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John Paul Hampstead

John Paul conducts research on multimodal freight markets and holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Michigan. Prior to building a research team at FreightWaves, JP spent two years on the editorial side covering trucking markets, freight brokerage, and M&A.
Jul - 2019 -
18 July
John Paul Hampstead

SAP: margin headwinds, but headed for the cloud(s)

A five percent drop in licenses contributed to a modest disappointment, but management is excited about Qualtrics.

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16 July
John Paul Hampstead

Goldman Sachs initiates coverage of six transports

Jordan Alliger rated UPS, FedEx, and J.B. Hunt ‘Buy’; XPO and C.H. Robinson ‘Neutral’; and Expeditors ‘Sell.’

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15 July
John Paul Hampstead

Transplace makes end-to-end real-time visibility a standard offering

All of the carriers on Transplace’s platform will integrate with Descartes MacroPoint by January 2020.

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12 July
John Paul Hampstead

Susquehanna cuts transports price targets but anticipates good setup for spot-exposed brokers

Bascome Majors says contract rates will be under downward pressure for the rest of the year, but spot rates may have already turned up.

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11 July
John Paul Hampstead

GlobalTranz launches GTZamp, a next-gen digital freight matching solution

GTZamp automates multi-movement routes, offering loads to drivers based on an ever-growing number of attributes.

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John Paul Hampstead

Deutsche Bank revises truckload estimates downward but still likes rails

Although volumes are down across modes, rails don’t need top-line growth to improve cash flows.

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John Paul Hampstead

C.H. Robinson: speed, visibility and cost are key to successful retail compliance

Executives from C.H. Robinson discussed increasingly strict retail compliance programs and how to exceed expectations.

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08 July
John Paul Hampstead

Morgan Stanley cuts transports price targets, says ‘second-derivative trade’ is on

This morning (July 8) Morgan Stanley’s transports equities analysts cut their 12-month price targets for most of the companies they cover, but said that following the release of second quarter […]

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03 July
John Paul Hampstead

The return of geopolitical risk

In partnership with Slync… data integration layers are crucial for managing and adapting to new risks to supply chains.

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02 July
John Paul Hampstead

Oilfield service trucking carriers crushed by evolving demand

Halliburton, Schlumberger Limited, and Basic Energy Services have seen their stock prices decimated by weak demand and a fierce price war.

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01 July
John Paul Hampstead

Ocean Spray says Uber Freight provides the right balance of service and cost

Uber Freight moved 1,500 loads for Ocean Spray last year, and the shipper says the relationship will continue to grow.

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Jun - 2019 -
28 June
John Paul Hampstead

Lakefront: hedging trucking rate risk could raise public carrier valuations

We caught up with Gary Saykaly, who is running a new Trucking & Freight Derivatives Group at Lakefront Futures & Options.

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27 June
John Paul Hampstead

Flooding and transport issues behind month-long grains rally

Generic corn and wheat futures are up nearly 30% since May 10 on depressed yields and constrained transportation in the Midwest.

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John Paul Hampstead

Carggo brings high-growth tech to small freight brokerages

In partnership with Carggo… small freight brokers now have a white-label solution for automated load matching.

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26 June
John Paul Hampstead

The next China? There isn’t one…

No single country can absorb the trade flow from China to the U.S., and likely contenders are already growing faster than capacity.

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25 June
John Paul Hampstead

Freight brokers: June “not as busy as we thought it would be”

Brokers said there are lingering trouble spots from Road Check week, but markets are already softening.

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23 June
John Paul Hampstead

China’s parcel industry still in high-growth mode despite macro backdrop

Although some Chinese economic indicators are flashing warning signals, Yunda, STO, YTO, and ZTO are still on fire.

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21 June
John Paul Hampstead

FreightWaves research: trade demand will plunge if 25 percent tariffs extended to all Chinese goods

The Trump administration is considering levying tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese exports to the United States so far unaffected by duties. Freight Intel, FreightWaves’ proprietary research group, […]

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John Paul Hampstead

Slync’s Logistics Orchestration: where data and action meet

In partnership with Slync… data from across the supply chain must be integrated and automatically pushed to decision-makers.

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John Paul Hampstead

Commentary: Is the U.S.-China trade war behind bitcoin’s latest bull run?

It appears that Chinese retail investors are moving capital out of the country in response to the devaluation of the yuan.

