2018-09-22

Tech Review: 1) First Major Global eSports League; 2) eSports in China

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2018-09-22)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) First Major Global eSports League, 2) How eSports Became So Big In China, 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: Next Financial Crisis, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Fourth Industrial Revolution, Apple, Google, China, Crude Tech, Mary Meeker.

1) First Major Global eSports League

Overwatch League: E-Sports Done Differently

Overwatch League (overwatchleague.com): An in-depth look at the first major global e-sports league with city-based teams. Fortune.com video above published Sep 5, 2018.
2) How eSports Became So Big In China

Jason Fung, global eSports director of Alisports (alisports.com), says the growth in internet cafes in China is a reason why professional gaming has taken off in a big way. CNBC.com video above published Sep 12, 2018.

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite -0.3% | S&P 500 Index +0.8% | DJIA +2.2%  The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) on Friday made its second straight record close in succession.
Divergence between the U.S. equity market and the rest of the world is stark and unprecedented: "If one looks at price momentum – it is positive for US stocks and negative for Europe and Emerging markets across all relevant lookback windows. This has never happened before. Over the past 20 years, even the individual regional indices rarely had such a divergence (for instance, the divergence of US and Europe momentum happened only 2 times)."--JPMorgan's Marko Kolanovic.
Wall Street's Charging Bull
graphic of Charging Bull | DomainMondo.com
Investing Notes: the next Financial Crisis

Europe did not overcome the effects of the 2008-2009 crisis: Professor Portes

U.S. dealt quickly with the problems of the banks – Europe did not, says Richard Portes, professor of economics at London Business School. CNBC.com video above published Sep 12, 2018

EU: Ten years after Lehman collapsed, where do European banks stand now? "European banks have been building core capital and strengthening their balance sheets. However, it has not been fast enough and challenges remain. Non-performing loans in Europe are more than double relative to all loans than in the U.S., exposure to sovereign debt and risky emerging economies remain too high and net income margins are very weak"--Daniel Lacalle, chief economist and investment officer, Tressis Gestion (tressis.com). See also "The Real Cost of the 2008 Financial Crisis"--NewYorker.com.

The flashpoint for the next crisis is likely to be in Europe, especially Italy, maintains John Mauldin, chairman of Mauldin Economics (mauldineconomics.com), “I think the choice of Europe is … going to have to put [all the debt] on the balance sheet of the European Central Bank ... If they don’t, then the euro zone breaks apart and we’re going to get a 50% valuation collapse.”

Hard Brexit: Brexit negotiations between UK and the EU are at an impasse. EU leaders said UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Chequers plan would not work. May responded there will be no second referendum, assuring EU citizens living in the UK their rights would be protected--axios.com. Editor's note: UK needs to either prepare now for "Hard Brexit," negotiating "Free and Fair" trade deals with the U.S. and others, to replace UK's dependence on the EU market, or just surrender to being a vassal state of Brussels.

Emerging Markets: “The ultimate thing that brings down financial markets is excess leverage … So, you look where’s the big leverage, and right now I think it’s in emerging markets.”--Gary Shilling, president of consultancy A. Gary Shilling & Co. (agaryshilling.com).

China: "there are three troubling signs that China is a prime candidate to be the site of the next financial crisis: overheating in its real-estate sector, a roller-coaster stock market, and a rapidly growing shadow-banking sector"--Walden Bello in thenation.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
  • The Fourth Industrial Revolution is "connecting everyone and everything together.. All boundaries between us are being erased, and we’re being connected like we never have before. That’s what’s happening, and it’s very powerful."--Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce.com, Inc. Note also Dreamforce, San Francisco, Sep 25-28.
  • Alphabet a/k/a Google $GOOGL $GOOG: Where in the World Is Larry Page?--Bloomberg.com.
  • Apple Pay & Google Pay: 7-Eleven says Apple Pay and Google Pay are now accepted at nearly all of its 10,000+ locations across the U.S.
  • Apple's New iPhones: What It Means For Investors--SeekingAlpha.com.
  • Phone Call Scams will be nearly half of all cellphone calls by 2019--WashingtonPost.com.
  • China's smartphone market shipped 104.8 million units in Q2 2018, declined by 5.9% year-on-year. Shipment of all leading brands increased except for Apple, which dropped by 12.5%. Huawei and Vivo both saw high growth of 21.7% and 24.3% year-on-year, respectively--ChinaInternetWatch.com.
  • Crude Tech: USA Is Now The Largest Global Crude Oil Producer – Surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia--climatedepot.com and eia.gov.
  • Mary Meeker, legendary internet analyst, leaving renown Silicon Valley VC firm Kleiner Perkins, with three of her partners, to form a new VC firm of late-stage investors--recode.net.

-- John Poole, Editor  Domain Mondo 

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