. The stock is down from a November 16 high of almost $180 a share. Rivian stock fell 6.7% this past week in what was a tough week for growth stocks. The Russell 1000 Growth Index dropped 2.2%. The S&P 500 fell 1.2% for the week and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.9%.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
Seems like an ordinary and common article of today in the US. It wasn't but yet it was.
...pitted against one another at the bottom rungs...
...years after the last riots, Phoenix and surrounding towns ignited once again.
Amid a week-long bout of looting, arson and clashes...
...killed in this patchwork of poor Black townships...
Interviews with nearly two dozen people — including victims, their family members, community leaders, politicians, business owners and others — were laced with disbelief. Decades of work had been put into building a peaceful coexistence. All wondered the same thing: How had it unraveled so suddenly?
...failure to truly heal the divides...
The country may have christened itself the Rainbow Nation, but high walls of income and opportunity still divide each of its stripes.
The wave of looting that swept across the metropolitan areas...
The television news had been broadcasting live shots of mostly Black crowds streaming out of department stores and warehouses with whatever they could grab. Interspersed with such footage were interviews with mostly White...
...men in relatively affluent neighborhoods who said they had armed themselves in case the looters came for their homes.
We came across a group of ... men who told us that we could not pass there and turned us away...Then they accused us of being part of the group of people who had been looting and started beating us.
...ordered the deployment of thousands of reserve soldiers to the area...
...residents began setting up checkpoints...
Problems started when people at checkpoints turned to vigilantism and started racially profiling people, preventing them entry into the suburb...adding that the targets were “mainly African people.” ...did not explain why so few police were available to intervene, leaving an opening for vigilantism.
Tensions quickly rose...Shots were fired, people spread out and recriminations took place...
We are concerned about the potential outbreak of racial tension going forward...
...other cases against a smattering of people accused of spreading inflammatory misinformation online.
The debate over private gun possession...
Discussions about guns are highly emotional, and pro-gun groups are mostly conservative and White and similar to the National Rifle Association...
...recently pushed for a ban on licensing firearms for private citizens but has faced enormous pushback from gun owners.
There was clearly a failure in policing, ... In those instances, people may feel justified to use vigilantism.
Court proceedings are underway against dozens of alleged perpetrators of the violence...
...emphasized that the killings should not drive a wedge between communities that had come to rely on each other for jobs and services.
“We must not allow the incidents of the past weeks to divide us...We are one people. We need to build a nonracial, united...
...a country that had been strictly divided by race in almost all walks of life...
The White community...population, was relatively untouched by July’s violence, an indicator of how much more separate they remain from the rest...
What has happened here again is a blight on humanity and it shows the failure of the democratic project...
...quest for racial justice...
We didn’t get freedom,” she said. “We only got democracy.
Strange things, becoming regular occurrences.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/04/extreme-weather-us-record-temperatures-la-nina
Blizzard warning in Hawaii, record high temperatures across continental US
December opens to weather extremes, with a stuck jet stream and a La Niña phenomenon producing bizarre effects
Snow cloaks the Mauna Kea summit in Hawaii this week. There was a blizzard warning on Hawaii’s Big Island summits. Photograph: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Reuters
Associated Press in Seattle
Sat 4 Dec 2021 11.25 EST
A blizzard warning for normally balmy Hawaii and an absence of snow in mountainous Colorado were among a series of bizarre weather forecasts and events in the US as December began.
Meteorologists attributed the latest batch of record-shattering weather extremes to a stuck jet stream and the effects of a La Niña weather pattern from cooling Pacific waters.
A grain elevator burns in Denton, Montana, on 1 December. In some places the unusually warm temperatures have helped spur abnormally late wildfires, with flames roaring across the prairies of Montana.
Winter heatwave breaks records in four US states
Read more
For US meteorologists, winter starts on 1 December. But on Thursday 2 December, 65 weather stations across the US set record high temperatures, including Springfield, Missouri, hitting 75F (24C) and Roanoke, Virginia, 72F (22C). Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Billings, Montana, broke longstanding heat records by 6F.
