Finger on the pulse

We’re somewhere around the halfway point for the fiscal year, at least for most companies, and the prognosis for the second quarter (Q2) couldn’t be more boring.

That is to say, everyone seems to be doing the exact same thing and making the exact same reports. Everyone sold off part of their business, everyone has made “strategic acquisitions” that have been largely responsible for the positive balance sheets I’m seeing. That really seems to be…it? Every single company I’ve been covering is playing it safe and keeping the needle moving north.

Obviously, I don’t expect a big show of theatrics every quarterly report (although it would be nice to have dinner and a show), however I hope we’re going to see some more exciting developments pop up in the latter half of 2024, maybe after GSX rolls through corporations will be a little looser lipped with their exciting new plans.

Or maybe not, as anyone watching the stock market the past week could tell you, that tech bubble seems to be threatening to burst at any moment. I just got done reading an article about how the Japan’s Nikkei saw its best day of trading since 2008. It carefully danced around the fact that the gain was recovering from a nosedive crash only the day before.

So maybe safe and boring is the best bet for companies right now. After all, ADT is currently celebrating its 150th anniversary of being in business. That's a company who's weathered more than a few financial storms. 

I don’t know if a recession is coming, but I wouldn’t bet against it. I know one thing for a fact, and that is that the security industry is too closely tied to the tech sector to remain insulated to the burst of any tech bubble, AI or otherwise. I hope that when the third quarter rolls around and I’m watching these webcasts again, that I was wrong, otherwise those presentations might be a little too exciting.

The Great Depression 2: AI Boogaloo.