Korn Ferry: The Crisis as a Tipping Point for 3D Printing

By SIMON CONSTABLE

3D printing started out as a novelty invention and grew to become a small but fast-growing part of the manufacturing world. Now, COVID-19 has given a whole new meaning to the value of this technology in today’s gridlocked world of supply chains. 

Used for creating everything from oil rig replacement parts to artificial skin for a cosmetics maker, the technology could be an important answer to companies that outsourced heavily and now find themselves helpless. The technique, of course, employs computer codes to allow for the production of items via local machines, eliminating the need for a far-flung manufacturer. Read more here.

Photo by Tom Claes on Unsplash

John Batchelor Show: Edinburgh quiet but glorious in springtime of the virus

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Forbes: COVID-19 Panic Sparks Record-Breaking Gold Buying Binge During First Quarter

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

The COVID-19 pandemic has made investors go crazy for gold so far this year. 

In the first quarter, they snapped up a record-breaking $23 billion of exchange-traded funds that hold the metal, according to a recent report from the World Gold Council. These investments include the grand-daddy of all bullion ETFs, the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD). Read more here.

Forbes: How COVID-19 Killed The Stock Buyback Program

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The COVID-19 pandemic may have torpedoed one of corporate America’s favorite activities: Buying back their own shares.

Since the end of the financial crisis a decade ago, each year the companies in the S&P 500 index have spent hundreds of billions of dollars conducting stock buybacks.

But this year the COVID-19 virus will likely put an enormous dent in those programs. Read more here.

WSJ: A 3x ETF Shows the Perils of Leverage

BY SIMON CONSTABLE

The market tumult has highlighted a potential double hazard for individual investors: the pitfalls of leveraged funds, and the need to read the fine print in any investment.

One particular fund provides an instructive example for both issues. It is Direxion Daily S&P 500 High Beta Bull 3X Shares (HIBL), which is designed to deliver three times the return of the daily move in the S&P 500 High Beta Index. Read more here.

NYSE Trading Floor 1963

pingnews.com, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes: April Will Bring Peak Virus Panic, Analysts Say

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Here’s some bad news and good news for investors.

First the bad news.

This month is going to look bleak when it comes to news about the killer virus COVID-19, experts say.

"We have been commenting for months that the month of April would be the key month where the virus panic would likely peak," states a recent report from financial firm Hackett Financial LLC. Read more here.

Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash

Korn Ferry: The Risk of Cutting Dividends

By SIMON CONSTABLE

If there is one pattern that is holding true in the global pandemic era, it’s that one company after another is making some hard choices about paying. Pay employees? Pay vendors? And increasingly, the knife is hitting the once unthinkable: dividends. Read more here.