Alec Hogg: Social media stock pickers are today’s market movers

Welcome to the only Rational Perspective newsletter for this week as I'll be hosting the second BizNews Investment conference..Plenty to keep you occupied, however..First up, more bad news for Naspers/Prosus as Beijing keeps ratcheting up its attack on Chinese capitalists. The piece below unpacks an important new development with an embedded video explains why Tencent is likely to be Beijing's next target..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Then again, nothing should surprise us about the investment sector nowadays..Our partners at the Wall Street offer three pieces this morning explaining how the US stock market has entered a period where social media know-nothings are the new Jim Cramers. A reminder for the rational to revisit Helen Zille's book Stay Woke, Go Broke…...To understand the extent to which apparently bulletproof retail investors have captured Wall Street, click on the headlines below to access the stories:.* Wall Street is Looking to Reddit for Investment Advice .* The Social-Media Stars Who Move Markets.* The Meme Lords Who Are Taking Over the C-Suite.While American investors are partying like it was September 1929, the Japanese are taking fright as China steps up its "growing assertiveness" towards Taiwan in the wake of the US's Afghan abandonment. Tokyo has started preparing for a possible conflict. .On the coronavirus front, after declassification of 18 US spy agencies' reports into the origins of Covid-19 the Editorial Board of the WSJ opines the most intriguing detail was the first human infection most likely leaked from the Wuhan lab. Click here to read the Op-Ed. .That conclusion together with developments at home, is sure to get the Aussies back on the case. Australia was the first country to raise the likelihood that Covid leaked from a Chinese Lab. It paid a heavy diplomatic and financial price (export bans) for the impertinence..Adding to Australia's Covid-related woes is the news that the government is to abandon its lockdown strategy (anyone in Pretoria listening?)..Lead story in The Economist this week starts with: "This is not a sustainable way to live in this country," declared Scott Morrison, Australia's prime minister, on August 23rd. He was defending a dramatic shift in covid-19 strategy. Since the start of the pandemic Australia has used an approach dubbed "covid zero", stamping on outbreaks down to the last case, whatever it takes. From now on, cases will be allowed to rise as long as hospitals can cope with them. Click here for the full article. .Finally, in an amazing turnaround, the £500 000 a week soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo won't be heading for Manchester City after all – something which seemed a done deal as late as Friday evening. Instead, he'll be rejoining their bitter rivals Manchester United. Click here for the tale of how the 36 year old, five times world player of the year, swapped horses just before the winning post..NB FOR YOUR WALL STREET JOURNAL ACCESS….As a Premium subscriber you are entitled to full membership of wsj.com (normal price $29 a month). Be sure to action your access through the Premium link on the BizNews website. Because of The Wall Street Journal's credential requirements, be sure to create a password which has at least 8 characters and includes at least one letter and one number – NB it MAY NOT contain any special characters (ie #, !, @ etc). To maintain access to WSJ.com, you MUST enter our partner's website via BizNews Premium at least once a month. A final PS, if you had previously signed up for WSJ you'll need to clear the cookies from your device. Our help desk can assist – support@biznews.com

Alec Hogg: Social media stock pickers are today’s market movers

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