Finimize - 😠 Meta's back with a vengeance

Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for April 28th in 3:14 minutes.

🙌 Very few people know how to successfully scale and exit a startup, but our founder and CEO Max Rofagha has done it twice now. Tune into his episode of the Secret Leaders podcast, and listen in awe as the wunderkind imparts his entrepreneurial wisdom. Listen here

Today's big stories

Meta posted a mixed set of quarterly results
Our analyst has laid out why the beleaguered Japanese yen could be about to make a comeback – Read Now
Deutsche Bank reported its highest quarterly profit in nearly a decade

Reality Check

What’s Going On Here?

Meta reported a mixed set of quarterly results late on Wednesday, even as the tech giant tries to bring new meaning to the phrase “online shopping”.

What Does This Mean?

Meta’s last earnings update was a disaster: the company’s stock price collapsed 25% after Facebook posted a drop-off in active users, triggering the biggest one-day valuation drop in US history. But the scrappy underdog has picked itself back up again, posting 6% more monthly active users across all its platforms than the same time last year. Its Reality Labs segment – which specializes in VR and the metaverse – performed well too, with revenue up 30%. And sure, Meta’s ad revenue missed expectations, probably partly because it decided to focus on formats like Reels – a short-form video that tends to earn less ad revenue than Feed and Stories. Still, more users is more ad revenue up for grabs, and Meta’s shares initially jumped 19%.

Why Should I Care?

The bigger picture: Your body is holding you back.
There’s a lot resting on the success of the metaverse for Meta, but the company has some work to do on that front: its metaverse brand Horizon Worlds only has 300,000 users to Facebook’s 3 billion-odd. So to get the word out, the company announced this week that it’ll be opening its first-ever retail store in California next month. It’ll use the store to showcase its virtual reality headsets and other hardware, in hopes of convincing you to abandon your feeble corporeal form once and for all.

Zooming out: Snap vs. TikTok.
Meta’s not the only one with advertising problems: Snap reported worse-than-expected results last week, as rising inflation took its toll on companies’ marketing budgets. That’s the last thing it needed after Apple rolled out new privacy settings that have made it harder for companies to target their campaigns to the right prospects. Throw in stiff competition from Gen Z-favorite TikTok, and its outlook for this quarter missed expectations too.

You might also like: Meta is betting big on the metaverse. Should you be too?

Copy to share story: https://www.finimize.com/wp/news/reality-check-3/

🙋 Ask a question

Analyst Take

Can The Yen Pull Itself Back Together?

Stéphane Renevier, Analyst

What’s Going On Here?

The Japanese yen is quickly becoming one of the biggest macro stories of 2022.

The currency has fallen 11% versus the US dollar, and it’s hit lows not seen for more than 20 years.

There are a few reasons for that, chief among them that investors are abandoning the country – which has managed to keep inflation low – for those with higher interest rates.

But with everyone betting heavily against the yen, is it time to be contrarian and buy the dip?

That’s today’s Insight: why Japan’s currency has fallen from grace, and whether you should buy the dip.

Read or listen to the Insight here

The $5 million crypto bet

Crypto might be volatile, but that hasn’t stopped some of the world’s top investors from buying in.

Bill Gates, for one, has called bitcoin a “technological tour de force”, and Elon Musk has bought more than his fair share of bitcoin, ether, and – yup – dogecoin.

And now The Motley Fool has joined them: it just used its own money to buy $5 million worth of one cryptocurrency that it thinks could go the distance.

The Motley Fool tells you which coin it bought – and why – here.

Find Out More

No Chill

What’s Going On Here?

Deutsche Bank reported its highest quarterly profit in nearly a decade on Wednesday, but Germany’s biggest bank can’t relax just yet…

What Does This Mean?

