DHUnplugged #668: T-Test Parties!

All the rage - let's test our testosterone - then shave our legs!

China has figured it out....How to hurt the USA.

Elon - listening in and shutting down?

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Warm Up

-  Big week - Inflation eyed

- 10-year near 4.3%

- One European country looks the worst - one recession

- Biden  - 5-day world tour

- Soft landing - everyone talking about it

- Oh, Elon

Market Update

- Not such a great month so far....

- China  starting to panic (that may be good)

-- 2 IPOs on Tap

- M&A - One food deal announced

- Apple .... More China restrictions (interesting)

Happy New Year - Rosh Hashana Friday night.

Tesla Upgrade

- Tesla Inc.’s Dojo supercomputer may add as much as $500 billion to the company’s market value through faster adoption of robotaxis and network services, according to Morgan Stanley.

- Dojo can open up “new addressable markets,” just like AWS did for Amazon.com Inc., analysts led by Adam Jonas wrote in a note, upgrading the stock to overweight from equal-weight and raising its 12-month price target to a Street-high $400 per share from $250.

- Adam Jonas had a $250 price for Tesla for a while and was not really positive on  the shares. But, many say he likes headlines, so this is a perfect way to play it.

- Jonas cut his price and overall recommendation  in June

- Tesla shares up 10% on this upgrade (BTW, Morgan is one of Elon Musk's key advisory firms - so there is that)

China - Freaking out?

- China's financial regulator on Sunday reduced the risk weighting it attaches to insurance companies' holdings of blue-chip shares and tech stocks, encouraging them to invest more in the country's lagging stock market.

- The National Administration of Financial Regulation (NAFR)said on its website that the risk weighting for CSI300 Index constituents would be reduced to 0.3 from 0.35, while that for stocks listed on Shanghai's tech-focused STAR Market would be cut to 0.4, from 0.45.

- A lower risk weighting frees up more capital for insurers to invest.

- It also set a relatively low risk weighting for private equity investments in China's strategic and emerging sectors.

More China

- China's economic slowdown could increase the risk of Beijing taking military action toward Taiwan, the Republican chair of a U.S. congressional committee on China said on Monday, drawing a contrast with Democratic President Joe Biden, who said it made it less likely.

- So this has to be a dividing line as well?

Biden on Sunday called China's econ

Yen - Japan

- In a weekend interview, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said the central bank could end its 7-year-old negative interest rate policy when achievement of its 2% inflation target is in sight - suggesting the BOJ is considering official interest rate hikes as well as an early end its bond-buying, yield cap policy.

- The comments seemed to catch markets off guard, sending the 10-year Japanese government bond yield up more than 5 basis points to a 9-year high above 0.7%. The yen surged 1% against the dollar, knocking the U.S. currency back more generally on the foreign exchange markets.

Tech

- Qualcomm said Monday that it will supply Apple with 5G modems for smartphones through 2026.

- Wall Street analysts and Qualcomm officials had previously said they expected Apple to use an internally developed 5G modem starting in 2024.

- The continued sales to Apple will boost Qualcomm's handsets business, which reported $5.26 billion in sales in the quarter ended in June, and could soften the blow of potentially losing a critical customer. About 21% of Qualcomm's fiscal 2022 revenue of $44.2 billion came from Apple,