David Fuller and Eoin Treacy's Comment of the Day
Category - General

    Brookfield Cuts Value of Property Holdings Amid Market Swoon

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section: 

    “Unfortunately, the negative sentiment is dragging down the real estate sector more broadly,” the firm’s president, Connor Teskey, told investors during an earnings call Wednesday. “We think that’s completely unfair.” 

    The Brookfield group is one of the world’s largest owners of prime office properties, with a portfolio that includes New York’s Manhattan West and London’s Canary Wharf. Office landlords in major cities around the world are being squeezed by a combination of higher borrowing costs and lower occupancy, as many companies continue to allow employees to work from home at least part of the time. 

    Brookfield Asset’s parent company has defaulted on mortgages covering more than a dozen office buildings, mostly in Los Angeles and around Washington.

    The property market is “bifurcated” as high-quality assets perform well and lower-quality assets struggle, Teskey said on the call. 

     

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    Australia Pledges $1.4 Billion in Bid to Be Hydrogen Superpower

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section: 

    As countries compete for capital, investors and developers have said aggressive subsidies like the US Inflation Reduction Act — which provides $374 billion in funding for clean energy — will be needed to attract the vast investment required.

    The new measures are a “great first step,” Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. said in a statement on Wednesday. The Australian iron ore miner has ambitions to become one of the world’s biggest green hydrogen producers and plans to reach final investment decisions on five projects around the world this year.  

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    Salesforce Introduces the Next Generation of Tableau, Bringing Generative AI for Data and Analytics to Everyone

    This news release from Salesforce may be of interest. Here is a section: 

    Significance: The generative AI revolution will transform how work gets done, making it exponentially easier for everyone to tap into immense troves of trusted data to do their jobs more efficiently. Nearly 80% of senior IT leaders believe generative AI will help their organization make better use of data — which business leaders agree is critical for decision-making. However, 41% say they can’t understand their data because it is too complex or not accessible enough, and one-third cite inability to generate insights from data as an issue for their organizations. 

    Tableau GPT can generate visualizations for sales leaders based on natural language prompts that display real-time progress against their quota, along with recommendations for helping them meet goals. If average order value is decreasing, Tableau GPT can generate visuals for commerce leaders that provide insights as to why, alongside suggested solutions to resolve the problem. Or Tableau GPT can automatically create visualizations for service leaders that display changes in their teams’ CSAT scores, identify potential causes — such as a high-level of active tickets and longer response time — and offer up solutions.

    What’s new: By bringing the power of generative AI to analytics, and combining it with unified, real-time data from Data Cloud, Tableau is empowering everyone to make smarter, faster, data-driven decisions.

    Tableau GPT is a reimagining of Tableau and makes it easier for everyone to tap into generative AI to better understand and interact with their data in a trusted and secure way. Users can surface insights in a conversational way by simply asking questions within the console, which helps power smarter data experiences for analysts, consumers, admins, developers, and more.  

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    AMD To Showcase Next-Generation Data Center And AI Technology At June 13 Livestream Event

    This newswire may be of interest.

    Today, AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) announced the "AMD Data Center and AI Technology Premiere," an in-person and livestreamed event to showcase the company's growth strategy and expanding product portfolio and capabilities for data center and AI. AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su will be joined by other AMD executives and key customers to detail new products, and momentum across data center, AI, adaptive and high-performance computing solutions.  

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    Boeing Wins $40 Billion Ryanair Order for 737 Max Jets

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest. Here is a section: 

    The huge commitment to Boeing’s largest 737 variant marks an important endorsement from one of the US manufacturer’s most loyal customers and highlights how carriers are willing to splurge on fleet upgrades again as air travel rebounds. Ryanair said the deal —  the largest order ever placed by an Irish company for US manufactured goods — was more expensive than its current crop of 737 deliveries. 

    “We paid more per seat but we’re still incredibly happy with the deal we’ve done,” Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary said at a news conference. “We think the extra seats give us the revenue-earning potential.”

    Deliveries will start in 2027 and run through 2033. Ryanair said discussions surrounding the purchase started in January, and half the order is earmarked for replacement of older 737NG models while the other half is reserved for growth.

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    Fire on 'Shadow' Tanker off Malaysia is Extinguished, Search Continues

    This article from Maritime-Executive.com may be of interest. Here is a section: 

    During a press briefing in Malaysia, the Russian captain of the vessel described the situation saying that he had discovered a fire amidship early afternoon on Monday. The initial discovery of smoke was followed by one or more loud explosions which he said shook the vessel, broke the windows, and rendered most of the communications systems inoperable.

    “The fire on the upper deck destroyed our aerial, none of the communication equipment was functioning,” the captain told NST TV in Malaysia. “I had to use the walkie talkie …I finally got in touch with our engineer via the walkie talkie but by then all our safety boats were destroyed.” 

    The captain said the desperate crew had gone into the water in their life jackets and luckily two ships were in the immediate area to assist with the rescue. He said in the confusion with the crew going in all directions it had been impossible for him to get a head count. He said the fire was also being spread by windy conditions.

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    Chinese Bank Stocks Soar, Adding $166 Billion in Trading Frenzy

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section: 

    With China’s reopening trade stalled, Chinese investors are betting on a pledge by Beijing to let state-owned firms have access to more capital and play a bigger role. New guidelines on bond sales by SOEs is seen as another step in the reform as President Xi Jinping reshapes the economy. The frenzied trading has also been attributed to moves by three nationwide lenders to cut deposit rates to boost profit margins. 

    It’s a “valuation system with Chinese characteristics” story, said Willer Chen, a senior analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia Ltd. Some investors are also “seeing value in bank stocks because their valuation is cheap and dividend yields are attractive, despite the shrinking net interest margins and weak
    Q1 results.”

    For now, much of the gains may be driven by sentiment, rather than fundamentals. Chinese lenders posted a tepid set of first-quarter earnings as they faced deeper margin woes despite being sheltered from the recent global banking jitters. Analysts say the pressure may persist through the year as lending rates are lowered to revive the economy.

     

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