While You Were Working - January 31 - SmartBrief

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While You Were Working – January 31

Boeing powered a market rebound and highlighted economic disconnect in US, GE on the brink, quants back the Pats, and Spurs score fast

4 min read

Modern Money

Boeing

Boeing exemplifies economic disconnect in the US (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Boeing powered a market rebound and highlighted economic disconnect in US

It looks like Boeing laid off just the right amount of employees to please investors and power a market rebound today. In fact, Boeing has laid off 34,000 workers since 2012. That is an eye-popping number; especially considering how much the US economy has grown in that time.

In the last year, Boeing’s stock price has doubled and the company has hosted a rally for President Donald Trump that touted jobs, jobs, jobs. And still, the company continued to lay off employees. And for anyone thinking recent tax reforms would lead the company to create more jobs, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg threw cold water on that notion today when he said the benefits of a reduction in corporate taxes would mean, “More of an employment plateau in the near-term.”

Well, at least they are going to stop laying people off! But even that isn’t a certainty as there are those who think some turbulence might lie ahead for Boeing.

The markets obviously think Boeing’s management team is doing a heck of a job. That is true … for investors and probably for the executives own compensation packages. But the same thing can’t be said for Boeing’s workers. In fact, the next time there is talk about how workers aren’t benefitting from tax reforms or the seemingly endless rise in the stock market, the story of Boeing should be put forth as Exhibit A.

It might be an end of an era for GE

The troubles at General Electric don’t appear to be ending any time soon. In fact, Deutsche Bank thinks GE might soon get booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Index. GE was one of the original companies for the Dow when it first launched 110 years ago. Seeing it removed from the index would be sad. It would also raise some serious questions about just how good a job former boss Jeff Immelt did at running GE and positioning the company so it could survive following his departure.

On the “news” about Jamie Dimon’s future

I continue to laugh at all the press coverage this announcement by JPMorgan is getting. The bank issued the press release on Monday and it got picked up by numerous outlets. The release focuses on how Daniel Pinto and Gordon Smith will be co-presidents and co-COOs going forward. However, all the coverage and all the headlines seem to lead with how Jamie Dimon plans to stay in the chairman and CEO role for another 5 years. Even today, the analysis of that press release continues.

I laugh at all this coverage generated by Monday’s press release because Dimon said last Wednesday in Davos that he was staying in place for 5 years. Maybe all the financial press weren’t watching Bloomberg (The succession topic comes up at the 18:45 mark of the video). Or maybe they couldn’t hear through all the helicopter noise.

Squaw Valley goes green

I guess if your entire business depends on the climate not changing, it makes sense that you would want to use renewable energy to power all your operations.

No need to buy chips and salsa (and beer) for the Super Bowl

It turns out the game doesn’t even have to be played. The quants at Wells Fargo say the Patriots are gonna win and they have picked the big game surprisingly well against the spread over the last 14 years.

WYWW Appetizers