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20 June
John Paul Hampstead

Uber Freight publishes its inaugural Facility Insights Report

A few months after launching the Facility Ratings feature in its app, Uber Freight has published its first Facility Insights Report, a compendium and analysis of carriers’ ratings of shipper […]

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15 June
John Paul Hampstead

Single-use plastics bans: a risk for the petchem industry

BP imagines a scenario where a plastics ban crushes demand for petchem feedstocks.

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14 June
John Paul Hampstead

Will Omnitracs be the next big private equity deal?

We’ve heard reports that Vista is having trouble getting buyers at its $2 billion price tag for Omnitracs.

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12 June
John Paul Hampstead

Freight brokers still expect a summer turn-up

Freight brokers report upward pressure on spot rates and still expect robust summer volumes.

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10 June
John Paul Hampstead

Key takeaways from Stifel’s 3PL call with Armstrong & Associates

The good news is that Evan Armstrong of Armstrong & Associates thinks that U.S. third-party logistics providers’ (3PLs) revenues will grow at a 7.7 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) […]

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John Paul Hampstead

Four models forecasting trucking spot rates in 2019

We look at the trucking futures forward curve, Morgan Stanley’s index, the Coyote Curve, and projections from Susquehanna.

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07 June
John Paul Hampstead

Transfix’s new chief revenue officer wants to change digital brokerage’s business model

Transfix, the venture capital-backed digital freight marketplace based in New York City, announced that Ahmad El-Dardiry joined the company as its new chief revenue officer. El-Dardiry comes to Transfix from […]

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John Paul Hampstead

Demand-driven retail supply chains need automated wholesale routing

In partnership with Slync… AWR products enable supplier and retailer networks that react as one.

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05 June
John Paul Hampstead

Cross-border freight brokers not panicking yet about Mexico tariffs

Executives from Redwood Logistics, Forager Logistics, and Transplace discussed the risks posed by new tariffs on Mexican imports.

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03 June
John Paul Hampstead

One number explains why the Tesla Semi won’t be seen any time soon

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is simply not investing enough cash back into its business in the form of capital expenditures to construct the production lines and build out the service infrastructure […]

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John Paul Hampstead

Buy and build: the private equity strategy behind the new class of 3PL majors

To gain insight into the shifting landscape of freight brokerage, sometimes it’s best to follow the money, not the shiny new technology. The freight brokerage industry is undergoing a wave […]

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John Paul Hampstead

When freight brokerage revenues plateau and what to do about it

Freight brokerage in the United States is mostly made up of small companies that have trouble scaling their businesses beyond certain revenue thresholds due to unstructured processes, under-utilization of technology, […]

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John Paul Hampstead

Digital brokerage apps should think like social media networks

Commentary As digital freight brokerage apps learn to concentrate on driving user engagement and building dynamic marketplaces that adapt to user behavior, they will start to resemble social media networks […]

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May - 2019 -
14 May
John Paul Hampstead

Do Lyft and Uber IPOs signal stretched mobility tech valuations?

Two of the most-anticipated initial public offerings (IPOs) of the year have not gone exactly as planned, but what does that mean for other marketplace-style startups in the freight and […]

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13 May
John Paul Hampstead

Expedited spot markets crashed harder than regular truckload

Expedited carriers and brokers discuss the reasons for weakness in expedited spot markets.

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10 May
John Paul Hampstead

Smart contracts bringing the world economy online

Agoric CEO Dean Tribble explained how smart contracts use cases in logistics are interdependent and build on each other.

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John Paul Hampstead

IBM’s Stephen Rogers addresses BiTA on transport’s adoption of blockchain

According to IBM research, transport execs are keen to adopt blockchain and understand its use cases.

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John Paul Hampstead

Craig Fuller unveils FreightWaves SONAR 4.0

On stage at Transparency19, FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller unveiled SONAR 4.0 (video included).

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07 May
John Paul Hampstead

“Not hedging is the risky behavior”: trucking freight futures at Transparency19

On Monday afternoon at Transparency19, Addison Armstrong, executive director of trucking freight futures at FreightWaves, moderated a conversation between Nodal Exchange, where freight futures are traded, DAT, whose rate indexes […]

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John Paul Hampstead

How to survive intensifying supply chain competition

Presented by Slync… smart investments in supply chain tech is crucial to competing.

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06 May
John Paul Hampstead

Krug, Waggoner and Yeager talk mergers and acquisitions

During the morning session at Transparency19 on May 6, Stifel investment banker John Larkin moderated a discussion about mergers and acquisitions between Renee Krug, CEO of GlobalTranz; Doug Waggoner, CEO […]

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John Paul Hampstead

J.B. Hunt launches new drop trailer program 360box

J.B. Hunt is transforming into a truly mode-agnostic capacity provider.

