It was a curious sight in Rio and Sao Paolo as I saw various McDonald's restaurants looking like high-end eateries in these two cities. Granted, Brazilians love all things American but counterparts like Burger King (pictured here in Sao Paolo) pale in comparison. The McDonald's brand is a powerful one, and the franchise machine may endure over more generations....$MCD

Latest news from Reuters: Bankruptcy in the Works

Guess it should not be too surprising given the secular downtrend in office space and overly aggressive assumption on demand pre-Covid. It is noted that all the automotive giants ($GM $F $STLA) have filed for bankruptcy before, so this does not mean the end of $WE

Straight-Up: Tesla Q3 volumes were below expectations. While FY 2023 production is still targeted at 1.8mn, I wonder if Elon will repeat his aspiration for 2mn on Oct 18, when Tesla hosts its Q3 earnings call. The descriptor “around 1.8 million” in yesterday’s announcement is causing some concern that Tesla may even fall short of the baseline volume guided.

More importantly, what will FY 2024 look like? On the one hand, Cybertruck will be a meaningful addition, with pre-orders already exceeding 2mn; conversely, much will also depend on the demand environment next year.

Read more below, plus research extracts from Goldman, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley:

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New Rivian $RIVN showroom popping up at Ponce City Market in Atlanta. Got a sneak peak when I walked past it. Location is great and I am looking forward to seeing its colorful fleet line the open parking lot right in front of this upcoming store!

Since co-writing “Disney 2.0: Iger to Reclaim the Magic?” in December 2022, $DIS stock has not moved at all, which frustrates any shareholder. After the initial excitement surrounding Iger’s return faded, markets have focused more on the faults of its DTC pivot—cash burn, subscriber loss, dilution, competition, Hulu overhang—than the strength of its Parks, franchise value, consumer business, and its still-powerful ESPN network.

I did a sum-of-the-parts valuation and concluded that the share price then--and by extension, now--was supported by its domestic parks, film studios, television networks, and consumer products. Streaming appeared to be ignored by the markets and remains the case today.

Click on the link below for my thoughts on a potential sale of ABC network and a buyout of Hulu.

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For years, Salesforce $CRM forced its way into hypergrowth with ambitious acquisitions ($WORK was its largest, at almost $30bn) and aggressive spending, as exemplified by its annual Dreamforce. Its stock price rose in tandem, especially when topline growth was the key selling point for software companies in the markets.

Now, sentiment has shifted, and profitability—or at least the ability to prove substantial operating leverage—has become a main stock price driver.

The Salesforce today is shaping a different narrative. Gone are the aggressive hiring, over-generous perks, and lax cost controls: Amid a weaker demand environment, management’s primary focus is to drive down costs as hard as possible to surprise on margins. Just look at the latest cashflow and profitability trends below.

Please click on the link below for my review of Salesforce $CRM latest Q2 2024 results, and thoughts on their current valuation. Do you think Salesforce is a GARP and would therefore quality as a "a wonderful company at a fair price," to borrow a line from Warren Buffett?

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Spotted this upcoming Rivian $RIVN showroom at Ponce City Market, a popular lifestyle mall in Atlanta. This is an excellent spot for an electric vehicle showroom, given the foot traffic and location right outside the parking lot for test drives.

EV makers are expanding into popular malls for their showrooms, a contrast to the legacy dealership model. While e-commerce is a headwind for retail malls, not all is lost, as some DTC vendors need to establish a physical presence. At Westfield Century City (Los Angeles), Vinfast $VFS is opening a large showroom to compete directly with Lucid $LCID and Tesla $TSLA for attention.

Have a read of my recent posts on the San Francisco real estate market and my Rivian $RIVN test drive experience. Do subscribe to my weekly blog, Consume Your Own Tech Investing too.

San Francisco is the global headquarters for many technology companies, and the industry has minted countless entrepreneurs and investors. Salesforce $CRM is among the largest software companies based there, and its gigantic Salesforce Tower—completed in 2018—represents a crowning achievement for its founder, Marc Benioff. I was there in late July and was curious to experience the city again in a post-Covid world.

One Friday morning, I walked up Mission Street to the building with a cup of Starbucks ($SBUX) coffee in my hands and felt a sense of awe. At 1,070 feet with a grid of metal fins running from the base of the building to the roof, Salesforce Tower was an architectural marvel. At the same time, I could not help but wonder how much of the office space would be utilized that day.

The office property market is undergoing seismic changes amidst the proliferation of remote and hybrid work. San Francisco is the epicenter of multiple headwinds impacting commercial real estate: extensive layoffs, weakened office demand, and a disproportionate concentration of technology companies most adaptive to a remote or hybrid work environment.

Have a read of this week's post and do subscribe to my weekly blog, Consume Your Own Tech Investing too.

Share your thoughts on remote work, retail shops, office space, and San Francisco in the comments section below.

The author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance manages to weave philosophy into a semi-autobiographical road trip, often comparing the art of motorcycle maintenance to life. One particular discussion in the book that made an impression is "stuckness" and how to get "unstuck," according to the author.

To better appreciate the topic, I decided to write this week's blog post about experiencing "stuckness" in our investments. In the current market, some of us may feel captive by macroeconomic conditions or externalities that are beyond our control.

Have a read of the post and do subscribe to my weekly blog, Consume Your Own Tech Investing too.

Share your thoughts in the comments section below, especially if you are also a fan of the book or enjoyed my prior post on "Quality" @valuation @jazziyoung @tomato @dissectmarkets @raymondevans

Started reading the classic book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values recently and was struck by its multi-layered discussion on the meaning of "Quality".

When investing, we often talk about quality of earnings and management, but the book seems to suggest that "Quality" is much more nuanced and undefined. At the same time, it posits that most people can intuit what "Quality" is when it is present.

Please read the link below as I try to unpack "Quality" using exemplary consumer-related companies like Nike $NKE Apple $AAPL Amazon, Costco, Tesla, and Netflix. I also look at arguably lower-"Quality" ones like Peloton $PTON and Allbirds $BIRD

Share your thoughts below in the comments section. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an oldie but goodie.

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