Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for April 8th in 3:12 minutes.

👋 Come find the official Finimize Club on Clubhouse, folks: join us for today’s show at 6pm UK time / 1pm New York time, and let’s have a chat about Tesla’s valuation, shall we? Join the club

Today's big stories

Samsung is projecting a big jump in last quarter’s profit, and the global chip shortage could mean even better days ahead
There are two strategies you can use to make the most of a one-of-a-kind earnings season – Read Now
Private equity firm CVC Capital is looking to buy Japanese conglomerate Toshiba

Smart Money

What’s Going On Here?

Samsung announced on Wednesday that it’s projecting a 44% jump in last quarter’s profit, as a homebound world kitted out their kitchens with unnecessary – but admittedly really cool – gear.

What Does This Mean?

Samsung is all set to report its first-quarter earnings at the end of the month, but clearly it couldn’t contain itself till then: the company revealed that its profit is poised to climb by just as much as analysts are expecting. That surge is probably down to strong sales of smartphones and home appliances, which have offered locked-down customers something to spend their money on in the absence of, y’know, active social lives.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: Everyone’s hungry for chips.
Samsung’s investors have good reason to be feeling positive about the company’s future profitability: it’s the world’s biggest maker of memory chips, and that’s a good business to be in nowadays. See, there’s a global shortage of semiconductors because of strong demand for anything electronic, and that’s been driving up their prices since March. And with the shortage expected to last for two more years, they might have a lot higher to rise…

The bigger picture: Are smartphones a dying business?
The launch of Samsung’s latest smartphone in January boosted its market share too, with the company’s sales representing 23% of the global smartphone market last quarter. That’s up from 16% the quarter before, when arch-rival Apple poached the top spot for the first time in four years. LG Electronics, for its part, seems fed up of being the third wheel in this will-they won’t-they: the manufacturer announced on Monday that it’s quitting the smartphone market altogether to focus on electric vehicle (EV) components. That might be a smart move: the EV market is only just taking off, while fresh data has shown a 10% fall in the global smartphone market last year – the third drop-off in a row (tweet this).

You might also like: Three visions of Apple’s future beyond smartphones.

Copy to share story: https://www.finimize.com/wp/news/smart-money-2/

🙋 Ask a question

2. Analyst Take

This Earnings Season Is A One-Of-A-Kind Opportunity

What’s Going On Here?

Investors are always on high alert during company earnings season, but the next one – which kicks off next week – offers a pretty unique opportunity.

Here’s the thing: analysts have a habit of cutting company profit estimates over the course of a quarter. But last quarter, they didn’t just raise them: they raised them by the most in almost 20 years.

US stock prices have risen too, likely as investors “priced in” analysts’ high hopes.

And that means there’s arguably an outsized risk of negative surprises, giving missed forecasts the power to send a stock prices tumbling faster and further than normal.

The opposite is true too: the two worst-performing sectors this year go into this round of updates with stable profit forecasts, and could see their stocks jump if they outperform.

So that’s today’s today’s Insight: which stocks are in a good place, which aren’t, and two strategies you can use to profit from this one-off situation.

Read or listen to the Insight here

Smart investors know it pays to be early in crypto

And with crypto in a raging bull market, the demand for compliant token sales has been unprecedented.

CoinList’s platform is purpose-built to give you early access to the most cutting-edge crypto projects.

It lets you invest in, earn from, and trade on the best new tokens before other exchanges. The crypto community is taking notice, and it’s no wonder why.

Just look at Solana (SOL), Flow (FLOW), and Filecoin (FIL). Each was sold on CoinList before exploding in popularity: Solana went from 22 cents to $25, Flow from 38 cents to $46, and Filecoin from $5 to $235.

On CoinList, you’ll never be late to the party. So sign up today, and get $10 in bitcoin when you make a trade worth over $100.

Get Started

Please support our sponsors