Archive

An important national security meeting just happened... Considering the recent public sentiment toward corporate giants, you might have expected a tongue lashing for anticompetitive monopolistic behaviors or a stern push by the Biden administration to make them more involved with vaccination efforts. But none of those issues were on the table. The White House called […]

• AAPL
• AMZN
• GOOGL
• IBM
• JPM
• NLOK

Walmart is now offering a third-party, last-mile fulfillment service... Walmart (WMT) has been doing everything in its power over the past few years to keep up with its biggest retail rival, online giant Amazon (AMZN). Despite this, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the world's largest retailer outside of China.  One of Walmart's biggest areas of focus […]

• AMZN
• FDX
• UPS
• WMT

Health care costs make no sense... Wild inconsistencies exist between what various customers and insurers are being charged for the exact same service. It also explains why American health care is so expensive. The New York Times article on "Hospitals and Insurers Didn't Want You to See These Prices. Here's Why" confirms what many people […]

• UNH

The debate around inflation continues… When Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered his keynote speech on Aug. 27 at the virtual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, global central bankers, economists, and markets largely approved. For most investors and Fed watchers, he struck the right chord with his message. The central bank was committed to slowing down […]

'To break the rules, you must first master them...' You might attribute this quote to Pablo Picasso, the famed Spanish artist, or Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, as it seems to fit segments of their life stories rather well. In reality, there's no proof that either of them ever spoke these words about mastering […]

Concerns about productivity aren't driving the debate... There's been so much dialogue and controversy about getting people back to the office because employees can be just as productive at home. The past 18 months have thoroughly disproved that working from home is less productive. Many white-collar workers even made the transition to remote work more […]

• HSII

Bloomberg found a creative way to track the return to normalcy... Investors and management teams are trying to assess the effect of the delta variant of the coronavirus on corporate America's return to the office. We think about it, too, from both sides: as investors and from a company management perspective. As a firm, we […]

• PBPB

Today was supposed to be the day many offices reopened... The delta variant of the coronavirus became a much larger problem than anticipated, and many office reopenings are now on hold. This week, we're focusing on the dynamic of returning to the office and working from home and some of the specific winners and losers […]

• TEAM
• ZM

Joel's note: Both the market and Altimetry are closed on Monday in observation of Labor Day. So, look for the next Altimetry Daily Authority on Tuesday, Sept. 7. We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable weekend. Thinking outside the box requires time away from the office cubicle… I'm back in Istanbul, spending a lot of […]

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• GOOGL

During the economic shutdown, work got busier than ever... The pandemic-induced recession and recovery are often described as K-shaped instead of more typical recoveries. A simple recovery might be V-shaped if there is a sudden and short dip before a quick recovery, or W-shaped if there are two dips before the real recovery. However, this […]

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• GS
• KFY
• MAR