We dive in to why you should care about Uber’s global data breach, Jeff Bezos’ fortune and Wall Street’s record highs. (Reading time 3:18 mins)
This information does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider if the relevant investment is appropriate having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs.
1. Uber’s Cover-Up
Uber is in hot water over a significant data breach affecting up to 57 million drivers and passengers worldwide.
Several American states are taking legal action against Uber since the transportation company failed to notify anyone, and paid off hackers to destroy the data instead.
What does this mean if you’re invested in Uber and/or use the service?
Having a data breach that impacts 57 million user and driver accounts is bad – hiding the fact is even worse.
Chances are you aren’t an investor in Uber because it’s a private company; the general public haven’t been offered a chance to invest in Uber yet.
However, if you’re an Uber customer, there are questions over the company’s integrity and ability to keep your data safe.
Uber’s cavalier attitude towards government regulations has worked in their favour when launching services to millions of people worldwide. The recent data breach cover-up reveals the downside of this approach.
What does this mean if you’ve invested money with AtlasTrend?
We believe the next 5 to 10 years will see a marked increase in data breaches around the world. There is more data for hackers and criminals to attempt to steal as we move more of our lives online.
As a result, the need for cybersecurity will continue to grow exponentially. This is an area of investment opportunity for our Big Data fund.
2. Jeff Bezos Tops US$100 billion
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has further solidified his title as the world’s richest person, cracking the US$100 billion mark for the first time following the official start of holiday shopping season.
Bezos’ net worth jumped up more than US$600 million from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, largely due to the Amazon stock surging.
What does this mean if you’re invested in Aussie retail stocks?
Money tends to be a motivating factor for a lot of people, but once you exceed certain levels – it loses its importance. We believe Jeff Bezos is way past that point, and is likely no longer driven by the accumulation of wealth.
When Bezos talks or writes about Amazon, his focus is always on innovation, the company’s long-term vision and remaining obsessively focused on the customer experience.
Conversely, many CEOs of large Australian retailers are typically more focused on making enough short term profits to keep their jobs or receive a bonus.
Amazon’s recent Australian launch poses a significant threat to these Australian retailers, and trying to compete with their superior customer experience will be no easy feat.
What does this mean if you’ve invested money with AtlasTrend?
Several AtlasTrend managed funds are invested in Amazon.
Despite Amazon’s huge success since it launched in 1994, we believe the next 20 years may see Amazon significantly improve its performance.
This should come as no surprise given the company’s leader cares more about customers than his US$100 billion fortune.
3. Wall Street on a High
It’s been a tumultuous year in US politics, full of uncertainty and a steady stream of contentious tweets from Donald Trump, and yet Wall Street has come out on top.
Stock market records continue to be broken, fueled by strength in the technology sector and looming corporate tax cuts.
What does this mean if you’re invested in the stock market?
You should be happy if you’ve invested in stocks this year, because most major stock markets around the world (including Australia) have seen strong positive gains over 2017.
Despite growing political uncertainty around the world, companies have continued to grow and deliver strong returns for shareholders.
We believe the outlook for 2018 continues to be strong, particularly in the major economies outside Australia.
What does this mean if you’ve invested money with AtlasTrend?
AtlasTrend’s managed funds are invested in the major stock markets outside of Australia.
We believe it’s where strong, long-term returns will come from as major global companies are the leaders in innovation and technology – the key drivers for growth over the next 10 years.
We are cautiously optimistic about the global stock market in 2018, and believe any significant drop in the markets could represent a potential buying opportunity.
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