On Wall Street similar to every other street, the half full glass is always a topic of conversation. Is the glass half full or half empty? Did you miss the run up or will those prices fall? The best way to avoid this is to buy quality stocks, which tends to the big well capitalization companies. However, when Wall Street bears ask about half empty, the sector will be affected. At the moment, the biggest conversation piece is the massive amount of money going into the AI. This means there will be winners and losers, how do you know?

In an article by Karen Weise and Eli Tan, the hyper scalers or the magnificent 7 are the prime movers of AI and will need a great amount of data centers. They have the revenues, the size and need for the results, however they do not do everything. Similar to many industries, they outsource.

This fall Microsoft announced a series of deals, totaling tens of billions, to lease computer power for its AI ambitions. Meta secured a $30 billion in financing to build a data center in Louisiana without taking on the debt itself. Google committed to rent computing power from a small company and then sell some of it to OpenAI.

The deals had one thing in common: they allowed the large companies to reduce their financial exposure to the frenetic, global building of data centers.

The large companies push some of the risk of the AI boom onto the shoulders of upstarts eager for a piece of the action.

Trillions of dollars are at stake as tech companies try to predict how much computing power AI will demand years down the road. If the big companies decide they do not need all the computing power, the smaller companies and their lenders will be stuck with all the consequences.

The deals also add a level of mystery to data-center financing because many companies running the data centers are far from household names. Some are privately held, do business with large startups and borrow from private lenders.

An example is Meta in Louisiana. Meta created a special purpose vehicle called Beignet Investor and worked with Blue Owl Capital, a private credit firm to borrow money for the project.

Meta is responsible for the construction of the data center, but Blue Owl is responsible for 80% of the financing. Meta agreed to rent the facility in a series of 4-year leases. This means for Meta the funding is operating cost, not debt.

Blue Owl primarily funded the project called Hyperion through a bond offering to Pimco. The firm sold the Beignet bonds, which mature in 2049, to clients including insurers, endowments, pension funds and financial advisors. BlackRock owns some of the bonds.

Andrew Rocco, a stock analyst at Zacks Investment Research, notes the key part of Meta’s strategy is they are going to get as much of this built out with what the industry calls OPM or other people’s money.

If the AI were to slow, Meta can walk away in 2033, Blue Owl would have to find new customers or sell the project.

In September, Microsoft signed a $17 billion deal with Nebius, a neocloud. In October, Microsoft signed a deal with Nscale, a privately held British neocloud. In November, it agreed to a $10 billion deal with Iren, a former bitcoin miner. It also signed with Lambda, another neocloud. (Neoclouds are the new generation of data-center providers).

Alex Platt, an analyst at the investment bank D.A, Davidson, noted it was very savvy of the big companies. There are only a handful of companies that can do it.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, large companies tend to be vey good at trying to lower risk. While everyone talks about a competitive environment, the reality is that large profitable companies to have a division or two that has monopoly like environment to make money. In the world of insurance companies they have re-insurance companies to lower the risk to the individual company. Lowering the risk, allow plenty of upside potential is the path to generating wealth.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In mid-December, a medical supply giant went public and the prices rose which is good news for all those who wanted to own the shares.

In an article by Echo Wang, Arasu Kannagi Basil, Isla Binnie and Pritam Biswas of Reuters, the medical supplies maker and distributor has been in operation for 46 years. In 2021, the company was bought by Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman for $34 billion. Five years later the company has a market valuation of $46 billion plus.

Medline was founded in Northfield, Illinois by Jon and Jim Mills and key manufacturer and distributor of supplies such as surgical kits, gloves, gowns used by hospitals worldwide. The company has 33 facilities including 19 in the US.

President Jim Boyle said we make things that cost pennies, not thousands of dollars and having a robust, diverse geography that has primary, secondary and tertiary locations.

The company reported revenues of $20.6 billion and net income of $977 million for the 9 months ended in September 27. In other words a profitable, cash-generative business which is well-understood.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in every industry there are the sexy industries and sometimes they are the best to be in, there also tends to be reasonably dependable companies that year in, year out make profits to pay dividends. The task to know which ones and ideally buy the best one to hold for a period of time. Then the markets will fluctuate, but you do not have to worry about it, just be mindful, similar to in other parts of your life – quality matters.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Every once in a while there are videos about robots, sometimes given the male dominated engineers are robots that look like potential girlfriends, but the real money in robots is made in the manufacturing sector. Robots to do the work than humans could do but they require the use of brawn, or the use of heavy lifting, and robots can work 24 hours a day as they are properly maintained. The world leader in many robots is China.

In an article by Meaghan Tobin and Xinyun Wu of New York Times News Service, in China robots are doing many of the things people can do including dancing, running and boxing. The technology is amazing, but with over 150 manufacturers, where are the sales? and the Chinese government is warning the industry was at risk for a crowd of highly repetitive products.

China gained an early global lead in manufacturing robots. China is using more robots than the rest of the world combined. In China they installed 300,000 new robots versus the US 34,000 last year.

