In this edition, Japan’s sogo shosha attractive at current prices; market pessimism on Alphabet overdone; and value persists in mining sector; and Icon, Gentex, and Boston Beer.

Alphabet, formerly called Google, maintains the largest online index of websites accessible through automated search technology. It generates revenue through online advertising, cloud services, and hardware. Google is now an operating segment of Alphabet. The company was founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page and went public in 2004. Google's AdWords is an auction-based program that lets businesses display ads along with particular search results. Google's AdSense program enables websites in the company's network to serve targeted ads, based on search terms or web content, from AdWords advertisers. Most of the revenue generated through AdSense is shared with network partners. In addition, Alphabet owns YouTube.com, the web-based video site. It has also expanded into mobile telephony with its Android smartphone operating system and into public cloud services. About 52% of Alphabet's revenue is generated outside the U.S. On April 3, 2014, Alphabet's new nonvoting class C shares began trading under the ticker GOOG. Alphabet's publicly held class A shares switched to the ticker GOOGL. The effect of the new class C share issuance was a non-economic 2-for-1 stock split. On July 15, 2022, Alphabet executed a 20-for-1 stock split on its Class A, Class B and Class C stock. The stock split had no impact on the economic value of GOOGL shares.

The major U.S. indices are slightly higher at midday on Friday, as earnings news and tariff talk are atop the headlines. On the tariff front, Donald Trump is now putting 50-50 odds on whether a deal with the EU will happen by August 1, and also said that his administration has not 'had a lot of luck' in discussions with Canada. As well, there are financial press reports that the already announced U.S.-Japan deal has possibly hit a snag related to how profits will be shared on Japan's proposed investment in the U.S.

Alphabet is a holding company that wholly owns internet giant Google. The California-based company derives slightly less than 90% of its revenue from Google services, the vast majority of which is advertising sales. Alongside online ads, Google services houses sales stemming from Google’s subscription services (YouTube TV, YouTube Music among others), platforms (sales and in-app purchases on Play Store), and devices (Chromebooks, Pixel smartphones, and smart home products such as Chromecast). Google’s cloud computing platform, or GCP, accounts for roughly 10% of Alphabet’s revenue with the firm’s investments in up-and-coming technologies such as self-driving cars (Waymo), health (Verily), and internet access (Google Fiber) making up the rest.