Column: Are dividend aristocrats losing their shine? Jiří Soustružník examines recent comparisons between traditional dividend aristocrats and a newer cohort dubbed "buyback aristocrats." Goldman Sachs popularized the buyback-aristocrat concept — companies that have cut their share count by at least 1% in at least nine of the past ten years — and its chart shows buyback aristocrats outperforming dividend aristocrats and the broader market on an equally weighted basis. Soustružník notes key caveats: many of these comparisons mix apples and oranges by ignoring risk differences. If dividend aristocrats are materially less volatile than the market, their risk-adjusted returns could look better. Conversely, if buyback aristocrats carry higher risk, their outperformance may narrow once adjusted. Examples of buyback aristocrats cited include Bank of America, JPMorgan, Applied Materials, eBay, Ross Stores and TJX. Another important ambiguity is whether the shown returns are price-only or total returns (price plus dividends). Price-only returns would understate dividend aristocrats, which typically have above-market dividend yields. Soustružník concludes that simple return comparisons favor buyback aristocrats in recent years, but stresses that risk and return measurement need to be considered; he promises further analysis. #dividends #buybacks #BankofAmerica #JPMorgan #FiatNews

The US government has agreed to form a strategic partnership with Westinghouse Electric, Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management to build new nuclear reactors in the United States valued at at least $80 billion (about CZK 1.7 trillion), according to a Westinghouse press release. The deal aims to accelerate deployment of advanced nuclear technology nationwide. "Our administration is focused on ensuring the rapid development and deployment of advanced nuclear technologies. This historic partnership supports our national security goals and strengthens our critical infrastructure," said US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in the release. Westinghouse technology will be used for the new plants; interim CEO Dan Sumner previously said the company plans to build ten large reactors in the US. Bloomberg reports the reactor buildout is part of a broader effort to meet rising electricity demand associated with artificial intelligence. The agreement signals a major federal push to expand domestic nuclear capacity for security and infrastructure resilience. #Westinghouse #Cameco #Brookfield #nuclear #USA #FiatNews

PayPal has signed an agreement with OpenAI to integrate its digital wallet into ChatGPT, enabling buyers and sellers to transact via the AI tool starting next year. PayPal shares jumped double digits on the news, rising as much as 15% in premarket trading and trading about 12% higher an hour after the opening bell. Under the deal, more than 700 million weekly ChatGPT users will be able to purchase goods directly with a PayPal wallet. PayPal will handle payment authentication and processing for merchants on ChatGPT, so individual sellers will not need to register separately with OpenAI. OpenAI has already announced e-commerce integrations with Shopify, Etsy and Walmart. PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said, "We have hundreds of millions of loyal wallet holders who will now be able to click the 'Buy with PayPal' button on ChatGPT and have secure, protected payments." He added, "It’s a whole new paradigm for shopping. It's hard to imagine that agentic commerce won't be a big part of the future." The company also raised its full-year EPS guidance to $5.35–5.39 from $5.15–5.30 and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share for the first time in its history. #PayPal #OpenAI #ChatGPT #PYPL #FiatNews

Apple and Microsoft each surpassed a $4 trillion market capitalization on Tuesday, marking a first for Apple and a return to that level for Microsoft after a brief showing in July. Nvidia remains the world’s most valuable company with a market cap above $4.6 trillion. Microsoft shares rose about 3% in premarket trading after reports the company acquired a 27% stake in OpenAI’s for‑profit arm; the stock is up roughly 6% over the past three months, CNBC reported. Apple reached the milestone amid stronger-than-expected sales of the new iPhone 17 line since its September launch; Apple shares have risen in 11 of the last 12 trading days and are up about 25% over three months. Microsoft is scheduled to report earnings on Wednesday and Apple on Thursday. Strategic supply‑chain shifts helped Apple’s valuation: the company moved much production destined for the U.S. out of China and into India and Vietnam and pledged increased domestic investment. 'The announcement of increased domestic investment combined with a rapid shift of production for the U.S. market outside China (India, Vietnam) improved Apple’s position in the tariff environment,' said Samik Chatterjee, analyst at JP Morgan. #AAPL #MSFT #NVDA #iPhone #FiatNews

Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt and Joel Mokyr won this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics for analyzing growth driven by innovation — a process in which ‘creative destruction’ plays a central role, economist Peter J. Klenow notes on VoxEU. Aghion and Howitt’s 1992 model showed that “when a new and better product enters the market, firms selling older products lose,” making innovation both creative and destructive. Historical and modern examples range from cars replacing wagons and Walmart overtaking small retailers to Apple and Samsung eclipsing Nokia and BlackBerry, Amazon displacing brick‑and‑mortar stores, Netflix supplanting Blockbuster, Uber/Lyft cutting into taxi markets, ChatGPT challenging parts of Google’s business, and Waymo competing with ride‑hailing firms. Klenow highlights worrying trends: business dynamism has slowed and the share of employment at firms younger than five years in the U.S. dropped from 24% to 15%, which has likely contributed to weak productivity growth. He also stresses institutional risks — incumbents and affected workers may block innovations — and the need to balance strong property rights and patent protection with antitrust enforcement. As an illustrative point, he notes that if a new drug is 10% better, the innovator may capture the full profit from that advance. #NobelPrize #innovation #economics #CreativeDestruction #FiatNews

German consumer confidence fell ahead of November, driven mainly by a sharp deterioration in income expectations, institutes GfK and NIM said. The consumer confidence index dropped by 1.6 points to -24.1 from a revised -22.5, while Reuters' poll had forecast a rise to -22.0. NIM highlighted the weakness in income sentiment as the main setback. "Because of the persistently tense geopolitical situation, renewed inflation worries and growing fears of job losses, hopes for a short-term recovery in consumer sentiment are fading," said NIM analyst Rolf Bürkl. He added that the income expectations index lost nearly 13 points in October, falling to 2.3 — its lowest level since March (when it was -3.1). Other components showed mixed moves: willingness to save slipped slightly from 16.1 to 15.8, willingness to spend edged up from -11.6 to -9.3, and the economic expectations index rose from -1.4 to 0.8. Those small gains were insufficient to offset the large fall in income expectations, which dropped from 15.1 to 2.3. Germany — the largest economy in Europe and the Czech Republic's biggest trading partner — has recorded contraction over the past two years. Five leading German economic institutes estimated GDP growth of 0.2% for this year and 1.3% for next year; the government’s outlook published in early October echoed that forecast. #Germany #GfK #NIM #GDP #FiatNews

Former Ford CEO Mark Fields told CNBC that U.S. automakers are reassessing future demand between internal-combustion and electric vehicles and are adjusting cost structures accordingly as foreign competition intensifies. He said government changes to penalties for emissions non-compliance have, for now, favored domestic manufacturers and that companies are “trying to optimize their costs in light of these factors while Chinese firms attack them.” #EVs #Ford #GM Fields noted Ford and GM posted strong recent quarters, driven by SUVs and trucks, but warned that global supply chains remain under pressure—an issue that began in 2020 and was aggravated by the chip shortage. He expects write-downs tied to EV manufacturing capacity to grow as automakers continue to revise demand forecasts. “Oil is a non-renewable resource, so demand for electric cars will rise. It will not, however, grow at the pace automakers predicted,” he said. CNBC coverage cited rapid declines in used EV prices, with charts showing selected models losing value fastest over five years; brands that hold value tend to be mid-size non-EV models, though some luxury EVs still depreciate quickly. Fields added that auto financing is a relatively small portion of consumer credit and that lenders have tightened standards, limiting immediate systemic risk, while suppliers remain the weakest link and could face consolidation. #FiatNews

Keurig Dr Pepper shares surged 7.6% after the company raised its full-year revenue guidance and said it secured roughly $7 billion to help finance its planned acquisition of Dutch coffee group JDE Peet’s. #KDP #FiatNews

Major tech earnings due this week: Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Alphabet are scheduled to report on Wednesday, followed by Apple and Amazon on Thursday. Investors will watch results closely amid recent market gains and macro developments. #MSFT #AAPL #FiatNews

Qualcomm launched a chip it says will be competitive with current leaders Nvidia and AMD. Shares jumped 11.1% on the announcement. The news arrives ahead of a busy tech earnings week, with major firms set to report results over the next days. #QCOM #NVDA #FiatNews