{"id":49433,"date":"2020-01-30T11:20:24","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T16:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=49433"},"modified":"2020-01-30T11:20:24","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T16:20:24","slug":"the-coronavirus-will-be-solved-for-now-its-weighing-on-markets-presenting-us-with-some-neat-buying-opportunities-and-dumb-things-some-big-companies-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=49433","title":{"rendered":"The coronavirus will be solved. For now, it’s weighing on markets, presenting us with some neat buying opportunities. And dumb things some big companies do."},"content":{"rendered":"

Each time Facebook gets hit with regulatory problems, it’s a great buying opportunity. Here are the last five days:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Picking stocks, I stay away from companies that do stupid things — typically buying into an industry they don’t understand. Finding a way to give stupidity a whole new meaning.<\/p>\n

Two examples:<\/p>\n

+ Altria spent $12.8 billion to buy part of JUUL. It’s now writing off $4.1 billion as JUUL has all sorts predictable problems. Read more here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

+ Verizon bought Yahoo — a business it clearly didn’t understand. After all, it’s a telephone company. It’s now launched a TV finance channel to compete with CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business. Is Yahoo or Verizon nuts? Or are they both nuts? Verizon has already written off $4.6 billion. More coming.<\/p>\n

Here are Verizon’s priorities for 2020, as explained today in their earnings deck today:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Can you believe this nonsense?<\/p>\n

5G presents Verizon a huge opportunity. But it’s a long ways off. And I don’t see them having the marketing skills to drive enticing applications — like the Internet of Things. There’s no mention of IoT (Internet of Things) in this deck. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The best way to play 5G at present are the tower companies, especially CCI.<\/p>\n

Huge Google scam<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

They call you constantly. They say your business needs to be “registered” with Google.<\/p>\n

They take information from you — your name, your phone number, your business, what categories it fits into.<\/p>\n

They tell you all this information will move you up the Google chain.<\/p>\n

Then they ask you for $350.<\/p>\n

Turns out they’re not Google. And it’s just a gigantic scam.<\/p>\n

The scams are getting cleverer and cleverer.<\/p>\n

Give up shaking hands, for now<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Try fist bumping instead. Safer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Keep washing your hands. Don’t touch your face. If you have breathing problems, be extra cautious. Maybe you need some stents? Visit your doctor and have your innards checked out. I have two friends who have new stents to speed up blood flow to their heart. They were having trouble breathing.<\/p>\n

There are indications that the coronavirus virus is much worse than our governments are telling us. Read Kristof on how China’s Xi bungled it:<\/p>\n

Coronavirus Spreads, and the World Pays for China’s Dictatorship<\/strong>
\nXi used his tight rule to control information rather than to stop an epidemic.<\/p>\n

Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Favorite cartoons<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What a shopper friendly store!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I can relate to this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I find this one calming. I bet they both vote.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A dear friend rented an Airbnb with stairs like these<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

No hand railing on the bottom two stairs — the most dangerous ones!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Powerful thought<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If it works, don’t mess with it. Another day I’ll tell you the story of my new faster, better, laptop.<\/p>\n

For now, I commend Microsoft on changing everything it touches –including things are working.<\/p>\n

Oih vey.<\/p>\n

The Australian Tennis continues<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The semis and the finals are on. ESPN2 and The Tennis Channel. Thiem will play Zverev in a semi-final at 3:30 AM tomorrow morning. Djokovic destroyed Federer, sadly. The men’s final will be Novak versus the winner of the Thiem\/Zverev match. The women’s final is 3:30 AM on Saturday morning — Kenin versus Muguruza. The latest matches are replayed during our day. Don’t watch the news for the results.<\/p>\n

Today in the market<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Today Mr. Market is wiping off some of our gains.<\/p>\n

I’ll go play tennis and focus on my down-the-line backhand.\u00a0 See you tomorrow.– Harry Newton<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each time Facebook gets hit with regulatory problems, it’s a great buying opportunity. Here are the last five days: Picking stocks, I stay away from companies that do stupid things — typically buying into an industry they don’t understand. Finding a way to give stupidity a whole new meaning. Two examples: + Altria spent $12.8 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49433"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49454,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49433\/revisions\/49454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}