SOMETHING INTERESTING

Everyone knows Bezos and Musk. Most of us know Bill Gates and Richard Branson.

But have you ever heard of Bernard Arnault? His net worth is $193B.

He's built a masterful portfolio of retail brands and is well worth some studying. If you have the time, here’s a thread on him. (P.S. Remember in this digest when we said that luxury will never die? Arnault proves that point with a vigorous passion)


MARKET MOVERS

  • Josh Brown (Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO) bought Zillow stock. A lot of Zillow stock. $ZG stock is down more than 50% from it’s previous high. Brown says he believes in the company’s long-term ability to capitalize on the digitization of real estate services.  We’re paying attention to Zillow’s new iBuying platform, “Zillow Offers.” Read more here.

  • Federal reserve will be winding down (also known as ‘tapering’) its bond purchasing. Markets took a small hit this last week, which opens up unique buying opportunities. Brian Belski, BMO Capital Markets strategist, says anytime the markets react to a “tapering,” it’s an opportunity to buy an undervalued asset - more information to come August 27th. Read more here.

  • Inflation isn’t transitory. It can't be, at this point. Labor costs & wage increases sure to follow. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it will impact every business (small and large) over the next few years. Prepare accordingly. Read more here.

  • The real estate market does not look like it’s crashing anytime soon. Most likely scenario: FED raises interest rates, inflation steadies out (aka stops), and properties stop their appreciation sprints. This is great for buyers, but the shortage in inventory is just too great for there to be any sort of crash (opinion only). Prices should cool down, but crash they likely will not. Read more here.


WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

  • FDA expected to grant full approval to Pfizer’s vaccine this week. Can’t predict the markets but, with full approval $PFE will be able to market to doctors and the general public the same way it does other products. Once FDA approval granted, $PFE will start working on third shot. Read more here.  

  • A group of property managers & RE agents asked the Supreme Court to block Biden’s eviction moratorium. As real estate investors, we prevent evictions two ways: (a) proper screening and (b) great service to renters. We’re not very dependent on the moratorium (or lack of one) but, this is important to watch and see how it impacts occupancy & collections rates across the country. Read more here.

  • Disney is developing ROBOTS for their theme parks! Code named Project Kiwi, the development of a robot baby "Groot" is a prototype for a small-scale, free roaming robotic actor that can take on the role of any similarly sized Disney character. Listen at 33:30 here.


FINAL THOUGHTS:

"The more frequently you look at data, the more noise you are disproportionally likely to get (rather than the valuable part called the signal); hence the higher the noise to signal ratio." (fs.blog, The Noise Bottleneck: When More Information Is Harmful)

Shameless plug - but that’s kind of why this whole digest thing is a big deal. You don't even want to know how much political BS we filtered out for you in this digest alone.

Keeping above the noise allows you to formulate strategic opinions based on trends, data, and vetted intelligence  

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