There is a debate raging inside the White House that is starting to spill out and may be helping to push stocks up a bit. Dr Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged that the internal debate has been “intense”. To reopen the economy or not reopen, that is the question.
In a town hall broadcast on Fox News on Tuesday, President Trump repeated his preference for a quick return to normal and said he hoped to have the country “opened up and just raring to go by Easter”, which is April 12.
“What the president is trying to do is to balance the public health issues with the fact that this is having an enormous impact on the economy of the country, which may actually indirectly even cause a considerable amount of harm and difficulty – even health-wise,” Fauci said on Monday. “So, it’s a delicate balancing act which the president is trying to get right. And we’re under very intense discussions right now about what the most appropriate timeline is and, if we do modify it, how to modify it.”
The Presidents fears can best understood by his own words in a tweet, “Our people want to return to work. They will practice Social Distancing and all else, and Seniors will be watched over protectively & lovingly. We can do two things together. THE CURE CANNOT BE WORSE (by far) THAN THE PROBLEM! Congress MUST ACT NOW. We will come back strong!” He’s not alone in this thinking. Many small businesses agree.
Wearables Market is Worth Considering
Pfizer Is Using Wearables To Understand Patients
It has been more than 36 years since Martin Cooper placed the first call on a mobile phone to his rival at Bell Labs while working at Motorola. Since then we have moved from bag phones to brick phones, to flips and smartphones. Now we have wearables and they have the most promise in terms of doing good for humanity.
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is one of the companies tapping the power of wearables to understand the patient experience and develop better drugs. PFE is using mobile technology to make clinical development more relevant to patients’ actual experiences of living with chronic diseases.
A disease like eczema would be a good example. It often flares up at night and people wake up knowing they have been scratching, but they don’t know for how long, so they can’t get their doctor accurate information. Wearables can change that dynamic.
The investment play might not even be PFE, but they are certainly in the lead in this research. People might want to look at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) or even Fitbit Inc. (NYSE: FIT) as stocks that could benefit from a Pfizer breakthrough.
Reply to this email and tell me of you think wearables are an invasion of privacy. We want to know what you think!
Google Makes it Easier To Compete with Google
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) which everyone knows as Google, has made an advancement in artificial intelligence (AI). Google has found a way to scale up artificial intelligence model training across thousands of machines.
It’s a promising development because it should enable AI algorithm training to move more quickly while reducing the costs by as much as 80%. A cost reduction that big, could help level the playing field a bit for startups that couldn’t compete from a cost standpoit with much bigger tech companies…like Google themselves.
It seems like the fact that they released this information means they either intend to share the advancement, or it’s something that in the technology realm is just impossible to hide. Either way Google has such a huge head start, that releasing something like this may help them acquire the correct companies in the future, to keep them ahead of other major competitors in AI like Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and even Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).
Volvo’s Polestar Brand Starts Production in China
In what some people might call a stroke of luck, Volvo’s stand-alone Polestar brand is set to begin manufacturing of its electric performance vehicles in a factory in China. While the final US based auto plant announces its closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic (BMW’s South Carolina plant), Polestar is getting started.
Polestar was once a high-performance brand under Volvo Cars. In 2017, the company was rebranded as an electric performance car maker trying to deliver fun-to-drive electric vehicles. That is Tesla Inc.’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) backyard and no one has come close to competing or even really tried to compete in that niche. Polestar is gunning for TSLA. The Polestar fastback produces 408 horsepower, 487-pound feet of torque and has a 78 kWh battery pack that delivers an estimated range of 292 miles
The Volvo brand is jointly owned by Volvo Car Group and Zhejiang Geely Holding of China. Volvo was acquired by Geely in 2010, so sounds to me like Geely owns the whole thing.
So, if you are a “buy American” person (I am) than Tesla is still the only all-electric performance vehicle for you. Even if Volvo were still a Swedish car company, it would be better than buying a Chinese car. Americans have a love affair with loud gasoline engines, but sometimes we forget that Tesla is an American car company, and that should be a consideration as well when looking at your next vehicle.
Polestar or Tesla? Reply to this email and let me know which one you’d buy
One for $3.50, two for $99
As the coronavirus started to spread, and we were all informed of its seriousness, the first thing people stocked up on was…toilet paper? The greediness was quite clear as people piled out of stores with packs and packs of the stuff and the T.P. isles resembled the baron dusty streets of old western movies.
Well, a clever convenience store owner in Sydney figured out a way to keep his customers in check. He taped up a sign stating 1st two pack for $3.50, 2nd two pack for $99. The sign also included a little note: “Don’t be greedy. Think of other people”
I think all the conglomerates should consider posting something similar, especially since when you leave with toilet paper from most stores, they come in packs of 12 and 24 not 2. Everyone relax, you’re not going to die if you run out of toilet paper. You might stink a little, but who cares? You’re not supposed to leave the house anyway. Quick shower-rinse and you’re right back at it.