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Today's big stories

Vivendi laid out plans to spin out Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest music label
One tech CEO thinks he knows how to tell which of bitcoin or ethereum is the better long-term investment – Read Now
Investors have been snubbing value stocks for growth stocks, suggesting they're still unconvinced by the speed of the economic recovery

Split Decision

What’s Going On Here?

French media group Vivendi announced plans over the weekend to spin out Universal Music Group into a standalone company, in hopes the world’s biggest music label will enjoy a critically acclaimed solo career.

What Does This Mean?

Music companies have seen their stars rise and values soar in recent years as streaming services like Spotify earned them billions in royalty payments. That might be why Vivendi’s decided to let its music business go it alone: the company’s planning to list Universal on Amsterdam’s stock exchange by the end of the year. Vivendi’s already sold 20% of the business off to a group of companies that included Chinese tech giant Tencent, and now it’ll give 60% of the newly formed company’s stock to its shareholders – and keep 20% for itself, naturally.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: The hills are alive with the sound of money.
Universal, Sony Music, and Warner Music control nearly 80% of the music market between them – a market that, according to Goldman Sachs, could more than double in size by 2030 to hit $45 billion (tweet this). And investors seem to agree: Warner’s seen its share price rise 24% since it listed last June, while this announcement saw Vivendi’s stock jump 20%.

The bigger picture: Vivendi is streamlining its business.
You’d be forgiven for wondering why, if Universal’s such hot property, Vivendi would want to spin it off at all. But by narrowing its portfolio of businesses, the French conglomerate should leave its investors with two more valuable stocks and make itself a more compelling investment case going forward. Keep in mind that Universal was valued at $36 billion when the Tencent-led investors bought their stake in 2019, but Vivendi was valued at just $37 billion late last week. Consider then that Universal only accounted for 73% of Vivendi’s profits in 2019, and it’s clear investors are valuing the whole at much less than the sum of its parts.

You might also like: How to pick the best media stocks.

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🙋 Ask a question

2. Analyst Take

Bitcoin Vs. Ethereum

What’s Going On Here?

Bitcoin and ethereum are the world’s biggest cryptocurrencies, worth over $800 billion and $200 billion respectively.

But there’s a lot of disagreement about which of the two biggest cryptocurrencies is the better investment in the long term.

As far as Flovtec CEO Anton Golub is concerned, the answer to that question is simple enough, and it lies in the reasons they were created in the first place.

See, Bitcoin was designed as a means of payment, and ethereum as an entire computing system. That determines whether they can scale and, in turn, if they’ll ever actually be viable.

So we caught up with Anton: find out the real difference between the two cryptocurrencies, and which of them he reckons you should choose.

Listen to the interview highlights here

Sort the best from the rest

There are now thousands of cryptocurrencies to choose from – and with more appearing each day, it pays to know where to start.

With Invictus Capital, you’ll discover crypto investment funds that are so accessible and user-friendly you can set up a comprehensive portfolio in no time.

You’ll be investing in diversified funds that are rebalanced weekly to capture portfolio turnover and keep risk down. There’s no minimum investment, and you can withdraw your money 24/7.

And right now, you have an exclusive chance to win $1,000. All you need to do is sign up.

Join 18,000 other savvy investors and get started with Invictus Capital today.

Find Out More

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Checkmate

What’s Going On Here?

Investors have gone back to snubbing cheap-looking “value” stocks in favor of much-beloved “growth” stocks – proving that if you come at the king, you’d best not miss.

What Does This Mean?

Growth stocks – think fast-growing tech companies – had a strong 2020, climbing 37% in the US and 18% in Europe. That wasn’t the case for value stocks like banks and energy companies, which didn’t rise at all in the US and fell 20% in Europe. But all that changed when news of the effective vaccines broke in November: investors ditched growth stocks for value stocks, in hopes the recovery would soon be underway and beaten-down companies would be the ones to benefit the most.

It, uh, didn’t last long: growth stocks have gone back to outperforming value stocks in the last month.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: Sit tight, the road to recovery’s a long one.
Investors’ return to growth stocks suggests they’re not feeling confident the economy will recover nearly as quickly as economists are expecting. And given all the vaccine rollout difficulties and the spike in new variants, they’re not likely to change their minds any time soon. That means they might be more inclined to stick with growth stocks – which have done well out of the pandemic – until vaccinations pick up, and only then start to think about other opportunities.

The bigger picture: Investors might be too gung-ho on stocks.
Still, there’s no doubt in investors’ minds that stocks are the place to be: global investors poured a record amount of money into equity funds – especially those focused on US and tech stocks – at the start of the month. But Bank of America has cautioned things might be getting out of hand: investor optimism is nearing levels where global stocks have historically pulled back by an average of 9% in the following three months.

You might also like: How to spot the right growth stocks and value stocks for your portfolio.

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🙋 Ask a question

💬 Quote of the day

“Life is not a spectator sport.”

– Jackie Robinson (an American professional baseball player)

Tweet this

🐓 What the Flock?

So all this time stuck in your coop, just steps away from your kitchen, has left you feeling peckish all the time.

And hey, we get it: it’s easy to reach for a salty bag of chips or a bar of chocolate in such fowl times.

But instead of letting an unhealthy diet rule the roost, we recommend trying Flock chicken chips instead.

Not to crow on about them too much, but they are available in original, salt and vinegar, and BBQ flavors.

And if that doesn’t egg you on: with zero grams of carbs, zero grams of sugar, and 13 grams of high protein, you can feel completely guilt-free about it too.

They’re pretty plucking good: try Flock today.

Try Flock Today

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🌎 Finimize Community

✈️ It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…

… Citibank’s Joe Fiorca, revealing how to take advantage of the 2020s’ biggest trends. Join Joe on February 24th to learn about the wave of investment opportunities coming at you faster than a speeding bullet, and how to know which one will leave your portfolio feeling just super.

🍃 The Biggest ESG Trends Of 2021: 6pm UK Time, February 16th
🎈 Navigating a Stock Market Bubble: 1pm UK Time, February 17th
👦 The Millennial Effect: 6pm UK Time, February 17th
🎮 The Boom in eSports ETFs: 6pm UK Time, February 22nd
♻️ The Path to Carbon Neutrality: 6pm UK Time, February 23rd
🚀 Unstoppable Investing Trends: 6.30pm UK Time, February 24th
🤔 How to Diversify your Portfolio: 6pm India Time, February 24th
🌱 The Science Of Sustainable Investing: 4pm UK Time, February 25th
🙋 Investing in Women: 6pm UK Time, February 25th
🌈 Financial Planning for the LGBTQ Community: 2pm New York Time, February 26th
💪 Q&A with Finimize CEO, Max Rofagha: 1.30pm UK Time, February 26th
🔥 The Easy-Does-It Wealth-Building Strategy: 7pm Singapore Time, February 26th

📚 What we're reading

The story of the first American vaccine (Vox)
Bitcoin uses a lot of electricity (Popular Mechanics)
One (very expensive) way to get fast internet (The Verge)

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Finimize - 😷 Investors bet on coronavirus

Today's big stories

Split Decision

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

Bitcoin Vs. Ethereum

Sort the best from the rest

Checkmate

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

🐓 What the Flock?

✈️ It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…

Older messages

🤘 No Disney show left unwatched

📈 This stock market is weird

💪 Hedge funds pick their top stocks

🧟‍♂️ Total comes back to life

👀 Tesla backs bitcoin

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