On June 12th, AT&T Inc.’s $85 billion bid to acquire Time Warner was approved by Judge Richard J. Leon. The merger will allow Time Warner’s coveted assets HBO, Warner Bros., Turner, and CNN, to fall into AT&T’s various paths of distribution. AT&T has built a vast infrastructure to provide consumers multiple ways to reach their content. AT&T already operates standard wireless phone, TV, and internet subscriptions, plus DirecTV following an acquisition in mid-2015. Thursday, June 21st, AT&T announced a plan to launch a new streaming TV service titled “Watch TV.” The new service will be priced competitively at $15/month and will provide subscribers access to the assets received in the Time Warn
The trade dispute between the United States and China continues to worsen. So far, the effect on consumers has been minimal because the Trump administration has targeted intermediate goods purchased primarily by businesses. Eventually, however, those costs will be passed on to the consumer. With the proposal of additional tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, and possibly as much as $400 billion if China retaliates, consumers will likely see price increases in consumer products ranging from clothing to electronics. One consumer product has already seen a price hike – washing machines have risen 17 percent since January. The chart below shows a list of consumer goods that could see price
Last night, I had the pleasure of meeting Peter Buffett (Warren Buffett's son). Peter is a very talented composer, musician, New York Times' best-selling author ("Life is What You Make It") and philanthropist. He performed and conducted a semi-intimate conversation with a small group of financial professionals at a conference in New York City. In his multimedia presentation he shared details about his childhood and upbringing, his music career and his philanthropic interests. He gave us almost unlimited time to ask any questions we were interested in. Intrigued by his background, I asked him if there was any one memory of his childhood that he is very fond of or that changed his life. Peter
May was quite a strong month for US stocks. The US indices outpaced foreign stocks, driven by a rebound in the information technology and industrial sectors. Consumer staples and defensive sectors continued to trail on the year. Growth outperformed Value/dividend-oriented stocks. The US currency strengthened, penalizing Emerging Market stocks and bonds, especially from those countries with large foreign currency debt balances. At the same time, crude oil weakened after a very strong run year-to-date. Bond yields were stable, with the 10 year US Treasury yields closing at 2.85% after a brief visit above 3.1%. The strength in the US markets is imputed to improved expectations for Q2 US GDP gro
