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Embracing AI in Hollywood – and beyond

When the Writers Guild of America finally lifted its 148-day long strike in late September 2023, it hailed a major victory in the battle over the use of AI in the film and TV industry. The terms of the agreement signed with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers preclude studios from resorting to […]

“It’s always darkest before the dawn”

For most companies active in the solar space, the stock market ride of the past few years has been very rough – a far cry indeed from the performances of the “Magnificent Seven”. Massive Chinese production of solar panels has caused a global supply glut, exerting downward pressure on end prices. Combined with the failure […]

All lights turning green for a healthcare recovery

JP Morgan’s Healthcare conference, in the second week of January, has become a traditional rendez-vous for investors. It is where numerous healthcare companies gather to kick off the year, discussing the latest developments in their respective businesses. The 2024 edition proved, yet again, a mine of information, warranting a summarised account here – and perhaps […]

A red and gold Christmas

The holiday season has come and gone, with its usual shopping frenzy. What has long been known as “Black Friday” probably warrants renaming into “Red Friday” though. Indeed, e-commerce took on a decidedly cross-border tone this Christmas, with Chinese platforms disrupting the market and testing the limits of US tariff laws. Which in turn could […]

The power of sport

More than just another running competition, the early December Course de l’Escalade has become a true Geneva tradition. And what drives thousands of participants, of all ages and levels, to regularly don their sporting gear despite bleak autumn weather conditions and dwindling daylight time. Beyond the actual results on the day of the race, such […]

World War Manufacturing

Global dependency on a few specific regions for semiconductor and pharmaceutical manufacturing has long been a concern. In both of these critical industries, a shift towards reshoring — bringing manufacturing back to home countries — has been gaining traction recently. A move driven by a number of factors, including geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, and […]

The great demographic challenge

If deciphering the economic cycle has never been this difficult, it is certainly because other, more structural forces are currently at play. Beyond complicating the interpretation of economic reports, the Covid pandemic and subsequent war in Ukraine have also served to accelerate some underlying trends. It is quite possible that we stand today on the […]

Embracing a shame-free future for air travel

Beneath the majestic sweep of an airplane’s wings lies a world of contradictions. For the excitement of discovering new destinations often also entails guilt about the carbon footprint that such travel leaves. What if we could ease this conflict and find a way to balance our desire to fly with that of taking care of […]

The urge to travel

The travel industry is on fire in this 2023 summer season. A sharp recovery in demand, record-breaking customer bookings, China’s reopening, renewed pricing power: most companies are currently enjoying margins at or above pre-pandemic levels.Beware, however, not to fully give in to the prevailing euphoria. In a world of high interest rates and slowing economic […]

Oops, Hi did it again!

Given the media and market hype surrounding Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) these days, let us here take a step back and adopt a more balanced view. AI is not likely to fully replace Human Intelligence (HI) but will rather enhance it, augment it, and ultimately enable it to continue to lead mankind’s innovation and evolution. […]

The case for small- and mid-cap stocks

The time to consider increase small- and mid-cap exposure is now! Over the past few months, these stocks have underperformed their larger peers by a wide margin, to the point, we would argue, of already pricing in a recession. Together with their currently attractive valuation ratios and historically demonstrated tendency to shine early in the […]