There’s been a flurry of dealmaking in the last couple of years, but the threat of higher interest rates – which drives up the cost of borrowing – has helped bring that to a halt. That’s less than ideal for Deutsche Bank, whose revenue in its deal advisory segment fell 28% last quarter compared to the same time last year. Still, it made up for the shortfall elsewhere: its fixed income and currency trading business grew revenue by 15%, as traders took advantage of the recent market volatility. Its interest income from both corporate and private clients rose too, which – along with some savvy cost-cutting – helped bring up its overall profit by a better-than-expected 18%.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: Profit beats caution.
Deutsche did warn that the Ukrainian war – which is pushing global prices even higher – posed a real risk to its growth going forward, as did a weakening global economy. That might be why the bank put aside $320 billion last quarter in case customers can’t pay back their debts. That’s three times more than it tucked away in the first quarter of 2021, and it warned it’ll add “significantly” to that stockpile throughout the year (tweet this). Investors, though, seemed to favor short-term profit over long-term caution, and they sent its stock down 6% on the news.

Zooming out: Two can play at that game.
No wonder Deutsche Bank is such a Debbie Downer: the bank warned this month that Germany – its biggest market – would fall into recession if there was a meaningful disruption to Russian gas supplies. And there could well be, given that it’s been pushing back against Russia’s demands to pay for its gas in rubles. After all, that principled move just backfired on Poland and Bulgaria: Russia’s cut them off, sending European gas prices up 20%.

You might also like: No one’s ignoring energy prices, so why is everyone ignoring utilities stocks?

Copy to share story: https://www.finimize.com/wp/news/no-chill/

🙋 Ask a question

💬 Quote of the day

“You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.”

– Maya Angelou (an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist)

Tweet this

🤔 Q&A · RE: Antisocial Media

Q: “Why are Twitter’s shares still worth less than the $54.20 per share that Elon Musk agreed to buy the company for?”

– From Katie in the UK

A: “While it’s true that the deal was agreed at that price, it isn’t done until it’s done – and that isn’t expected to happen for a good few months yet. The fact that Twitter is trading at around $50 a share rather than $54.20, then, reflects the perceived risk among investors that the deal won’t actually happen. And there’s certainly risk here: the deal still needs to be approved by regulators, and Elon still needs to put his money where his mouth is and come up with the cash.”

🙋 Ask a question

🌎 Finimize Live

🎉 Coming Up This Week

All events are in UK time.

🪐 Impact Investor’s Guide to Web3: 6pm, April 28th
🎙 Live Crypto Community Q&A: 5pm, April 29th
✅ How To Choose An Exchange Traded Fund: 12.30pm, May 3rd
🌱 How To Turn Your Portfolio Vegan: 6pm, May 3rd

💪 And then after that…

💥 What Is ReFi Anyway?: 5pm, May 5th
🎉 How To Invest In The Metaverse: Land, Stocks, And Crypto: 6pm, May 6th
🚀 How Space Is Changing The World: 5pm, May 9th
👉 What’s Next For Crypto Regulation?: 6pm, May 11th
📚 How To Go From Ideas To Execution: 5pm, May 12th
💻 How To Invest In The Up-And-Coming Tech Landscape: 5pm, May 13th
📈 How To Identify High Growth Metaverse Stocks: 12pm, May 16th
🙌 How To Invest In Community-Led Projects: 5pm, May 16th
🌎 How To Invest In The Global Chip Shortage: 5pm, May 17th
🏡 How To Buy A Digital Condo: 12pm, May 18th
🚗 The Leaders Of The EV Revolution: 5pm, May 19th
♻️ How To Pick Winning ESG Stocks: 5pm, May 20th
📈 How To Invest Thematically: 12pm, May 24th

🎯 On Our Radar

Steel houses were the future. It’s a wonder we still use bricks.
CNN Plus is canceled. The streaming service that lasted a month.
Want to feel more manly? Try shining a red laser at your nether regions.
Surgeons are ready to fix your hearing. “What?”
Pizza night just got better. You won’t even need to order anything.

❤️ Share with a friend

Your Referrals: 0

Thanks for reading Reader. If you liked today's brief, we'd love for you to share it with a friend. If they sign up on your unique link, you’ll earn some sweet swag.

