Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

What’s Happening At The Blackline?

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Against all odds, stock markets have managed to roar through the first quarter of the year, seeing all major indexes closing off the final trading week of the quarter on new highs despite high levels of uncertainty, inflationary pressure, and the high-interest rate environment. 

On Wednesday, March 27, the benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.53%, pushing total quarterly gains to roughly 10% for the first quarter of 2024. Since late January, the benchmark index has been setting new records and hasn’t looked back ever since. The index is now on track to clock in its biggest first-quarter gain since 2019. 

Similarly, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite reported similar gains, with the Dow Jones rising 0.40% and the Nasdaq up 0.40% during late Wednesday afternoon trading. 

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Learning Lessons The Hard Way 

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Inflation, bad economics, and slower consumer spending have hit even the nation’s most affordable retail stores – Family Dollar. 

On Wednesday, 13 March Dollar Tree announced its fourth-quarter earnings, and despite the revenue growth over recent months, the company announced that it’s planning on closing nearly 1,000 of its Family Dollar-owned stores. 

Back in 2015, Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar in a $8.5 billion deal in an attempt to create a coup de grace that would challenge nearest discount competitors Dollar General and Walmart. 

Unfortunately, Dollar Tree had to learn these lessons the hard way, following the acquisition and the difficulty of having to rebuild the reputation of the downtrodden Family Dollar brand that has been ridiculed with bad publicity and increasing competition within an already slow consumer market. 

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BYD Bonanza

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Chinese EV Maker Reeling Past All The Stops

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers BYD are having a moment across the world, winning over motorists and governments with affordable, and seemingly cutting-edge battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and new energy car production. 

For much of last year, and perhaps the year before, BYD has been claiming its stake as one of the top EV producers and is now on the verge of overtaking American-based Tesla following the release of Q3 2023 sales and production figures. 

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Should You Even Care About The Santa Rally?

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Deck the halls, because it’s the most wonderful time of the year – on Wall Street. 

Well, that would most likely depend on who you’re talking to, and whether you’re steering the conversation in a direction towards bullish sentiments over the ever-fantasized Santa Rally that makes an appearance once a year. 

Fund managers and investors are hopeful that the upcoming month and early days of January could provide them with a major upside, as they shrug off earlier losses and navigate the potential hard realities of investing in a market fraught with stick inflation, high-interest rates, and under-valued stocks. 

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Shooting For The Moon, Landing Among The Stars

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E-commerce Juggernauts Going Further For Longer

Search. Click. Pay. Collect. 

While the online shopping market segment has seen a bit of normalization since the decline of the pandemic; e-commerce continues to dominate the retail market, quite literally. In fact, the pandemic years were only the beginning, as it’s looking to be yet another eventful year ahead for some of the biggest and most successful names in the business. 

Don’t believe me? Well, listen to the numbers talk. Globally, there are more than 26 million e-commerce sites. In the United States, there are already more than 9.5 million e-commerce platforms, and the number is only growing. 

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