Cocktail Investing Ep 17 - Trump Tax Plan, 1Q 2017 Earnings Gauntlet, Pepsi vs. Coke

Cocktail Investing

In this week’s episode of the Cocktail Investing Podcast, Tematica’s resident mixologists, Lenore Hawkins and Chris Versace, once again dig through all the earnings noise, economic data and latest policy plans spinning out of Washington to distill it down into clear investing signals.

As usual, there is a helpful amount of fun and good humor along the way as they discuss new confirming signs the economy slowed in 1Q 2017 and is starting the current quarter off on rather soft footing. Amid a frenzy of corporate earnings reports this week that includes 200 of the S&P 500 set of companies, one commonality across those reports that we've spotted is expectations for the current quarter are being dialed back. Are Chris and Lenore surprised? No, they are not, because they have been tracking both the hard and the soft economic data, as well other corroborating indicators like truck tonnage, rail traffic and other transport data.

Lenore and Chris review that data and more as well as talk about:

• Their reactions are to the Trump tax plan (that is if you call a few bullet points a plan), the recent French elections as well as the latest reading from the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow that puts 1Q 2017 GDP at just 0.2 percent;
• Why the interest rate spread between German and US treasury yields is probably not sustainable;
• Which five stocks are responsible for driving the market higher thus far in 2017? Hint - It’s not Goldman Sachs (GS);
• How PepsiCo’s (PEP) positive surprise vs. Coca-Cola’s (KO) latest round of layoffs speaks to our Food with Integrity investing them;
• While Lenore’s watching Grimm on Netflix (NFLX) and Chris is consuming Bosch on Amazon's (AMZN) Prime Video, they ponder how long until they become the next commodity business like Verizon Wireless (VZ) is today;
• How Disney (DIS) is slashing 100 on-air personalities at ESPN as it looks to position it more in line with our Connected Society investing theme;
• How stunned they were about a new report that calls for 8,600 brick & mortar stores to close in 2017 - a fourfold increase compared to 2016, and more than were closed during 2008. Look out Simon Property Group (SPG) and other mall-based REITs.

Companies Mentioned on the Podcast

• Alphabet (GOOGL)
• Amazon (AMZN)
• AT&T (T)
• Caterpillar (CAT)
• Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG)
• Coca-Cola (KO)
• Comcast (CMCSA)
• Disney (DIS)
• Facebook (FB)
• International Flavors & fragrances (IFF)
• Microsoft (MSFT)
• Netflix (NFLX)
• PepsiCo (PEP)
• Starbucks (SBUX)
• Under Armour (UA)
• US Steel (X)
• Verizon (VZ)

Resources for this podcast:

• Chris Versace - @_ChrisVersace
• Lenore Hawkins - @EllesEconomy
• Tematica Research - https://www.tematicaresearch.com