Parts of Canada and Montana have seen December records too. On Friday, parts of South Carolina and Georgia hit record highs.
In Washington state, Seattle, Bellingham and Quillayute set 90-day fall records for rainfall. Bellingham was doused by nearly 2ft of rain. The Olympic and Cascade mountains have been hit harder, with more than 50in in three months, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). Forks, Washington, received more rain in 90 days than Las Vegas gets in 13 years.
There was a blizzard warning on Hawaii’s Big Island summits with up to 12in of snow expected and wind gusts of more than 100mph. But snow has gone missing in Colorado.
Before this year, the latest first measurable snowfall in Denver was 21 November, back in 1934. There is a slight possibility of snow on Monday night, according to the NWS. Yet with no snow since 22 April this is the city’s third-longest stretch without it.
The jet stream, the river of air that moves weather from west to east, has been stuck. That means low pressure on one part of the stream is bringing rain to the Pacific north-west while high pressure over about two-thirds of the US produces dry and warmer weather, said Brian Hurley, a senior meteorologist at the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
If the jet stream moves more or bends differently, rain and other extreme weather won’t be as concentrated, Hurley said. This is a typical weather pattern with a natural La Niña weather oscillation, he added.
The flip side of El Niño, a La Niña is a cooling of parts of the central Pacific that changes weather patterns across the globe. La Niñas tend to bring more rain to the Pacific north-west and make the south drier and warmer.
These bouts of extreme weather happen more frequently as the world warms, said meteorologist Jeff Masters, founder of Weather Underground who now works at Yale Climate Connections. But scientists have not done the required study to attribute these events to human-caused climate change.
In Boulder, Colorado, meteorologist Bob Henson enjoyed a rare December bike ride on Thursday. Still, “there’s a lot of angst about the lack of snow”, he said. “It puts you in a psychic quandary. You enjoy the warm weather while keeping in mind it’s not good for Earth to be warming.”
Planet Lab has got a lot of connection with Google and space agencies and industry. Google sold it's subsidiary Terra Bella and its SkySat satellite constellation to Planet Labs helping make Planet Lab having the largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites in orbit. Google Cloud also increased their partnership this year with Planet Lab;
We are thrilled to announce that we are expanding our partnership with Google Cloud. Under this new agreement, Google Cloud will collaborate with us to create joint solutions that combine Planet’s high-frequency Earth observation data with Google Cloud’s cloud-based infrastructure to enable better data-driven decision-making.
https://www.planet.com/pulse/planet-and-google-cloud-partner-to-bring-planetary-scale-satellite-data-analysis-to-governments-and-enterprises/
Planet Lab is also working with ASTR signing a deal before Astra Space went public with the SPAC Holicity. Now planning to launch 100s of satellites with Aatra's rockets starting in and throughout 2022.
Astra has signed a multi-launch deal with Planet. Astra did not specify how many missions the deal includes, or the value of the contract, but the companies have “plans to begin launching in the near future.”
https://www.satellitetoday.com/launch/2021/05/19/planet-taps-astra-to-launch-future-missions/
Not that surprising given that the CEO and founder of Astra Space, Cris Kemp, was an advisor for Planet back in 2013. Another founder and CTO of ASTR, Dr. Adam London, has been working with this "space group" of people from way back.
Adam leads Astra’s technology and long-term product strategy. Before Astra, he founded Ventions and invented miniature rocket technologies in partnership with NASA and DARPA. Adam has a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from MIT where his research culminated in the creation of the world’s smallest liquid-cooled chemical rocket engine.
https://astra.com/team/london/
Yesterday, maybe foolishly, but I don't believe so, I weighted more and accumulated a good chunk of ASTR in the low $9s. I do realize the caution of that pps below the SPAC price of $10, but I believe it was due to the market bearishness and any continuance of that and not anything specifically to do with ASTR. I will be looking at this new SPAC very seriously. One of the problems with this industry, that it is very expensive, and will have the need to have a lot of shares issued and may look troubling in some aspects, but I view as just part of the big picture. Will have to regularly keep an eye on how many and what is usage and management comparing with any success or failures.
