Companies on probably the most important Stock Exchange in the world, the S&P 500, report their results every quarter.   Those results are always quite interesting and while some may say financial news is boring, here is just an example of some of the things I learnt in one day reading those results recently. 

Oatly, who make oat-based milk, said that the economy is making it harder for them to switch consumers from regular milk to other options.  While they said demand is not as strong as it used to be, the growth still increased by 22%. 

Starbucks complained that having to pay its staff more was affecting its profits, although they were giving an increase to everybody who worked at a branch that did not have a Union, but in showing they obviously don’t like Unions, those that are working at branches with Unions will not get the same 3% increase! 

I also read that Uber has been able, with price increases for the rides, to obtain new drivers and food delivery couriers.  They say there are much less “surge” times now.  Amongst the features that Uber has introduced to encourage more drivers is that drivers can now see their earnings upfront and they can also choose from a list of potential trips – in the past they just had to take the next trip that is allocated to them.  

Meanwhile, Match Group said their revenue grew by 12%.  They blame the pandemic as well, but most of you will know them for their dating platform, Tinder.  The company said that there are less people willing to try online dating products, for the first time, now than there were before Covid and that is what is slowing down its growth.  The good thing of all of these companies is that their growth is actually increasing, but it is just not increasing as much as might have been expected, especially compared to inflation.  Airbnb said that the value of bookings made on its platform grew by more than 25%, but it still has not closed at an annual profit since it was founded in 2008. 

The iPhone 14 is going to be announced, as the new models usually are, at an Apple event in September.  There are some rumours that only the Pro-version will have the upgraded A16 chip and that the other versions will have the A15 chip that the iPhone 13 has.  The big news, and the reason I use it in any event each year, will be the improvements to the camera.  There is a lot of talk that the next camera will be 48mp – which is a massive improvement. Again, there is some speculation that only the Pro-models will get a 48MP camera.  Some people obviously take a “I don’t care” approach, but it is the most valuable company in the world and it has the most popular product in the world and from my perspective I am always interested to see what the next generation of phones will be like – and to find an excuse to upgrade once again.  For those of you who do love Apple and have sat out for a year or two, the features like Cinematic Mode, which really enables fantastic video footage, and an increased camera size could definitely be reasons to upgrade later this year.  

A lot of people seem to be under the illusion that once you’ve had a Covid vaccine you are done and protected.  The signs show otherwise – you need to get repeat vaccines and those booster shots typically give you 4 to 5 months of very good protection and after that it starts to wane.  We are sure that pharmaceutical companies will come up with better vaccines that last longer as time goes by, but until they do I am going to continue to get my booster shots and additional vaccines when they are available to me.  I feel one has to take care with one’s health and part of that is reducing one’s reaction to a dangerous disease by making sure, if one is exposed to it, that one’s body has the right amount of immunity added to it by the booster shots.  I am getting the Pfizer booster shot, but if I had the choice I would get Moderna this time, because I very much like the whole mix and match principle and having the benefit of the different companies’ approach to vaccines. 

We all have things that we have bought which we feel we have wasted our money on, and on the other hand you get goods or services where you really get what you believe to be a lot of value.  One of the steps I took a couple of months ago was to subscribe to the ad-free version of YouTube.  It has really made a tremendous difference in my life, particularly because I often like to work with electronic dance music or EDM in the background.  I can now listen to DJ sets from the various festivals without being interrupted every 7 or 8 minutes with a new advert!  We all have different things that we find to be of value, but for me, I only wish that I paid for the ad-free version of YouTube a long time ago, given that I use it extensively – whether it is for those DJ sets, watching replays of major horse races or the very informative YouTube videos that tell you how to do things, work software programs, etc, etc.

The head of the World Bank said that it will be very hard for many countries around the world to avoid recession.  The World Bank is forecasting that growth for the rest of this decade will be below what it was for the last decade.  Growth in the United States and Europe is forecast to slow down, but they say that emerging nations, and SA is clearly one of them, will have the toughest time as a result of the problems that arose from the Covid pandemic and now the war in Ukraine.  To make matters worse, the money that governments owe is increasing and increasing interest rates are going to further increase those debts.