Public and private investors have spent more than $5 billion on startups making humanoid robots.

Chinese robots makers have significant advantages: they can draw on the world’s strongest manufacturing sector and the backing of multiple levels of government. They are getting better at making parts such as motors and specialized screws in robot joints.

What Chinese robot startups have not been able to do is make humanoid robots that could transform the economy. The robots have been programmed to follow patterns, but terrible when chaos or unpredictable events happen.

Unitree Robotics is planning to do an IPO to help it becoming the leading manufacturer of humanoid robots. The price in China is US$ 6,000. The leading player in the US is Boston Dynamics and its robots are price much higher. In 2020, Hyundai Motor Co bought Boston Dynamics.

Deep Robotics raised US$70 million in its latest round of financing. The investors included: the venture capital arm of Geely, an electric automaker, and the Beijing city government’s dedicated investment fund for robotics and artificial intelligence.

Linking to dividend paying companies, technology can be wonderful and exciting, but for more cautious investors there needs to be sales. Which come first – investors or sales? With your dividends you can watch the industry see who leads the group and when things begin to shake out, snap up shares at good prices. The watching and analyzing takes homework, but without profits you want to limit the risk. Examine the early adaptors and how are they using the technology to make life better or easier for themselves. You will gain an idea of which companies are addressing the issues and solving the problems. Patience is the key and with dividends you can have patience.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

During the first half of 2026, it seemed President Trump’s principal enemy was China and every second day he was raising tariffs on one thing or another. By the end of 2026, the relationship had changed.

In an article by Li Yuan of the New York Times News Service, the world’s tallest bridge opened in China’s Guizhou province and the pr campaign was the remarkable story of China’s path to modernization.

China has been buoyed in 2026 by a surge of confidence, convinced that its governance model is ascendant and its rise inevitable. There are serious concerns such as a slowing economy, a deepening housing crisis and falling birth rates.

The US has started to frame China more of a business competitor than as a rival for military, technological power. This is a shift from the previous.

Part of the shift was seen when the President reversed Washington policy to allow Nvidia to sell advanced semi-conductors to China.

Mr. Yuan writes he has interviewed a dozen Chinese tech executives and they fell more optimistic than they have in the past 4 years.

Market sentiment has shifted, the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng stock index is up 25% this year.

China has poured billions into infrastructure spending and some of it is the best on the planet, (if you have not seen it, there are many You Tube videos to do your homework on) which shows the abilities of the country. America has to follow suit, will it?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, on the market there are battles everyday but what stands out is confidence. Who believes they can be better and why? If you buy a dividend paying stock, there are many reasons why the company can still make profits to pay dividends and you need to ensure the reasons are valid and management believes or has confidence it can do it again.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

If you listen to President Trump he denies there is climate change and but the reality is there is one industry that whether you believe in climate change or not, will charge you more – the insurance companies. Everyone needs insurance of one sort or another, sometimes it is mandated such as if you own an automobile, you need insurance to get your license to drive it. If you have a mortgage you need insurance to protect the bank. There are many other examples of insurance such as pet insurance, health insurance, but you know that very few insurance companies lose money. The insurance go into the reinsurance market to make their risk even smaller.

In an article by Pritam Biswas of Reuters, the largest reinsurance company in the world Swiss Re released a report that annual global insured losses from natural catastrophes are expect to hit $107 billion. The US stood as the most affected market in 2025, accounting for 83% of the global insured losses.

Insured losses from natural catastrophes topped $100 billion for the 6th straight year. The insurance companies has focused on tighter underwriting, higher premiums and examining risk models.

Jerome Jean Jaegeli, Swiss Re’s group chief economist, note reinsurers and the broader insurance sector has a dual role: acting as a financial shock absorber and supporting the development of resilient, risk-informed public policy and private investment that reduce future losses.

The good news, the first half of 2025 produced $80 billion in losses and the second half of $25 billion was less than the $150 billion was which projected to happen.

Rising climate risks are prompting insurers to pull back from high-risk areas across the US widening coverage gaps and increasing financial pressure on vulnerable communities.

In some areas, limited government insurance is the only product available, as private insurance premiums are too high for the average person.

2025 was a low from hurricane losses as few hurricanes made landfall on the US coast.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when someone talks about a subject, all you need to do is verify if the insurance with the subject is going up or down. The insurance companies have the best modelers in the industry and they do not like to pay out too much in compensation, if they do higher premiums for everyone is the result, whether you are high or low risk. Insurers pay a role in the economy, but lowering costs is rarely one of them.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

Last year, President Trump announced a change in the supply system by imposing tariffs and then announced his desire to 90 deals in 90 days. In the past trade deals tended to take years because they are complicated, but the President wanted deals.

The first deal was with UK and it was agreed in May and signed on September 18, 2025.

In an article by Eshe Nelson and Ana Swanson of the New York Times News Service, the critics warned the terms were loose and the commitments vague. Now the risks of that ambiguity are becoming apparent.

The US informed the British government that it would pause fulfilling a technology-related agreement between the 2 countries, which included more collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI) and nuclear energy. The move came because American officials felt that the UK was not making sufficient progress in lowering trade barriers as promised in the May agreement.