On that note, I also weighted with somewhat heavier accumulation of IONQ around $20 and teens. I have day traded that on it's way down from it's highs with success, but yesterday attempting that failed. Just very little UP in the DOWN, so I went for realization that I might not see returns for several months. If a reversal happens shortly, I won't complain and act upon that situation, but not expecting. I do expect that tech succeeding sooner or later.
Year(s) from now, I'll see if my intuition is any good at all.
Remember, it's not the gun, but the person or persons with the gun(s). Really it's about the people who control the people with the guns. "Imaginary war", that's one way of putting it I guess.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/584178-desantis-proposes-civilian-florida-state-guard-military-force-he-would
DeSantis proposes civilian Florida State Guard military force he would control
BY RACHEL SCULLY - 12/03/21 07:51 AM EST
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday proposed reestablishing a World War II-era civilian-military force that he would control.
DeSantis pitched the idea of creating the Florida State Guard, which would be independent of federal control, while speaking about his military budget proposal.
The Guard would consist of 200 volunteer civilians "trained in the best emergency response techniques" that would aid in the event of natural disasters or other state emergencies, according to a press release.
The Florida State Guard was initially created in 1941 to fill in for National Guard members deployed during World War II. It was later disbanded in 1947.
DeSantis said the proposed unit would "not be encumbered by the federal government," adding that this force would give him "the flexibility and the ability needed to respond to events in our state in the most effective way possible."
DeSantis is asking for $3.5 million from the state legislature to establish the unit.
If established, Florida will become the 23rd active state guard in the country.
The idea was part of DeSantis's larger military budget proposal, which included establishing three new armories, a new National Guard Headquarters and supporting service members getting degrees.
Florida Democrats pushed back on the proposal, with 2022 Democratic gubernatorial challenger Rep. Charlie Crist (Fla.) calling the proposed unit "handpicked secret police."
National Guard Bureau chief tests positive for COVID-19
Overnight Defense & National Security — US tries to deter Russian...
DeSantis's proposal comes after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged National Guard members to get vaccinated or face losing their pay.
The Covid Wars continue (mainly the War on Covid Mitigation). Mass murder that surpasses the Civil War or several foreign wars combined. It's been very effective with the main perpetrators charging and blaming the victims and their targets for what they continually do. Their successes forming their main MO, focus, and continued lies and attacks. Traitors to America, intentionally aiding and abetting our enemy and levying war against the American people. Deception clothed with the peoples misguidance. Constantly throwing shade on the sunlight of reality.
I am not sorry for those offended, shocked, mocking or dismissive by my words. I will not paint a rose with the color of and brushes made of thorns.
This article doesn't even cover all the right-wing conservatism supplying the means, money, and encouragement to the extremism, hidden behind all the shade.
______________________________________________
Democrats livid over GOP's COVID-19 attacks on Biden
BY MIKE LILLIS - 12/04/21 05:45 AM EST
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/584313-democrats-livid-over-gops-covid-19-attacks-on-biden
Democrats are up in arms this month over GOP charges that President Biden is to blame for the prolonged COVID-19 crisis.
They argue that Republicans, from former President Trump to his most vocal allies in Congress and in state capitals, bear plenty of responsibility for public resistance to masks and vaccines, noting the opposition to those leading mitigation efforts comes overwhelmingly from the right.
The criticism of masks and vaccines has sabotaged Biden’s efforts to get the nation past the pandemic, some argue.
“They've done everything possible to ensure that we can't get past it," Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) said of the Republicans. "They've fought mask requirements, vaccine requirements. They've spread misinformation. They have amplified dangerous conspiracy theories.
“There is one group to blame in this country for the continued spread of COVID,” she added, “and that's those actors who have done each and every one of those things.”
