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Hi Newsletterest, here's what you need to know for May 21st in 3:13 minutes.

🧀 Finimized while making – checks notes – le fromage in Paris, France (26°C/79°F ☀️)

Today's big stories

As more and more retail spending shifts online, Facebook announced a plan to reduce its reliance on ads
Our analysts ask what it'll mean for your savings if US and UK rates drop below zero – Read Now
The UK government sold bonds with a negative yield for the first time in history

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Special Delivery

What’s Going On Here?

Facebook turned up sometime between 9am and 3pm to deliver a plan for its revamped ecommerce venture, Facebook Shops.

What Does This Mean?

Facebook Shops will allow businesses to sell directly through their Facebook and Instagram accounts – for a percentage of each transaction, of course. While Facebook already offers similar services to bigger companies, this expansion could go some way to offsetting the slowdown in its main revenue source: the sale of targeted ads.

Small business owners have been able to set up an Instagram or Facebook page for years, but their posts have always been buried in news feeds unless they paid to promote them. After all, there wasn’t much incentive for Facebook to draw attention to them if their transactions were happening elsewhere on the internet. But with Shops, Facebook could benefit even if the company refuses to spend a cent on Facebook ads. The fact it could also poach some revenue off payments-processing incumbents like PayPal and Stripe is just a happy coincidence.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: The pincer move.
The move should help Facebook capitalize on the recent boost in online shopping, and with more consumers browsing its digital shelves, it’ll likely benefit from increased ad spending too. And there’s another winner in all this: namely online shopping platform Shopify, one of several partners in the venture. Shopify’s shares have almost doubled this year, and this news could bring them even more attention (tweet this). Just be warned: the company's already trading at 300 times next year’s estimated profits – roughly 10 times Facebook’s valuation.

The bigger picture: Eyes on the prize.
There’s a simple reason companies would pay Facebook a cut of their sales: the tech giant’s apps are a great distribution channel. And if Facebook can prove loyal Instagrammers will become loyal customers – and that its slick platform will convert more transactions than their own websites would – marketing teams worldwide might be biting its hand off for a place in its shopfront.

Learn more: How Facebook’s new strategy could boost its share price.

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2/3 Premium

Negative Outlook

What’s Going On Here?

Markets might be expecting US and UK interest rates to go negative, but Morgan Stanley reckons the move could be counterproductive for both the countries themselves and savers like you.

Get the full story with Finimize Premium

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🏡 The “Should I buy that house?” starter kit

As coronavirus-hit housing markets start to reopen across the world, here are some questions you ought to ask yourself…

⏰ Is now the right time to rent or to buy?

There are pros and cons to both, so first things first, decide which one’s right for you.

😟 What exactly would I be getting myself into?

Everything from interest rates to eventual recoveries will affect your purchase: get an overview of them all.

📉 Do lower interest rates matter?

Speaking of rates, they’ll influence the interest you pay on your mortgage, so make sure to do your homework on those too.

💰 And how will a recession impact me and my money?

Recessions are all the rage, but they affect everyone differently: find out what a recession means for you.

Psst, these links go to our app – check them out on your phone.

3/3

Stuck In Limbo

What’s Going On Here?

How low can UK bond yields go? Pretty low indeed: the government sold $4.6 billion worth of bonds with a negative yield for the first time in history on Wednesday.

What Does This Mean?

The UK sold one-month bills with a sub-zero yield back in 2016, sure, but Wednesday marked the first time the country had sold longer-term bonds with a negative yield. The bonds – which join the $17 trillion worth with negative yields available worldwide – essentially mean investors are getting back less than they paid after factoring in interest and maturity payments. In other words, they’re paying to lend to the UK government.

The sale isn’t particularly surprising. For starters, Britain’s central bank has both cut interest rates to near-zero levels and begun buying billions of dollars worth of government bonds, pushing up their prices and lowering their yields. Likewise, with data out on Wednesday showing inflation in the UK falling to its lowest level since 2016, bonds are generally becoming more appealing: lower inflation makes their interest and maturity payments worth more over time.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: Think positive.
There are reasons why investors would buy negative-yielding bonds in the first place. For one, they might be anticipating even higher demand for those bonds in the future, which would push prices higher and enable them to sell at a profit. For another, long-term bond yields are normally higher than short-term bond yields. So if nothing else changes, simply holding a bond – even a negative-yielding one – will likely see its yield fall and its price rise over time, again allowing holders to sell at a profit.

Zooming out: The Roaring 20s.
The US government, meanwhile, sold 20-year bonds for the first time since 1986 on Wednesday, adding to the Treasury’s existing $25 trillion debt pile. The government typically sells 10- and 30-year bonds, but it needs extra funds for the massive spending that’s propping up the economy during the pandemic.

Recommended: Are government bonds still a good bet?

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💬 Quote of the day

“I’m more powerful than my mind can even digest and understand.”

– Beyoncé (an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actress)

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🛠 Consider it written, Michelle

We have a special guest promoting the Finimize Community events today: meet Michelle, the brains behind them all. She said – and we quote – “It ain’t no hype! Watch us wreck the mic with some events worth Zoomin’ in for.” And then she asked us to write something less embarrassing, but we think it’s perfect just the way it is.

🇸🇬 Singapore: COVID-19’s Impact on Global M&A – 6.30pm SGT, May 21st
🇺🇸 USA: How to Organize Your Own Finimize Virtual Event – 12pm NY time, May 21st
🇦🇪 UAE: Making Sense of Oil Market Dynamics – 5.00pm Dubai Time, May 27th
🇺🇸 USA: Seizing Opportunity in Times of Crisis – 12pm Pacific Time, May 29th
🇫🇷 France: The Future of Blockchain & Cryptocurrency – 6.30pm CET, June 17th

📚 What we're reading

Big tech has money symbols in its eyes (The Guardian)
There’s no such thing as a bad runner (Lifehacker)
Always start with the why (Harvard Business Review)

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Today's big stories

Special Delivery

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

Negative Outlook

🏡 The “Should I buy that house?” starter kit

Stuck In Limbo

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

🛠 Consider it written, Michelle

Older messages

📈 Walmart loves stockpiling

😓 SoftBank's 18 billion dollar regret

🤬 Recession, recession everywhere

📉 Aramco takes a huge hit

👎 WeWork won’t pay

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