Part of the agreement was the Tech Prosperity Deal, which extended research collaborations and encouraged deeper commercial partnerships. America’s big tech companies announced more than $40 billion in investments in Britain for AI data centers and other technologies.

But the language of the agreement said it only becomes operative alongside substantive progress being made to formalize and implement the May trade agreement.

The Trump administration says the UK has made insufficient efforts. The White House announced the agreement, but has kept negotiations with countries open for months after the President has said they were done.

The 90 deals in 90 days has amounted to 15 deals which are not yet completed. There is an Supreme Court challenge coming up in January which could invalidate many of the President’s tariffs because of how they implemented (by emergency power signed by the President) rather than agreement by the House and Senate. In addition, President Trump has granted exemptions on some goods.

Linking to dividend paying companies, the companies tend to thrive in strong stable governments where the rules and regulations change slowly, but they can adapt if needed. For the tariff policy, many have adapted by controlling costs including hiring less people and raising prices. At some point there is a limit of how much costs can be cut, making greater margins is the key to success. Everyone will be watching the Supreme Court’s questions and answers as well as the rational of what the government lawyers say. Stability is good for business.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

After the US, the next biggest vehicle market is China and there is a reason why it is the second largest economy in the world. Similar to the US, which car you drive is driven by a combination of status, reliability, prices and a host of other reasons. There is a reason why the luxury brands of vehicles are large advertisers besides they work and many people know the brand names.

In an article Chan Ho-him of the Associated Press, Chinese demand for foreign luxury cars is waning as customers opt for more affordable Chinese brand models, often sold at big discounts, catering to their taste for fancy electronics and comfort.

This is bad news for European carmakers such as Porsche, Auston Maker, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW that have long dominated the upper reaches of the world’s largest auto market.

Slowing economic growth is one key driver behind weaker demand for premium cars. said Claire Yuan, director of corporate ratings for China autos at S&P Global Ratings, referring to a segment that typically counts car brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

The market share of premium car sales in China, usually priced above 300,000 yuan, more than doubled between 2017 and 2023 to about 15% of total sales, S&P said.

The share of premium cars sales fell to 14% in 2024 and 13% in the first 9 months of 2025, S&P said.

Chinese products are more competitive and more affordable even in the premium segment. The Chinese brands’ share of passenger car sales climbed to almost 70% in the first 11 months of this year, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. German brands held a 12% share, Japanese brands around 10% and US brands about 6%.

BYD already has overtaken VW as the biggest car seller in China in recent years. BYD had cut prices of its electric and plug-in models by up to 34%, putting pressure on major rivals such as Geely and Leapmotor.

Mercedes-Benz’s sales by units in China fell 27%; BMW’s dropped 11.2%

China’s monthly auto production in November surpassed a record of 3.5 million units for the first time, the CAAM reported Thursday, but domestic auto sales dropped 4% year-on-year under fading demand as some trade-in subsides were halted in some regions.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the auto sector plays a large role in the economic development of every country which manufactures vehicles. In every sector there are market segments, and most people know about the high end even though they tend to own the middle segments which has elements of the high end. If the high end is suffering, then the companies are making less profit because there is a high markup on high end products. Those at the high end of the market have the most choice and generally must project a certain image of how they are doing or not doing so they pay extra. Sometimes the mid-range has most of the features of the high range but less status. We all compare ourselves to something and that reflects our investments. This is why it is more difficult to be a value investor, buy when others are selling, sell when others are buying.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When young people learn about economics, one of the first things they learn is about supply and demand. It is the most basic method to understand how prices are determined. The process works best on commodity prices because for materials that are processed, there are often monopolies and oligopolies involved, which distorts the supply demand equation.

In an article by Polina Devitt and Pratima Desai of Reuters, copper prices are closing on the $12,000 a ton mark. The demand is from data centers that power artificial intelligence and tight supplies collide with shortages outside of the US.

Copper wiring is valued for its exceptional electrical conductivity and the demand from data centers, electric vehicles and infrastructure need copper.

Copper prices are up 35% so far this year, the largest gain since 2009.

A recent Reuters survey of analyst’s forecasts shows the copper market will see a deficit of 124,000 tons this year and 150,000 tons.

Investment bank Macquarie expects global copper demand at 27 million tons this year, up 2.7% from 2024. Demand from China is expected to rise 3.7%, outside of China demand is expected to 3% next year.

Supply disruptions this year including an accident at Freeport McMoRan’s giant Grasberg mine in Indonesia in September, while other miners such as Glencoe have cut production guidance for 2026, reinforcing expectations of tight supplies.

The overall amount of copper stored in exchange warehouses is up 54% so far this year at 661,021 tons.

Traders shipped copper to the US since March due to higher prices on Comex ahead of US President Trump’s planned import tariffs.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you own commodity stocks supply and demand is something you need to examine and ensure you pay attention to both supply and demand issues. If the company uses commodities, the issue is can the companies pass on the increased costs?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.