1. Stock Buybacks Down 46% In 2nd Quarter…Lowest Since 2012.
Dave Lutz at Jones Trading —Provisional figures show the total spent on buybacks by companies in the S&P 500 was about $89.7bn, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, down 46 per cent from the same quarter last year.
PKW Buyback ETF -11% vs. SPY +5%
2. High-Yield Bond Trading Volumes Have Returned to Normal Levels.
Guggenheim
3. U.S. Dollar Weakness….Dollar About to Break Thru 200 Day Moving Average on Chart…Falling Back to 2018 Levels.
UUP-Dollar right on 200 day moving average long-term weekly chart
4. Technology Equipment Spending Rose to a Record 50% of Total Capital Spending During 2nd Quarter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-yardeni/
5. How Much 19 Major Car Brands Make Every Second….Tesla 19th with Largest Market Cap.
Visual Capitalist
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-how-much-revenue-automakers-generate-every-second/
6. American City Budgets Under Major Erosion.
Philly Biz Journal
Editor’s note: This story is available as a result of a content partnership with The New York Times. Subscribers will see stories like this every day on our website (and in our daily emails) as an added value to your subscription.
The coronavirus recession will erode city budgets in many insidious ways. It will slash the casino revenues that Detroit relies on. It will squeeze the state aid that is a lifeblood to Rochester and Buffalo in upstate New York. It will cut the sales tax revenue in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a healthy government depends on people buying things.
The crisis has arrived faster than the damage from the Great Recession ever did. And it will cut deep in the fiscal year ahead, with many communities likely to lose 10% or more of the revenue they would have seen without the pandemic, according to a new analysis. That’s enough for residents to experience short-staffed libraries, strained parks departments and fewer road projects. The hardest-hit cities like Rochester and Buffalo could face 20% losses.
“The Great Recession was a story of long, drawn-out fiscal pain — this is sharper,” said Howard Chernick, a professor emeritus of economics at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, who worked on the new analysis estimating revenue shortfalls for 150 major cities across the nation.
These numbers give a sense of the possible economic pain for cities if Congress and the White House fail to agree on a new relief package that includes aid to state and local governments. It also rebuts some of the prevailing, largely Republican arguments that have stalled those negotiations: that federal help will bail out only blue cities and those that have mismanaged their finances.
Many cities facing steep losses are in states represented by Republican senators, like Florida or Louisiana. And the analysis found little relationship between whether a place was fiscally healthy before the pandemic and the most dire projections of revenue shortfalls.
The recession is about to slam cities. Not just the blue-state ones.
7. 50% of Residential Real Estate Markets Strong….18% Very Strong.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnburns7/
8. Covid Hospitalizations Down -26% in 23 Days…Dropping 1% Per Day.
Zerohedge
There’s more: as BofA also points out, “we continue to see clear signs the Coronavirus is rolling over in the US as the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 declines at a rapid pace of about one percent a day (26% in 23 days).”
Extrapolating, this rate of decline means that there will be zero covid-related hospitalizations around the Nov 3 election day, a feat that if marketed properly, could mean the differnce for Trump between victory and defeat.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Rolling Over: The Number Of US Hospitalizations Is Declining By 1 Percent Per Day by Tyler Durden
9. Mental Fitness Pyramid.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/219198706848234748/
10. Four Steps To Repair Broken Trust
The pandemic could break the bond of trust with your people. Here’s how to fix it.
BY PETER COHAN, FOUNDER, PETER S. COHAN & ASSOCIATES@PETERCOHAN
This moment is a high-stakes test for business leaders. While the Covid-19 pandemic threatens the financial viability of many organizations, an even more fragile and vital resource is at risk: the trust between the leader and the employees.
It is very easy for a leader to lose trust when people are feeling fear. A simple question such as “Will the organization provide daily reports on the health of employees and others working on our buildings?” can erode or build trust. As I wrote in Value Leadership, the leader can build trust by promising to provide such information and then — crucially — fulfilling that commitment.
Other responses — such as writing down the question and hoping it does not recur or promising to provide the information and not following through — can result in an abrupt erosion of trust. When trust is lost, employees will start looking for a way out.
The good news is that leaders can rebuild lost trust through a formula. According to First Round Capital,
Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Authenticity) / (Perception of Self Interest)
What does this mean? Simply put, people trust you more if they believe that you know what you are talking about, if you do what you promise to do, if you are easy for others to know, and if they see you as putting the organization’s interests above your own.
If you have lost trust with your people, here are four ways to use this formula to help you rebuild it.
1. Diagnose and rebuild lost credibility.
Credibility comes from having the knowledge, experience and familiarity to perform a particular role well. The pandemic has certainly put leaders in a situation in which they are forced to deal with problems that require knowledge and experience that they lack.
Leaders who are perceived as losing credibility should ask their employees to explain why. If that loss of credibility comes from a lack of expertise in dealing with a new problem created by the pandemic, the leader should simply admit that weakness and move quickly to hire a colleague who can supply the needed expertise.
2. Jump start your reputation for reliability.
If you’ve made promises to people and then failed to deliver, you are in a precarious position. If you are lucky, people who depend on you will give you a serious tongue-lashing to make sure you understand that you have made a huge mistake that could cost you your leadership role.
In response, you should admit that you made a mistake and ask for forgiveness. Then begin rebuilding your reputation for reliability. As I wrote in Value Leadership, the key is to promise a measurable outcome for your organization by a specific time and deliver on that promise. Only if you repeat this process consistently can you rebuild your reputation for reliability.
3. Make yourself easier for others to know.
The term authentic leadership gets thrown around frequently these days — but what does it really mean? In my view, others will perceive you as authentic if you reveal to others what makes you tick by telling stories about yourself.
Last month I had lunch with the CEO of a tech startup who did this well. He was a base guitar player in a punk rock band who had a child and needed to make a living fast. He found his way into a sales job which he loved because all he had to do to excel was to make his sales targets.
In a few minutes, this CEO shared his essential values — a rebellious, independent nature who does what it takes to take care of people for whom he feels responsible.
4. Act more for others than for yourself.
A leader should be the opposite of command and control — meaning that the organization revolves around satisfying the ego and obeying the orders of the one in the big office.
For leaders to sustain trust, they must serve the people in the organization. How can you do that? Start by articulating a clear and inspiring purpose that attracts and motivates people. Next, listen to the people you’ve attracted to your team and remove the obstacles that creep up to impede their initiatives to realize that inspiring mission..
If your interactions with people make them feel that you are putting the organization’s interests above your own, you will further enhance the trust you need to lead effectively.
AUG 16, 2020
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
https://www.inc.com/peter-cohan/four-steps-to-repair-broken-trust.html?cid=sf01003
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