U-Turns from Beijing to Omaha 🚧

🌞GM🌞

Greetings from the Green Mountains of Vermont. We're noticing a lot of starting and stopping this AM. Warren Buffet, Wal-Mart, JD, Ford-- all companies conducting some form of a strategic u-turn.

Let's dive in 🤿

Trends ✨

Louis Vuitton picked Pharrell Williams as its menswear creative director. The multiple Grammy-winning artist follows in Virgil Abloh’s footsteps. (QZ)

🧿 We are really excited to see what Pharrel does with the internationally lauded brand. There has been a lot of criticism lately that couture is borrowing too much from other walks of life but we’re optimistic that Pharrell will bring some unity following Virgil Abloh’s passing.
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JD.com is calling it quits in Thailand and Indonesia. The Chinese e-commerce giant won’t be processing any more orders in those markets. This is the first step in an exit strategy unfolding to give customers time to use up their balance and pay off any debts. (QZ)

🧿 Unlike government spending, consumer growth does not just grow wherever you plant it. China’s next great economic hurdle is nurturing its newly minted consumer economy in its mainland as well as its peripheries.
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Walmart is shutting down three of its US tech hubs. This is an abrupt u-turn from its expansion plans just a year ago. (RT)
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Layoffs are poisonous to company culture and CEOs aren’t dealing with the fallout, Sarah Green Carmichael writes. There’s a lot more execs can do to mitigate the gloom. Here’s how companies (and employees) can regain their equilibrium. (BBG)
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Markets 💹

Ford temporarily halted production and stopped shipments of its F-150 electric pickup truck over an unidentified battery problem. (BBG)
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Warren Buffett changed his mind about TSMC. His company Berkshire Hathaway cut its holding of the chipmaker by 86% just three months after investing $4.1 billion. (QZ)
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Palantir reported its first profitable quarter. The software company shares were up by as much as 19% after its fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts’ expectations. (CNBC)

🧿 This chart that I got from App Economy Insights, a great Substack.

Special 🧿

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway revealed several changes to its portfolio through recent filings. Today we are digging into these investments to try and determine what Berkshire is telling us given it's actions. Will send through a voice-note on Telegram covering this.

Check out some of the changes on Reuters. (RT)
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Chart Du Jour 👨🏻‍🍳

Meme Digestif ☕️

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