Finimize - 🥤 7-Eleven gets a sweet offer

7-Eleven considers a takeover, US start-ups are feeling the heat, and the age-old nature or nurture question |
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Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for August 20th in 3:12 minutes.

☕ Finimized over a latte at Cafe Krone in Berlin, Germany (☀️ 23°C/73°F)

Today's big stories

  1. 7-Eleven’s parent company got a buyout proposal from Canadian rival Couche-Tard
  2. The highlights (and opportunities) from the Coinbase Crypto Hedge Fund Report – Read Now
  3. US startup failures rose 60% from a year ago, as boom-time funding dried up

Marriage Of Convenience

Marriage Of Convenience

What’s going on here?

Canadian convenience store retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard has proposed a marriage of sorts to the Japanese owner of the 7-Eleven chain, Seven & i.

What does this mean?

The merger would create one of the world’s biggest retail companies, with nearly 100,000 stores. And it would be a case of a well-heeled David buying a Goliath. Couche-Tard owns just 14,000 stores, compared to Seven & i’s 85,000 brightly lit 7-Elevens – but the Quebec-based company has a bigger valuation at roughly $58 billion. The takeover itself – if it goes ahead – would likely be worth at least $40 billion, making it the biggest-ever foreign buyout of a Japanese firm. But there could be inconveniences up ahead: Couche-Tard might fail to stump up the cash, or the deal could raise regulatory red flags in North America due to the sheer size of the two giants.

Why should I care?

Zooming out: Japan’s big gulp.

The Japanese government has recently rewritten its guidelines for foreign takeover proposals, which could improve the chance of the deal going through. The new rules encourage companies to consider offers at the board level, rather than just allowing management to dismiss bids out of hand. And while that hasn’t sparked a sudden rush of takeover offers just yet, the still-super-low interest rates in Japan could help: they make financing a potential deal that much cheaper.

The bigger picture: Caffeine highs and lows.

Japan’s main Topix stock index saw a sharp sell-off earlier this month – and the market’s not back to its July highs just yet. The yen, though, has risen about 10% against the US dollar over the same time period – and for overseas investors in Japanese stocks, that new strength has essentially offset the stock market’s weakness. The good news is that swings of 20% in a single month – à la the Topix recently – aren’t typical, but the move does show how markets can be jostled in short order by all sorts of factors.

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Analyst Take

Three Big Takeaways From The Coinbase Crypto Hedge Fund Report

Three Big Takeaways From The Coinbase Crypto Hedge Fund Report

By Jonathan Hobbs, CFA, Analyst

Crypto hedge funds have done rather well these past few years, with many clocking exceptional results.

And with better regulation and security, these funds are becoming more popular with big-money investors.

Coinbase’s 2024 Allocator’s Guide To Digital Asset Hedge Funds explains the ins and outs of crypto investing and the benefits it may bring.

That’s today’s Insight: three key takeaways – and three potential opportunities – from the report.

Read or listen to the Insight here

Bulls have horns for a reason

Change might scare some of us – but it excites plenty, too.

Case in point: when financial markets start moving as quickly as they are today, many investors take the opportunity to go against the grain or seek quick turnaround trades.

That’s where leveraged and inverse ETFs come in. The first lets traders amplify their high-conviction trades, while the latter lets traders bet on price dips without having to “short” assets. 

That means you could put a bigger bet on a market move or technical signal without accessing more capital. So if you’re a risk-tolerant trader, you’ll want to find out how to use them safely and effectively.

Our free guide with Direxion – a platform that specializes in tools for decisive investors – has the lowdown: discover how you could use leveraged and inverse ETFs to amplify your trades.

Read The Guide

From Startup To Shutdown

From Startup To Shutdown

What’s going on here?

US startup failures jumped 60% higher in the past year as funds raised during the 2020-21 tech boom dried up.

What does this mean?

The corporate casualties have been by no means limited to the business world’s small fries. They include healthcare startup Olive, valued at $4 billion in 2021, and trucking company Convoy, valued at $3.8 billion in 2022 – to name just two. And they’re a sign of the interest rate times. Just a few short years ago, near-zero-percent lending rates meant that investors were happy to pour buckets of cheap, borrowed money into riskier startups, sending their valuations upward in hopes of riding some profitable wave. But when rates shot higher, venture capital funds struggled to raise money that they could lend, and startup valuations dropped. As those investors walked away from all but the buzziest, AI-related companies, it forced many new firms to close their doors.

Why should I care?

Zooming out: The almighty consumer.

It’s not just businesses feeling burned by pricier borrowing costs: households are sweating it out too. So there’s a lot riding on what the Federal Reserve does next. The central bank is widely expected to lower interest rates – a move that would give a lift to the economy, the stock market, and household finances. But how deeply it’ll trim rates and how quickly the stimulative effects will be felt is still up in the air.

The bigger picture: Mood swings.

Markets have been volatile lately. Hopes for lower interest rates have been pushing stocks up, while recession fears have been pushing them down. And while economic data last week suggested that the US could very well body-swerve a potential downturn, fickle investors are keeping their cursor over the sell button, ready to react to any whiff of bad news.

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💬 Quote of the day

"You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try."

– Dolly Parton (an American musician)
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Take a seat on the Summit’s main stage

Thousands of retail investors tuned into our Modern Investor Summit sessions last year.

Eager to discover the smartest tools and savviest tricks, they piled into fireside sessions, Q&A panels, and keynote speaker slots with the likes of Jamie Dimon.

Now’s your chance to secure a spot at the next one. Our Summit is slated for December this year, and we’re on the lookout for speakers with big ideas and serious know-how.

Take a look at last year’s recording of CFA Institute’s session to get a feel for it: the platform detailed sustainable investing techniques, as well as explaining its own climate finance courses.

If you’re ready for your turn, talk to the team to bag your spot before they fill up.

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🎯 On Our Radar

1. Nature or nurture. A new study looks at whether athletes are born or made.

2. You need a lot of time and knowledge to be a value investor. Well, unless you have a digital assistant to do the heavy lifting for you.*

3. Waste not. There could be a viable solution to single-use plastics disposal.

4. There's nothing like staying active. Here's how different active investing strategies could play out for you.*

5. Bit of a longshot. The lottery drew the same six numbers four days apart – here’s why that’s more common than you might think.

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