The pandemic is a factor in Biden’s falling approval ratings and the worries Democrats have over next year’s midterm elections. Pandemic fatigue is a huge political problem for the party, which feels as if it faces a Catch-22 since the pandemic is less likely the end the more people avoid vaccinations or even booster shots.
Biden and his health team are scrambling to contain the spread of the virus, an effort complicated by the recent arrival of the new omicron variant, which originated in South Africa and surfaced this week in several states.
As health experts race to determine the severity of the new threat, GOP leaders have put the fault squarely on Biden, accusing the president of politicizing the crisis with vaccine mandates while failing to honor a central campaign promise of bringing the virus under control.
“I know President Biden promised America that he could handle COVID,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Friday in the Capitol. “More people have died from COVID this year than last year.”
GOP lawmakers, conservative news outlets and right-wing activists have led the charge against the push for universal vaccines and mask requirements — steps seen as vital, in the eyes of the country's top public health experts, for containing the global pandemic.
Most recently, a handful of Senate conservatives threatened to shut down the government in an effort to defund Biden’s vaccine mandate for private employers. And House Republicans voted near-unanimously against that government funding measure, many of them to protest the same vaccine requirement.
Other GOP leaders have publicly backed vaccines, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a polio survivor who has aired public service messages pressing for vaccinations. A majority of Senate Republicans also disliked the strategy by a minority of their members to hold up this week’s funding bill.
Yet a majority in the GOP in Congress also appeal solidly against the vaccine mandates Biden has pursued for government workers, businesses and healthcare workers, and it is increasingly moving to the center of the political debate.
“We should not fund tyranny over the American citizens,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Thursday just before the House vote on the funding bill.
The opposition has sparked an outcry from the president's Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, who are firing back at the Republicans for doing too little to encourage their supporters to do their part to contain the virus’s spread.
“It's definitely hypocrisy,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.). “The Republicans — the party that's supposed to be for individual responsibility — is not taking the responsibility of telling the people that are within their communities, within their districts and states, to take the step that's in line with that philosophy, which is to become vaccinated to control the pandemic.”
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), former head of the Progressive Caucus, predicted the GOP’s “blame Biden” campaign will backfire, citing the unprecedented nature of the global pandemic and the limited audience the message is targeting.
“Most people know that this is not the federal government's problem, what's happening potentially with a variant in another country being spread by people watching Fox News in the United States. ... That's a problem on their side,” he said. “Don't forget, almost all of their messaging these days is to an audience of one — Donald Trump.”
Researchers have found that, while racial disparities persisted through the early days of vaccine distribution, those discrepancies have largely disappeared in the subsequent months. But partisan differences have become only more pronounced.
A report released last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that, among adults who identify as Democrats, 90 percent say they’ve received at least one dose of the vaccine, versus 61 percent of Republicans. The results reveal that “Republicans make up an increasingly disproportionate share” of the nation’s unvaccinated population, the researchers reported, and that “political partisanship is a stronger predictor of whether someone is vaccinated than demographic factors such as age, race, level of education, or insurance status.”
“These results suggest substantial challenges for any efforts to further increase vaccine uptake among U.S. adults,” KFF warned.
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), a co-chairman of the GOP Doctors Caucus, is among the Republicans who’s given full-throated endorsement to vaccines while leading district-based efforts to encourage constituents to get them. But Burgess suggested the poll numbers are inaccurate and the vaccination rate is not as partisan as they indicate.
“I know in my part of the world it's not. We've got a very good vaccine hub set up and good participation,” he said.
The problem, Burgess maintained, is Biden’s mandate, which has stolen the appetite of some conservatives to get the vaccine at all.
“When you try to force things, that's what you get,” he said. “That was wrong by the administration. ... And they knew that.”
Trump, whose administration oversaw the development of the three vaccines currently in use, piled on this week, saying there’s a simple reason for the ongoing vaccine hesitancy: “No one trusts this administration.”
It’s an argument that’s been roundly rejected by Democrats, who contend the Republicans are merely deflecting blame for the recalcitrance of their own supporters.
