This year, the talk of robots taking over our jobs has grown louder. Robots can build cars and even quick serve restaurants are using more technology at the front of the house. But you have to look to Japan for the future of self-checkout systems as they are already going live. Thanks to an aging population, Japan is searching for answers to mitigate expected labor shortages in their homeland. Because of this, the government in conjunction with their five major convenience stores plans to introduce self-checkout in the next several years. The new age registers will instantly calculate the prices of all items in a basket at once and also bag them for you.
China’s JD.com at the forefront of drone delivery
While many of us in America look to Silicon Valley for innovation, perhaps we need to look even further west as China's e-commerce giant JD.com is leading the way in drone delivery. The company has already delivered packages via drone and last month announced plans to build 150 drone launch facilities for unmanned aerial vehicle delivery (UAV) parcel delivery. They have already secured government approval (which Amazon has had trouble with in the US) in select provinces in China to make deliveries.
3 Bubble Warnings to Listen to Before It’s Too Late
It's time to listen to the best and brightest. The world's economies are stagnant or weakening while the stock market is overvalued. The time has come to be conservative. Most investment firms do not place importance on asset protection. Runnymede is an exception; we take asset protection very seriously. As such, we devote much time to market analysis and will make changes when necessary depending on our clients' objectives.
Here are 3 bubble warnings that experts are telling you to take note of right now.
Where have all the (S&P 500) earnings gone?
In the short term, many factors can influence the direction of stock prices. We discussed central planners impacting the markets just last week. However over the long term, it's earnings that drive stock prices higher or lower. This is a simple concept to understand. If a company loses money year after year, it will struggle to stay in business. Not many people will choose to invest in a losing operation so the stock price will go down. On the other hand, if a company delivers consistent high levels of growth, it will attract many investors driving the stock price higher. This concept can also be applied to the broad market indices like the S&P 500. Therefore it makes sense to look at S&P 500 earnings estimates.