Stocks & Equities
The 2020 election saw proposals for sports betting pass in the three state ballots it was on. Louisiana, Maryland and South Dakota represent 4% of the U.S. adult population and will allow sports betting as early as 2021.
Here is a look at the companies that could benefit from the three additional states passing sports betting.
Penn National Gaming PENN 8.19%: In an October presentation, Penn National listed upcoming ballot initiatives as a growth plan.
The company has the option to acquire the Hollywood Casino Perryville in Maryland. Penn National also has five casinos in Louisiana.
Penn National saw success with its Barstool Sportsbook in Pennsylvania and is converting its physical sports betting properties to coincide with the Barstool brand name.
MGM Resorts International MGM 1.03%: The MGM National Harbor is one of six casinos open in Maryland. The physical casino could give MGM’s joint venture BetMGM an inside track to launch online sports betting in the state.
Caesars Entertainment CZR 4.47%: The Horseshoe Casino in downtown Baltimore is owned by Caesars. The casino is located in close proximity to the sports stadiums of the Baltimore Ravens and Baltimore Orioles.
Churchill Downs Inc CHDN 1.93%: The Ocean Downs casino in Maryland is owned by Churchill Downs. The Fair Grounds Race Course in Louisiana is another Churchill Downs property.
The company’s Bet America sports betting brand is available in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Indiana. The legalization in these two states could help the company diversify from its live horse racing revenue…CLICK for complete article
Amidst Tesla’s (TSLA) meteoric rise, a sizable contingent of investors have become skeptical of its ability to live up to its market capitalization. They point to the company’s “ludicrous” valuation, increasing competition from established automakers, and concerns around cash management. If Tesla were solely an automaker or even an automaker with green energy production capabilities, these bearish investors’ claims may have some validity. But it is not. In fact, one of Tesla’s most significant assets – its vehicle data – is overlooked by nearly everyone, despite its incredibly immense potential.
Tesla is a world leader in car data, which can be monetized in myriad ways often neglected by market analysts
Tesla started collecting driving data, including data on location, speed and acceleration measures, steering, the surrounding driving environment (from cameras and ultrasonic sensors), and personal settings, in 2018. Since then, the company has collected over 3 billion miles of real-world driving data. To put the incredible scale of this in perspective, one would need to circle the Earth 378,891 times to travel 3 billion miles. Indeed, the scale of Tesla’s data-gathering operation is unmatched. Its closest competitor, Waymo, has only amassed 20 million miles, and other self-driving car companies are struggling to crack the 1 billion mark. George Paolini, a former EVP at SAP, has called it “the most effective crowd-sourced AI/ML training initiative around today.” Despite its commanding position, Tesla has yet to see significant financial benefits from this plethora of data…CLICK for complete article
Markets anticipate a Biden victory. Y’day stocks rose on expectations a clear result will ultimately generate wider stimulus, improve the US government’s Pandemic response and bring predictability back to US policy. The polls say Biden will win a comfortable national majority (which counts for zero), and the all-important electoral college majority. Polls are split on the Senate races, but if Biden wins States he’ll likely take their coin-toss senate seats in his wake.
But, the next few days are likely to be tense. The VIX has slipped slightly from 40 on Friday – a clear “Danger, Danger Will Robinson” moment, but a high reading remains a warning of how volatile markets believe the post-election markets could go. If polls are wrong and we get a shock result… hold on tight.
How messy might it be? Compare and contrast the candidates yesterday. Trump hammered on about electoral fraud, how “bad things happen in Philadelphia”, a “stolen election” and is already resorting to the courts. Biden is calling for national unity. Trump has already set the narrative and it staggers me to read things like.. “Trump can only lose if there is massive electoral fraud.” Or one email I got: “Trump will only lose PA if it is stolen from him in Philly and in ballot counting.” Democrats are warning about the dangers of polling stations being intimidated by right wing militias, and ballot stuffing.
The coming week will be the busiest and most important 5 days of the year, if not decade. It is a “huge week” for investors with the election, a Fed decision, 128 S&P earnings, October payrolls, ongoing pandemic lockdowns and a ton of economic data all due.
“Whichever way you look at it, this coming week will be huge for U.S. and global markets,” said Simon Ballard, chief economist at First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC. “We see the potential for a sharp rise in volatility around these events — and all in the context of a still deteriorating Covid-19 situation across much of the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.”
Starting with the pandemic, as DB’s Jim Reid writes this morning, Europe is facing up to a harsh winter ahead. The question to be asked to all the European countries is can they come out of these measures in some form towards the end of November/early December as is hoped or will they be extended further. The hit to the U.K. economy which just announced a new round of lockdowns will be softened by an extension of the furlough scheme but that will only add more to the debt. The hope everywhere is that well before the winter/spring peak virus season is over we’ll have the start of a vaccine program or more realistically in the near term a huge advance in rapid result testing. The latter has to be the greatest hope of restrictions being eased before a vaccine has mass rollout. Meanwhile, overnight Bloomberg reported that Italy might tighten restrictions further today with PM Conte wanting more localised curbs depending on virus transmissions – something some regional authorities are resisting.
Covid aside, of course the top event this week be tomorrow’s US election off the front pages for the next few days: 93.29 million have already voted so far, which is 67.7% of 2016’s total, and as Reid notes, “It’s fair to say markets could look very different on Wednesday morning as a “Blue Wave”, if it happens, should get the stimulus junkies hungry to buy and a divided government could remind people of the long winter ahead. So a very big week.”
Canadian real estate sales have been impacted by the pandemic in an unexpected way. RBC Economics recently unpacked a trend of rising condo apartment listings. Dense cities filled with condo apartments, are seeing sellers flood the market. Meanwhile, mostly detached suburban markets are seeing inventory heading in the opposite direction.
Toronto Condo Listings Rise 134% In The City
Greater Toronto real estate is seeing a lot of condo sellers hit the market, especially in the City. The City has 134% more condo listings in September, when compared to last year. To contrast, detached home listings are down 12% over the same period. The 905 suburbs saw a similar trend, with condo listings rising 82%, and detached listings falling 34%. Not quite as extreme, but the suburbs are seeing more condo sellers as well…CLICK for complete article
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