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02 May
John Paul Hampstead

Coyote calls for year-long slide in contract rates, but 2020 will tighten up

FreightWaves has also observed downward pressure on contract rates and the beginning of a capacity bleed-off.

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01 May
John Paul Hampstead

C. H. Robinson isn’t afraid of Amazon

C.H. Robinson officials said their business model and technology has allowed the company to adapt through multiple cycles.

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Apr - 2019 -
30 April
John Paul Hampstead

FreightRover shakes up leadership team after Celadon indictment

CEO Eric Meek and COO Danny Williams — who pleaded guilty to securities fraud last week — are no longer with the freight payments company.

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John Paul Hampstead

Ryder beats earnings and raises guidance

But Ryder’s 3PL division, Supply Chain Solutions, is expected to go into negative year-over-year growth next quarter.

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26 April
John Paul Hampstead

Breaking: Amazon’s digital freight brokerage platform goes live

Amazon could build a zero-margin equivalent of C.H. Robinson inside the ‘shipping costs’ line on its P&L without anyone noticing.

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John Paul Hampstead

Amazon’s digital freight brokerage platform goes live

Amazon could build a zero-margin equivalent of C.H. Robinson inside the ‘shipping costs’ line on its P&L without anyone noticing.

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John Paul Hampstead

Chevron posts earnings beat on aggressive expansion in Permian Basin

WTI’s recovery this quarter should accelerate production in the Permian Basin, driving further truckload demand.

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John Paul Hampstead

Stricter shipper requirements drive automation of exception management

In partnership with Slync… Supply chain exceptions are being automatically moved toward resolution and visibility into the problem provided to all relevant partners.

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25 April
John Paul Hampstead

Alaska Air reports beats earnings expectations – once it excludes lingering merger costs

This is the year when ALK expects Virgin America merger synergies to ramp up, but they’re still adding back costs associated with the deal.

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John Paul Hampstead

Updated: Old Dominion beats earnings on lower OR, but no 2019 revenue guidance

CEO Gantt lowered capex guidance by $10 million to $480 million, likely reflecting top line headwinds, but we’re waiting to hear updated revenue guidance in the conference call.

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24 April
John Paul Hampstead

Updated: Echo Global Logistics squeaks out an earnings win against tough comparisons

Despite a crash in truckload spot prices (approximately 50% of ECHO revenue), the freight brokerage beat analyst expectations.

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John Paul Hampstead

SAP posts operating loss on expensive Qualtrics integration

SAP posted impressive growth in cloud revenue while avoiding a concomitant drop in licenses.

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23 April
John Paul Hampstead

Freight brokers call market bottom, look for spring tightening

Green shoots: reefer capacity is tightening in south Florida, south Texas, and southern California.

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18 April
John Paul Hampstead

Wintrust Bank: the financiers of Chicago’s high-growth 3PLs

Wintrust’s working capital lines of credit leave brokerages with more control than equity raises and have lower cost-of-capital than factoring.

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John Paul Hampstead

Trent Broberg promoted to chief operating officer at Truckstop.com

Broberg wants to drive operational excellence throughout the company as it accelerates product development.

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17 April
16 April
John Paul Hampstead

Celadon Group divests its asset-light Logistics division

P&S Transportation added Celadon Logistics to TA Services, its asset-light brokerage.

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15 April
John Paul Hampstead

At TIA, Capital Logistics’ Feig explains how brokers price volatile markets

Have a strategy that you believe in and don’t forget to price in volatility, Feig said.

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12 April
John Paul Hampstead

At TIA, freight tech firms cast themselves as enablers, not disruptors

Inexpensive cloud-based technology is leveling the playing field between small, mid-sized, and large 3PLs.

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John Paul Hampstead

“Flywheel is turning faster and faster”: Transfix’s Drew McElroy at TIA

Transfix is betting that its carriers care more about asset utilization than rate per mile.

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10 April
John Paul Hampstead

Jeff Silver and Paul Loeb found Mastery Logistics Systems

The technology company will focus on appointment-making, track-and-trace, and eliminating paperwork.

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09 April
John Paul Hampstead

MoLo Solutions raises new capital, staffs up C-suite

The Chicago-based freight brokerage is operating at a $100 million run rate.

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08 April
John Paul Hampstead

Uber Freight, Convoy rise as traditional load boards lose market share

Insurgent digital brokerage apps are increasing their share of downloads while load boards are largely stagnant.

