Notes From All Over -- August 23, 2021

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 

Jim Cramer: four companies that can increase their prices and buyers won't balk: Netflix, Costco, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. 

NASDAQ: hits all-time high.

S&P 500: hits an all-time high today.  

Dividends:

• APA to pay today;
• MNRL to pay later this week  (8/27/21)

PFE:

• vaccine now has full FDA approval;
• will buy Trillium, a cancer drug developer, in $2.3 billion deal

JNJ:

• about the only blue chip stock that is negative in today's surging market
• huge talcum powder overhang
  

ShiT: shops inside Target

• first it was Starbucks, Toys 'R Us, then Ulta
• will now add more than one hundred Disney shops to stores as holiday season approaches
• Target is my favorite retail store; Amazon? Favorite e-tail
• I can bike to Target in less tan two minutes; it's like going to local grocer in the old days
• our local Target is making huge addition, but I don't know what
  
• sells beer, wine; needs to find way to work with Texas to be allowed to sell spirits

Got profits? wind-turbine makers struggling; link to WSJ; 

The world’s appetite for green energy is greater than ever, but that isn’t translating into big profits for some of the companies behind the boom.

Top wind-turbine makers are struggling with lower earnings as rising raw- material costs, problems shipping the hulking machines, and uncertainty over the future of U.S. subsidies pressure their businesses.

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA and Vestas Wind Systems A/S, two of the largest global manufacturers, reduced profit forecasts for the remainder of the year. General Electric Co., another leading turbine manufacturer, reported year-over-year growth in turbine sales but hasn’t turned a profit in that segment this year.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 

Chariots on fire. How did I miss this one? We all heard the news on the $1 billion Chevy Bolt recall, but it turns out Hyundai recently announced a hefty recall, one of the most, if not the most, expensive in the industry in history, link here, April 15, 2021.

As of March 2021, Hyundai Motors had already made 82,000 recalls of its sold vehicles. Even though it is a minor figure in the auto industry in terms of numbers, the per-vehicle cost basis makes the recall to be one of the most expensive in the industry.

Its rival, GM, had recalled seven million vehicles because of faulty airbags by its 2020 fourth quarter. But the value of the recalls cannot compare with the value that Hyundai will incur despite the high number of recalled vehicles.

The expensive fault that Hyundai experienced affected some of its electric cars. The company received 15 reports on battery fires. Even though no injuries or fatalities occurred because the fires happened when the vehicles were shut and empty, the company has to replace the entire battery system at a total cost of $900 million.

The said overall cost translates to $11,000 per car. The price stands as “astronomically high,” according to CNN business news. When compared with the $157 that GM spent on each recalled car, Hyundai will incur hefty costs.

Hyundai stated that it would approach LG to negotiate about sharing the costs because the fault was out of a misaligned cell of a battery. However, LG seems hesitant to agree to the collaboration.

My favorite chart, US money market fund monitor, link here. These folks are earning zero percent on their money. They are also ignoring the recent $1 trillion infrastructure bill already passed and the $3.5 trillion social infrastructure bill working its way through the US Congress.