Hello
It is an energy focused top ten this week as news events really show a ‘narrative’ change continuing very quickly.
S&P Global has stopped handing out scores to corporate borrowers on ESG criteria, this follows a Lance Roberts piece on how ESG is dying its inevitable death. To get a real understanding on how this ‘game’ worked, listen to Patrick Bet-David explain how the big ETF firms dominate share ownership and have such influence on how they are run. As predicted by many of my energy contacts, it was just a matter of time before this trend slowed down due to all its deficiencies.
Oil prices and stock prices in the sector are having a great run and Eric Nuttall thinks the EV push will not have a material impact on the sector.
At the same time, more problems in the renewable space as the WSJ wrote about the large projects being cut back in the wind industry. Cost pressures are mounting and the spending in the area is slowing down.
I highlighted the big LNG conference held last month in Vancouver, and Susan Sakmar talked about the event and the LNG sector on Smarter Markets.
I have many close contacts on the intelligence space, and I have been told many stories about corporate spying by the Chinese over the years. A great interview with Eamon Javers explains this strategy as he starts out talking about Nortel’s technology being compromised and how Huawei grew because of it. By the way, it was only a few years ago when Huawei was the intermission sponsor on Hockey Night in Canada and many of us could not believe it.
There is chatter that the work from home strategy will be expanded here in BC with our provincial government. So, it is interesting to see the company Zoom getting their workers back in the office. How ironic as I am pretty sure they understand the many inefficiencies with this strategy.
There is also lots of coverage on Meta’s decision to shut down advertising in Canada after the Bill C-11 came into law. They tried in Australia before and it was reversed and an article about it explains.
To close, a story from Winnipeg and what a high school class did in their final year! Life on the prairies was so simple and fun back then.
David and Amy
Number 1 - S&P Global has stopped handing out scores to corporate borrowers on ESG criteria, at a time of rising questions about their utility and political attacks on such metrics.
https://www.ft.com/content/9426937e-28d3-4846-8440-c30583524d4c?sharetype=blocked
The debt rating agency has since 2021 published scores from one to five for a company’s exposure to each element of environmental, social and governance risks. As posted to the Financial Times this morning, Andy Brenner, head of international fixed income at Natalliance Securities, said he agreed with S&P’s decision to back away from ESG scores. “[ESG] is very hard to measure. I think it’s an overrated concept,” he said. And…You’re done.
https://schneiderwealth.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/SP-drop-ESG-scores.pdf
Number 2 - ESG Is Dying Its Inevitable Death - Lance Roberts
https://advisoranalyst.com/2023/08/03/esg-is-dying-its-inevitable-death.html/
While consumers have certainly punished companies that overstepped boundaries on ESG issues recently, maybe the company we should boycott is Blackrock itself. A concerted effort to either pull funds or choosing not to invest in its products may send the most explicit message that the real focus should be on fundamental performance first and foremost. Since investors vote with their dollars, such mainly explains why ESG is dying its inevitable death.
Number 5 - Wind Industry in Crisis as Problems Mount
More than $30 billion in spending is delayed as setbacks pile up for renewable-energy sector
https://schneiderwealth.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Wind-WSJ.docx
Number 6 - Susan Sakmar, Visiting Professor at the University of Houston and Author of “Energy for the 21st Century”
“LNG has to be a product that’s affordable if we want it to go around the world… I would say we’re still in the second inning of the globalization of LNG.”
https://www.smartermarketspod.com/summer-playlist-2023-episode-3-susan-sakmar/
Number 7 - “China’s Corporate Spy War” – with CNBC’s Eamon Javers SpyCast
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/spycast/id201680433?i=1000623790920
It starts with Nortel and now Huawei exists….They look at Boeing and what China is doing….
We hope you found the Top Ten interesting this week, and are looking forward to another selection of articles, stories, and commentary next week. If you know of anyone else who would be interested in receiving our weekly note, please let me know.
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