December 2, 2024

 

(A MELBOURNE START-UP ELIMINATING FOOD WASTE)

 

December 2, 2024

 

Hello everyone

WEEK AHEAD CALENDAR

MONDAY DEC. 2

9:45 a.m. S&P PMI Manufacturing final (November)

10:00 a.m. Construction Spending (October)

10:00 a.m. ISM Manufacturing (November)

 

TUESDAY DEC. 3

10:00 a.m. JOLTS Job Openings (October)

7:30 p.m. Australia GDP Growth

Previous: 0.2%

Forecast: 0.5%

Earnings:  Salesforce

 

WEDNESDAY DEC. 4

8:15 a.m. ADP Employment Survey (November)

9:45 a.m. PMI Composite final (November)

9:45 a.m. S&P PMI Services final (November)

10:00 a.m. Durable Orders (October)

10:00 a.m. Factory Orders (October)

10:00 a.m. ISM Services PMI (November)

2:00 p.m. Fed Beige Book

Earnings:  Campbell Soup, Hormel Foods, Dollar Tree

 

THURSDAY DEC. 5

8:30 a.m. Continuing Jobless Claims (11/23)

8:30 a.m. Initial Claims (11/30)

8:30 a.m. Trade Balance (October)

10:00 a.m. Canada Ivey PMI

Previous: 52

Forecast: 53.1

Earnings:  Ulta Beauty, Hewlett Packard, Enterprise, Dollar General, Kroger.

 

FRIDAY DEC. 5

8:30 a.m. November Jobs report

Previous: 12k

Forecast: 183k

10:00 a.m. Michigan Sentiment preliminary (December)

3:00 p.m. Consumer Credit (October)

 

ON THE RADAR THIS WEEK

This week’s employment data, culminating in Friday’s Nonfarm Payrolls report, is expected to return to normal after last month’s unusual numbers, which were off-kilter by virtue of hurricane disruptions and labour strikes.  Investors will also watch Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s upcoming speech for clues about how the central bank might respond to the trade policies expected from the Trump administration.

 

FOOD WASTE – WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

A Melbourne start-up, Freshho, aims to tackle the $940bn food waste crisis.  The startup has raised $17m to expand its platform that, which eliminates food waste and saves wholesalers a fortune by taking the guess work out of food ordering.  In other words, they are better able to anticipate their restaurant customers’ needs, thanks to artificial intelligence.

Fresho, which James Andronis and Huw Birrell founded in 2015, is now looking to expand to the US, with the raising – led by Geoff Tarrant, co-founder and former executive chairman of Payapps – valuing the company at $120m.

The pair have developed a platform that aims to make ordering produce more efficient at a wholesale level.

Mr Andronis said it had replaced fresh food wholesalers dedicating overnight staff to manually process orders, which typically arrived via email. Text, voicemails, and even faxes, which often resulted in errors and wastage.

Fresho’s AI-powered system automatically converts incoming orders into structured data while giving restaurants direct access to live pricing and availability through its app.

According to Oz Harvest, about 1.3 billion tonnes of food produced is wasted each year, costing the global economy about $940bn.  It’s also bad for the environment, with up to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions coming from goods that are produced but not eaten.   Oz Harvest commented that “if food waste was a country, it would be the third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China.

Mr Andronis says Fresho – which has processed 30 million orders since its inception and 10 million orders in the past year- says its platform has led to a dramatic reduction in food waste.

Investor Geoff Tarrant will join Fresho as a director.  Payapps, the global construction software firm he co-founded, was acquired by Autodesk for $600m in 2024.

The software platform Fresho will provide benefits for all participants in the fresh food market.

Note:  This is an item of interest post.  I will monitor Fresho’s progress as it expands to the U.S.

 

 

Fresho’s app automates sales orders to eliminate errors and guesswork that fuels food wastage.

 

 

MARKET UPDATE

S&P500

Uptrend is still intact and showing no signs of exhaustion yet.  The Santa rally is in front of us.

Next year, I will be looking for some sort of correction, be it a time correction or price correction. 

Support:  $5950/$5890

Next resistance targets:  $6085/$6120

 

GOLD

Consolidating taking place in gold after a strong rally.   Rally will continue, but we may not hit new highs until next year.  Time will tell.

Support: $2615/$2560

Next resistance target: $2,820

 

BITCOIN

The uptrend continues here.  It is expected that we will break through $100k before year-end.

Support:  $95,800/$94,900/$90,560

Next resistance target: $100,650/$109,280

 

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

PALANTIR (PLTR) Recommended on March 20, 2024, at $23.00. 

Today’s recommendation:  Take some profits off the table.

 

Daily chart

 

Weekly chart

 

 

Palantir stock has soared nearly 277% this year, climbing 47% just in the past month after the analytics software provider beat the Street’s earnings and sales estimates in its third quarter, raised its forecasts for future profit, and decided to move its stocks listing to the Nasdaq stock market from the NYSE.

I recommended Palantir on March 20 this year when the stock was sitting at $23.00.  At the end of September, we were up 61.73%.  At the end of November, however, we were up 191.65%.  Now, that’s quite a tidy return.  Let’s stick to our regime of taking some profits off the table, as after such a strong rally, we may find some sort of correction that could follow in the new year.

 

QI CORNER

 

 

 

 

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

 

 

 

 

Cheers

Jacquie