Hey Reader, you’re on the free edition of Finimize.
Upgrade to Premium: no ads, a third story every day, free events, and loads more on our mobile app. Start for free here

Today's big stories

Amazon and Apple both reported better-than-expected quarterly results
Hedge funds have underperformed this year, but we've found some still worth investing in – Read Now
Alphabet, Facebook, and Twitter's quarterly earnings beat expectations

1/3

Roman-tech Comedy

What’s Going On Here?

Apple and Amazon might seem like they’re just too different, but they make quite the pair: both tech giants reported better-than-expected results late on Thursday.

What Does This Mean?

This new lifestyle may be wearing thin for the rest of us, but Amazon’s pretty happy with the new normal: its ecommerce business is booming as folks do more of their shopping online, while its super-profitable cloud segment is thriving thanks to home working. And while COVID-related expenses for the rest of the year came in higher than expected, its revenue outlook did too.

Apple posted its own higher-than-expected results, but one crucial area didn’t live up to predictions: iPhone sales. That’s probably because of a delay in the launch of the newest version, whose sales weren't taken into account. Apple didn’t even give a forecast for the rest of the year – which might’ve at least given investors a hint about how sales have been faring so far.

Why Should I Care?

The bigger picture: Search and destroy.
You might’ve noticed that Google is the default search engine on every iPhone, which is down to a deal that’s allegedly worth $10 billion a year to Apple. What you might not have noticed is the backup plan Apple’s been rolling out since the US government took issue with the deal last week: the company’s started pushing its users toward its own search technology – potentially with one eye on creating an alternative to Google.

Zooming out: Winter is coming.
Even logistical whizz kids like Amazon have big challenges to overcome this holiday season: analysts are expecting retailers to experience at least 25% more online sales than last year. The sharp uptick in orders could make it difficult for retailers to get gifts out on time, driving up costs – which might be why the shopping season’s starting even earlier than it normally does.

Copy to share story: https://www.finimize.com/wp/news/roman-tech-comedy/

🙋 Ask a question

2/3 Premium

Hedge Funds Aren’t Performing Well

What’s Going On Here?

The average hedge fund has underperformed in 2020, but there are a few that have delivered the goods – and Milou’s laid out how you might be able to profit from them.

Get the full insight with Finimize Premium

⏱ Five minutes well spent

Take five minutes to complete Avaloq’s survey, and you’ll get an advance copy of their exclusive report.

Five minutes, and you’ll get an inside look at other investors’ habits and how they’re dealing with – *gestures wildly* – all this. Five minutes, and you’ll get an insight into how financial roles are changing, as well as the skills you’ll need to stay ahead of the curve. Five minutes, and you’ll hear about the trends facing the fintech industry – and how it’s planning to outthink Big Tech.

Five minutes? Lemme at that survey.

Take the Survey

Turn off adverts

3/3

Easy As X, Y, Z

What’s Going On Here?

Facebook, Twitter, and Google-parent Alphabet all reported stronger-than-expected earnings late on Thursday, and everyone from Gen X to Gen Z played their meme-sharing part.

What Does This Mean?

Analysts predicted online advertising would return with a vengeance last quarter, and they weren’t wrong: Alphabet’s quarterly earnings beat forecasts, mostly thanks to the Google search and YouTube businesses that make up the vast majority of its revenue. Twitter’s advertisers, meanwhile, seemed willing to spend even more to reach you: the company blew past forecasts even though it reported fewer active users than predicted (tweet this).

Facebook had already warned that its active user numbers would stagnate as people increasingly ventured out of their homes. But the resurgence of the pandemic might’ve worked in its favor: the tech giant reported more monthly active users than expected, pushing its quarterly earnings past forecasts.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: What goes down...
As the fourth and fifth most valuable US stocks respectively, Alphabet and Facebook have had a massive influence over the country’s stock market this year. And while that influence has mostly been positive, they helped drag the entire market down on Tuesday and Wednesday – and lost a combined $90 billion of value in the process. But just when investors start to think these giants might be cut down to size, along comes an update that may put their minds at ease and push up their stocks – which is what happened on Thursday.