Share your unique link:

https://finimize.com/invite/?kid=177ZWC

You stay classy, Reader 😉

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Give feedback

Want to advertise with us too? Get in touch

Image Credits:

Image credits: Amadwed, Franck Boston, itthinan and Photoroyalty - Shutterstock | Rawpixel.com

Preferences:

Update your email or change preferences

View in browser

Unsubscribe from all Finimize Emails

😴

Crafted by Finimize Ltd. | Bow Bells House, Bread Street, London, EC4M 9HH

All content provided by Finimize Ltd. is for informational and educational purposes only and is not meant to represent trade or investment recommendations. You signed up to this mailing list at finimize.com or through one of our partners. © Finimize 2021

Key phrases

biggest oneday valuation drop CEO Max Rofagha Secret Leaders podcast feeble corporeal form deal advisory segment recent market volatility higher interest rates new privacy settings Gen Zfavorite TikTok last earnings update Reality Labs segment virtual reality headsets beleaguered Japanese yen The Motley Fool firstever retail store companies marketing budgets biggest macro stories highest quarterly profit currency trading business The Japanese yen monthly active users less ad revenue

Older messages

😤 What's a tech giant got to do?

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Yay Microsoft, boo Alphabet | And Twitter was such a friendly place | TOGETHER WITH Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for April 27th in 3:13 minutes. ♻️ You don't need to choose between

🥤 Coke takes on inflation

Monday, April 25, 2022

Coca-Cola's going digital | War's expensive | TOGETHER WITH Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for April 26th in 3:05 minutes. 💸 NFTs aren't just a pretty picture: they're now

🤔 Is Netflix… a good buy?

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Verizon's ready to entertain | Brits are still cutting back | TOGETHER WITH Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for April 25th in 3:05 minutes. 🧐 There are plenty of NFT projects out there,

🤝 Meet Warren Buffett's mentor

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Tesla can't stop breaking records | Airlines are finally recovering | TOGETHER WITH Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for April 22nd in 3:09 minutes. 🚀 Crypto coins are a dime a dozen

🤑 You could buy crypto for less

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

P&G is feeling its best | Europe's carmakers can't catch a break | TOGETHER WITH Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for April 21st in 3:15 minutes. 🔎 Spotting promising investment

RankMakers Weekend Edition - April 03, 2022

Monday, April 11, 2022

RankMakers Weekend Edition - April 03, 2022 🚀 by Roberto Robles Welcome to the weekend edition of the RankMakers Newsletter, where I share useful resources with ideas, tips and insights that will help

👉 American Bank To Offer Clients BTC And ETH Buying Options

Monday, April 11, 2022

We bring you the top stories in crypto every week! Stories like... Monday, April 11, 2022 Sign Up Your Weekly Update On All Things Crypto In Partnership With: TL;DR American Bank Looks To Offer Clients

Daily Skimm: Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got

Monday, April 11, 2022

Skimm'd while shopping last month's bestselling products April 11, 2022 Read in browser Daily Skimm Alarm clock on newspaper Skimm'd while shopping last month's bestselling products

2021 Featured Fall Books from our Partners, Sponsors, & Advertisers

Friday, October 22, 2021

New poetry books from our partners, sponsors & advertisers View this email in your browser 2021 Featured Fall Books Check out these poetry titles from our partners, sponsors, and advertisers.

BanklessDAO Weekly Rollup #24 | October 15

Friday, October 15, 2021

Catch up with what happened this week in the BanklessDAO. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Your Thursday Briefing

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Biden urges a 'go big' response to the pandemic. View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story Morning Briefing, Asia Edition September 23, 2021 Author Headshot By Melina Delkic

A clever tax loophole

Thursday, September 16, 2021

Bloomberg Most Americans hope their retirement accounts will allow them to stop working without falling into poverty. For the rich, those accounts have become something more—a clever tool to avoid