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04 April
John Paul Hampstead

Burris Logistics and Trinity Logistics merge

Burris Logistics, a $3.5 billion revenue 3PL, and Trinity Logistics, a $550 million revenue brokerage, are tying the knot.

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03 April
John Paul Hampstead

ICONIQ Capital invests in Truckstop.com at $1B valuation

This morning Truckstop.com announced that ICONIQ Capital, a leading Silicon Valley growth equity firm, has made a majority investment in the online freight matching and load board solution.

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John Paul Hampstead

White House: Trump would let trucks cross Mexican border if it closes

Even if the border remains open to freight, shutting out the ~500k workers, students, shoppers, and tourists who legally cross each day would still have a major economic impact.

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02 April
John Paul Hampstead

The retail apocalypse, omnichannel and supply chain analytics

In partnership with Slync… retailers are shifting to omnichannel strategies to survive disruptions from e-commerce, but implementing omnichannel requires sophisticated supply chain data analytics.

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John Paul Hampstead

GlobalTranz acquires Circle 8 Logistics

Circle 8 is GlobalTranz’s ninth acquisition since January 2017.

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01 April
John Paul Hampstead

C.H. Robinson announces interim CFO and new reporting structure

Scott Hagen, the Corporate Controller, will be the interim CFO, and Robinson Fresh will be lumped in with ‘Other’ services in CHRW’s financial reporting.

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John Paul Hampstead

LoadRunner, the pricing and digital freight matching engine at the center of the Redwood – Strive brokerage operation

In partnership with Redwood Logistics… we spoke to Michael Johnson, the architect of Strive Logistics’ LoadRunner matching and pricing engine.

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Mar - 2019 -
29 March
John Paul Hampstead

Simpson: J.B. Hunt committed to freight market transparency

J.B. Hunt wants to make freight marketplaces more efficient by making information more transparent.

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John Paul Hampstead

Transportation industry celebrates ahead of freight futures contract launch

Guests at FreightWaves headquarters enjoyed a cocktail reception, dinner, and talks from industry luminaries.

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28 March
John Paul Hampstead

Brokers, carriers, and Wall Street agree: freight volumes stagnant

Port container volumes, railroad volumes, and truckload volumes are all down year-over-year.

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26 March
John Paul Hampstead

Private equity on a mission to bring transport and logistics into the future

Private equity and venture capital are major forces consolidating transport & logistics and bringing technology into the industry.

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25 March
John Paul Hampstead

Southwest’s fuel hedging strategy: an example for Trucking Freight Futures

Southwest surfed the volatility in petroleum markets and maintained a strong financial position by aggressively hedging jet fuel.

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John Paul Hampstead

Southwest’s fuel hedging strategy: an example for Trucking Freight Futures

Southwest surfed the volatility in petroleum markets and maintained a strong financial position by aggressively hedging jet fuel.

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22 March
John Paul Hampstead

Convoy launches automated bidding for carriers

The feature is intended to save carriers time and money that they would spend searching for and booking loads.

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21 March
John Paul Hampstead

C.H. Robinson announces departure of CFO Andrew Clarke

The former CFO of Forward Air, CEO of Panther Expedited, and CFO of C.H. Robinson hits the open market.

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John Paul Hampstead

Weekly Market Update: volumes, prices largely sideways

Large markets lost market share and reefer capacity loosened across the Midwest, but some markets look more favorable for carriers.

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20 March
John Paul Hampstead

Federal Reserve says no rate hikes, 2.1% GDP growth in 2019

Fed downgrades GDP growth projections, cancels rate hikes, stops balance sheet runoff, but “economic fundamentals are strong.”

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John Paul Hampstead

Alabama Motor Express opens new sales office in Atlanta

The Atlanta sales office will support both the asset-heavy and asset-light sides of AMX.

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19 March
John Paul Hampstead

Soft CVTI guidance sparks truckload selloff

Covenant Transport is the first enterprise carrier to lower guidance for Q1 on a numbers of headwinds, none of which are macroeconomic—yet.

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18 March
John Paul Hampstead

Credit spreads suggest that Europe’s economy could be turning a corner

Investors are risk-on for Europe, putting money into Italian, Greek, and junk bonds, and equities.

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15 March
14 March
John Paul Hampstead

Uber and Waymo seeking outside funding for autonomous tech

Uber and Waymo are admitting they don’t want to commit the resources necessary for autonomous tech to be commercially viable.

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13 March
John Paul Hampstead

FEMA contractor Lipsey Logistics CEO arrested for cocaine distribution that includes kids

FEMA contractor and logistics executive are arrested for distributing cocaine to minors. If convicted, government contracts could be at risk.

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