The bigger picture: Long arm of the law.
Thursday’s earnings aside, there are still challenges on Big Tech’s horizon: the US government has decided they’re way too powerful – and it’s even floating the possibility of breaking them up altogether. And on Wednesday, it hauled in the CEOs of Alphabet, Facebook, and Twitter to discuss a potential change to the laws currently protecting social media platforms from lawsuits. Keep in mind, then, that factors outside a company’s control can have major implications for its value.

Copy to share story: https://www.finimize.com/wp/news/easy-x-y-z/

🙋 Ask a question

💬 Quote of the day

“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.”

– Voltaire (a writer, historian, and philosopher)

Tweet this

🌍 Finimize Community

🌶 Spice up your professional brand

If your LinkedIn profile is anything like ours, you’re a fully qualified expert in digging, high-fives, and guinea pig care. But it probably shouldn’t be like ours. Thank goodness City CV founder Victoria McLean is joining us next Tuesday to help you make sure your professional brand is as on-point as it can be.

☝️ Level Up Your Professional Brand: 5pm Dubai Time, November 3rd
🔥 The Hottest Trend in Crypto: 6pm UK Time, November 4th
📈 Creating A Diversified Portfolio: 2.30pm UK Time, November 11th
🙋‍♀️ Women & Investing: 2pm UK Time, November 18th

😭 In case you missed it

Here’s some of our most popular Finimize Premium content this week…

Premium Insights:

📺 Why now might be the prime time to buy Netflix
😳 History says you might want to avoid the biggest stocks
🤖 Bitcoin’s making a comeback

Packs:
🇺🇸 How the election might impact your portfolio
🤔 Should you buy bitcoin while it’s on the rise?
😎 What Netflix has that Disney+ doesn’t

📚 What we're reading

2020-inspired Halloween costumes (The Guardian)
Voting can be wacky too (The Sports Hub)
Scream Queens compare notes (Variety)

🌍 Become a truly global investor

The very best investors keep their fingers on the pulse of the latest investing trends – and when you take Avaloq’s global survey, you’ll join them.

Everyone who contributes will get access to a comprehensive report into the survey results before anyone else. And that’ll give you never-before-seen insights into how the investing world is shifting.

We’re talking everything from how global investors are behaving to the factors that are influencing them: actionable insights you can use to make smarter, more forward-thinking investment decisions.

Get The Survey

Turn off adverts

❤️ 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

Image Credits:

Image credits: Laura Hutton - Shutterstock Tom Foremski - Silicon Valley Watcher Flickr | Mark Mathosian, Nguyen Hung Vu - Flickr, fizkes - Shutterstock

Preferences:

Update your email or change preferences

View in browser

Unsubscribe from all Finimize Emails

😴

Crafted by Finimize Ltd. | Third Floor, 1 New Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1AN, UK.

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 2020

Finimize - 👻 Big Tech goes boo(m)

Today's big stories

Roman-tech Comedy

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

Hedge Funds Aren’t Performing Well

⏱ Five minutes well spent

Easy As X, Y, Z

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

🌶 Spice up your professional brand

😭 In case you missed it

🌍 Become a truly global investor

Older messages

🔧 Boeing's falling apart

🚀 Microsoft takes off

🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️ Let's get to know you

🥇 Goldman goes for gold

"Apple isn’t actually worth $2 trillion”

You Might Also Like

John's Take 11-28-24 Puttin’ it on Plastic

Staying afloat: the impact of flooding on UK firms

🇺🇸 US inflation rose

Don’t think you can afford life insurance?

What are you hiding Elon?? (Tesla’s secret 69% dividend)

Giving thanks for inflation, Paul Mescal and more

💚 Holding space for career pivots

Harry's Take 11-27-24 Michael Saylor Has Seen an Impressive Learning Curve Playing Bitcoin at MicroStrategy!

The heterogenous effects of carbon pricing: macro and micro evidence

💉 A slimming proposal