Notes From All Over -- Late Afternoon Edition -- June 29, 2021

Facebook, re-posting this story. This time from The LA Times daily newsletter:

Facebook Inc. won a court ruling dismissing two monopoly lawsuits filed by the U.S. government and a coalition of states that sought to break up the company, dealing a blow to the effort of antitrust officials to take on the biggest tech platforms. 

The decision by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington sent Facebook shares soaring; it pushed the company’s market value to more than $1 trillion. 

Boasberg granted the company’s request to dismiss the complaints filed last year by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general led by New York, saying in his opinion that the FTC failed to meet the burden for establishing that Facebook has a monopoly in social networking.

Walmart: to introduce a discount private label insulin brand at steep discounts for diabetes patients. Perhaps more on this later. Link at Yahoo!Finance. All I can say is where has the US government been on this one all these decades. Truly a sad, sad story.

Banks: wow, it seems like just yesterday that banks were in disfavor by all the talking heads. Hopefully, folks took advantage of that. LOL. Windfall of big bank dividends point to more shareholder return. Reported earlier: BAC announced that it will be increasing its quarterly dividend by 17%. 

Now this from Brian Cheung over at Yahoo!Finance:

The large banks are raining dividends on their shareholders after getting a clean bill of health from the Federal Reserve. And bank analysts say the windfall of capital returns is only just beginning.

Last Thursday, the Fed cleared all 23 large banks tested in its annual stress exercise, which examines each firm’s ability to withstand a hypothetical severe recession.

Facing a real recession last year, the Fed imposed restrictions on dividends and share buybacks at the large banks to preserve capital. But the stress test results last week convinced the Fed that it could lift those temporary restrictions.

As a result, several banks on Monday afternoon announced increases in their dividend plans.

Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo both doubled their dividends (to $0.70 a share and $0.20 a share, respectively). The nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase increased its dividend to $1.00 per share from $0.90 per share.

Dividends are pretty amazing. I pay a lot in income taxes on dividends, but it's very possible my cash flow from dividends before I die will be greater than the cash flow of all my other investments and other financial holdings. And that has been through very, very conservative investing which has not affected my lifestyle one bit. 

Same with "401(k)s": allowing folks to retire early. What a great country. My hunch: it is just a matter of time before Congress takes notice. This was another investment vehicle that affected my quality of life not one bit but is certainly making a difference now. f

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Computer Chips

Because of the blog, I have a pretty good "understanding" of this story. From MarketWatch, another Intel product delay drags on chip stocks, Dow. Intel revealed Tuesday that the next generation of its Xeon Scalable data-center processor, code named “Sapphire Rapids,” would come out later than expected because it was building new features into the chip.

But look at this: it's still a 10-nanometer chip. Apple is moving toward a 3-nm chip.

Last year, Intel had forecast its 10-nanometer Sapphire Rapids would come out some time in 2021, about a month after it announced a delay of its generation of 7-nanometer chips out to at least late 2022. 

In chip parlance, nanometers, or nm, refer to the size of the transistors that go on a computer chip, with the general rule being that smaller transistors are faster and more efficient in using power. 

In January, then-incoming Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger started addressing the 7-nm chip delay, and in March announced aggressive plans to build out Intel’s manufacturing capabilities. 

In a note titled, “Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news
first?” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon speculated on why Intel was making this announcement because he couldn’t “imagine the company would do this unless it was necessary.” Rasgon has an underperform rating on Intel and a $43 price target.

Also here from Ian King, "Intel falls on latest server chip delay; rival AMD gains."

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