1. The markets. YTD the Nasdaq is down nearly 30%, the S&P 500 17.45%, and the Dow down 7.88%. Markets were down Friday. The indexes point mildly up this AM. All eyes are on the Fed which meets Tuesday and Wednesday.
2. Stock and equity prices are influenced by two key factors. How well a company or companies are doing and how tight or loose the money supply is. The tightness or looseness of the money supply generally drives the “multiple” at which earnings are multiplied by to drive a total value. Some analysts are saying that as the Fed starts to soften their rate hike posture, multiples driven by loose or tight money will stabilize. Then the risk becomes the stability of corporate earnings. See “Morgan Stanley, Goldman Say Earnings the Biggest Risk for Stocks.” – Reuters.
3. Lululemon dropped nearly 13% Friday. Its stock is down 21.71% over the last 52 weeks.
4. Tesla has its first ever negative consumer survey. There’s probably a lesson in there that there is a big risk in a very visible founder surging into the political dialogue.
5. Microsoft is buying nearly 4% of the London Stock Exchange as part of a major cloud computing deal. This highlights the value of these cloud deals to major companies. Part of Microsoft’s intended buy of Activision Blizzard is driven by the desire to gain more cloud business. Many think Oracle’s purchase of Cerner was in part driven to gain more cloud business. Amazon relies heavily on AWS for its profits.
6. 7 healthcare headlines we are following.
- “CVS Wants to be America’s Healthcare Provider: All it Deeds is Doctors” – Barron’s. Operating physician practices has become expensive but note how well United Optum has grown in this area.
- “NJ Hospital adds remote monitoring to all its hospitals” – Giles Bruce, Becker’s Healthcare, Virtua Health.
- “Man Indicted in Dallas Methodist Murders” – Kelly Gooch, Becker’s Healthcare.
- “Adults Who Took Paxlovid 50% Less Likely to Need Hospitalization with COVID-19 – 10 CDC Findings” – Nika Schoonover, Becker’s Healthcare.
- “AMA President Says to Congress: I’m Not Here to Negotiate Rate Cuts” – Marcus Robertson, Becker’s Healthcare.
- “NY Hospital Turns Away Patients for 3rd Time in 3 Weeks” – Nick Thomas, Becker’s Healthcare.
- “Med Device CEO Gets 80 Months for $50 Million Fraud Scheme. The CEO did Better than Theranos Leadership” – Nika Schoonover, Becker’s Healthcare
7. Two upcoming webinars. 30 Minute Webinars. Join us at no charge. Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast and Becker Business Minute Podcast.
- 16 keys to building a business. Presented by Scott Becker. December 15 at 1pm CST. Register here.
- The PE Market and Deal Outlook for 2023. January 12. Featuring Hector M. Torres, JD, MBA Rick Kes, and Trishul Kapoor, MD. Will finalize details shortly. Seeking one more speaker for the event.
8. Seeking nominations for great leaders for the Becker Business Minute shout out of the day.
Listen at Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast or at the new Becker Business Minute Podcast coming soon. 90 percent of episodes will be 90 seconds or less.
