Big news on Wall St

Was 2014 the year the female wave started its slow ‘n’ steady ebb, disrupting the billion-dollar business boardroom? These three females are turning the tide in with their tech tactics and their stock is climbing. Do female CEOs really perform better than male CEOs?

Warren Buffett has served shareholders his secret sauce to investing. In his annual shareholder letter, he roasts President Biden, calls out creative accounting as the scourge of capitalism, and sweetens the long-term investing story by comparing the benefits of dividends and compounding returns to bonds.

Is Silicon Valley a gangland of shameless tech thieving? Maybe so… Meta’s ideas seem to be everyone’s but their own. Apple scooped Xerox but later took aim at Google for alleged tech thefts. Are there any original ideas left? Yep. Meta has, erm, stickers.

While inflation’s making a grab for our wallets we’re fighting back the only way we know how: eatin’ cheap! Dollar dining is back on the menu and while pesky supermarket prices may have stopped us reaching for a steak dinner, in the US the grills are sizzling. Yeehaw!

The ring’s heating up between billionaire battlers Musk v Munger. In the red corner, at 51 years young, weighing in at US$198.2 billion, we have Elon Musk. In the blue corner, aged 99 and the undisputed oldest investor in the world, weighing in at US$2.3 billion, we have Charlie Munger. Who will win?

Is inflation breaking hearts this Valentine’s Day? Kiwis and Americans are cutting costs on love this year, but more than half of one generation plan to spend more. But with choccie and dinner out costing more, where will cupid’s arrow land?

Could it be the wedding of the year for two old flames of the gold industry? Newmont Mining got down on one knee and proposed to acquire Aussie gold producer Newcrest Mining and are hoping they'll say yes. Is the marriage move the start of many to come?

Microsoft’s been busy. As the axe fell on staff they promised billions to ChatGPT creator OpenAI in a move that may make Google nervous. All this while they arm up against US bureaucrats trying to block their Activision Blizzard purchase. And that’s just January!

While Big Tech exchanged new year messages to staff for final pay slips to try tighten belts for a possible recession, it’s not all doom and gloom in 2023. Walmart lifted their minimum wage and the S&P 500 bounced up 6.5%. What other light could be peeping through the cracks?

Seems popular celebs have the SEC fed up and one well-known reality star has stumped up more than US$1 million in penalties for promoting a crypto token that’s since tanked. Now influencers accused of pump-n-dump activity have roused the ire of the SEC.

All eyes on Avatar: The Way of the Water to save a struggling movie industry. But despite a bumper opening weekend the big screen behemoth missed expectations. And not everyone’s an Avatard. Streaming services have upped the ante with holiday viewing. Is it enough to bring Xmas cheer?

From Costco’s Aotearoa arrival to the market’s mauling, it’s been a bear of a year. And the popcorn’s still popping! Crypto’s winter’s become a crypto ice-age, Twitter’s new boss has made a splash, and Buffett’s big oil play’s seen big returns. Here’s our top 10 investing highs (and lows) for 2022.