“By blaming it on Biden — at the same time not taking personal responsibility of their own actions, which is telling their people to get vaccinated — they're just keeping the pandemic going a lot longer,” Gomez said, “which in the end it's going to devastate the red states by greater amounts than the blue states.”
Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), a physician, also warned of the regional disparities.
Biden, sounding hoarse, says he has cold
National Guard Bureau chief tests positive for COVID-19
“This increasingly is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” he said.
With the arrival of the omicron variant, there are some signs that the dam of hesitancy is breaking. A Morning Consult poll released on Tuesday found that, in light of the new strain, 30 percent of unvaccinated adults are now more open to being inoculated.
“We hope that’s true,” Biden said.
$150,000 fine? What a joke. Crime really does pay and pays big. Like crooks are really going to be scared of that chump change made probably in the first 3 minutes of any pump. Then there is the kickbacks that probably were made before it even started.
BRDS Another green in week of red stocks I bought last week (just bottom fishing). Was .20 down from yesterdays close, but closed a penny up from today open and yesterday, it closed up $1.48 so .20 down today not bad. It also closed today up almost $2 from where I entered last week. Sold about half today, maybe should of sold all or none, who knows. News today probably helped support.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bird-scootaround-launch-accessible-mobility-140000963.html
Fri, December 3, 2021, 9:00 AM
In this article:
BRDS
-2.45%
BRDS-WS
0.00%
Bird Partners with Global Leader to Provide People with Disabilities access to Safe, Eco-Friendly, Shared Micromobility in California’s Second Largest City
LOS ANGELES, December 03, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bird Global, Inc. (NYSE:BRDS), a leader in environmentally friendly electric transportation, today announced the launch of its accessible mobility program with Scootaround, a global leader in personal transportation solutions, in San Diego. The partnership aims to provide people with disabilities safe, eco-friendly, on-demand mobility solutions.
Visitors to and residents of San Diego with disabilities can now find, reserve and pay for a selection of accessible vehicles using a custom interface located directly in the Bird app. Through Bird’s partnership with Scootaround, high-quality accessible vehicles such as the award-winning WHILL Model Ci2 will be available at special discounted pricing exclusively through the Bird app. The vehicle availability combined with special pricing is designed to ensure that Bird is meeting the micromobility needs of all San Diegans, including nearly 10% of the community that has a disability.
"Bird’s commitment to improving sustainable mobility access for everyone means partnering with industry experts whose mission parallels our own including Scootaround and Easterseals," said Rebecca Hahn, Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer at Bird. "Together with Scootaround, we’re able to bring a trusted, on-demand, personal transportation service to those with disabilities. This is incredibly important to our team, and we believe it’s just as valuable to the communities we serve."
As part of its service, Bird is also providing a toll-free service to help answer questions individuals have to make the process as seamless and stress free as possible. When the vehicle is delivered, riders will receive a personal 1:1 tutorial on how to safely operate the micro electric vehicle to ensure that they feel comfortable and confident using, charging, and storing their vehicle throughout the duration of their rental.
San Diego is the third city in which Bird has launched this new service with Scootaround, following successful pilot programs in the Bronx and San Francisco. Bird’s move to expand on-demand accessible mobility to all riders falls on International Day of Persons With Disabilities, observed on December 3rd, 2021.
The San Diego program launch is the latest in Bird's efforts to deliver on its mission of providing eco-friendly transportation for everyone. Bird is committed to bringing this innovative and necessary service to more cities worldwide.
About Bird
Bird is an electric vehicle company dedicated to bringing affordable, environmentally friendly transportation solutions such as e-scooters and e-bikes to communities across the world. Founded in 2017 by transportation pioneer Travis VanderZanden, Bird is rapidly expanding. Today, it provides fleets of shared micro electric vehicles to riders in more than 350 cities globally and makes its products available for purchase at www.bird.co and via leading retailers and distribution partners. Bird partners closely with the cities in which it operates to provide a reliable and affordable transportation option for people who live and work there.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211203005102/en/
GFS one of the few greens in the sea of reds. Up over $3