Snapshots That Wow!

Weak consumer, nah! Thrifty consumer!

“"New clothing might be cheaper and more abundant now than at any point in human history, but much of it is also boring and repetitive. Plus, a few years of post-pandemic fashion industry malaise have helped usher in a sentiment popular with a subset of teens in every generation: Vintage clothes are cooler than buying what some brand (or, more recently, some algorithm) tells you to wear."

Source: Bloomberg

Nothing better than insider information!

No better indication of business confidence vis-a-vis valuations than seeing how promoters are behaving with their shareholding. CY24YTD has already seen promoter selling north of $24bn with a few months more to go!

Source: Nuvama Wealth

Somebody going to get hurt real bad!

With only sub 4% share of world GDP and market cap, India sees 10% of new issuances (IPOs). Are bankers managing to get some sleep?

Source: Apollo Asset Management

Federal government or local builder?

Public debt interest payments as a share of federal revenue spiked to 17.9% in Q3, the most since 1993. The percentage has DOUBLED in just 3 years.This comes as the net interest payments skyrocketed to $1.1 trillion over the last 12 months, a new all-time high.

CBO estimates show that interest as a % of revenue will double again over the next 3 decades and will account for more than a THIRD revenue.This percentage has already exceeded World War 2 levels!

Source: Kobeissi Letter

A continent left behind

“Africa's economic convergence with the rest of the world not only has stopped, but is **reversing**. Worse, the IMF now sees that negative trend continuing from 2025 to 2029.”

Source: Javier Blas

There is no China + 1, it is China, the one!

“CHINA IS, FAMOUSLY, the world’s factory and a giant market for the world’s companies. More unremarked is its growing role as the world’s research-and-development laboratory. Between 2012 and 2021 foreign firms increased their collective Chinese research personnel by a fifth, to 716,000. Their annual R&D spending in the country almost doubled, to 338bn yuan ($52bn). Add investments by local firms and China now matches Europe’s R&D tally”

Source: The Economist