Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for May 13th in 3:09 minutes.

🐦 Catch up with us later today on Twitter Spaces, where Finimize VP Max Rothery (@maximillianroth) will lead the weekly stocks discussion. Just follow Max, and be ready to go live at 6pm BST / 1pm EST.

Today's big stories

SoftBank posted strong quarterly earnings, smashing Japanese profit records at the same time
World-famous short seller Carson Block wants you to know that short sellers aren’t your enemy – Read Now
US inflation hit its highest level in more than a decade, but the pickup might just be temporary

Arigatō But No Arigatō

What’s Going On Here?

SoftBank reported the highest-ever annual profit for any Japanese company on Wednesday, even though investors have been giving its stock a wide berth (tweet this).

What Does This Mean?

SoftBank’s Vision Fund – the world’s biggest tech-focused venture capital fund – seriously benefited from last quarter’s tech stock rally, and not just because it boosted the shares of its already-listed investments like Uber. The rally also encouraged some of the company’s startup investments – including Coupang, the “Amazon of South Korea“ – to make their stock market debuts. Both factors worked together to push the Vision Fund’s profit up for the third quarter in a row, making the fund the biggest driver of SoftBank’s record-breaking full-year earnings. That’s quite the about-turn: the Vision Fund was the reason for the company’s biggest loss in its history early last year.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: All is not well.
SoftBank’s stock price has been on a tear in the past year, and investors reckon its share buyback program – which reduces the supply of shares in the market, in turn boosting the prices of those that are left – has had a lot to do with it. But things have taken a wrong turn in the last couple of months: the company’s share price has dropped 14% since its two-decade high in March – both because it’s so far failed to promise more buybacks, and because it’s been caught up in the recent tech stock selloff.

Zooming out: Carmakers are (still) in trouble.
SoftBank’s annual profit is roughly double the country’s previous high, but Toyota needn’t feel too put out about losing its record: the carmaker announced on Wednesday that its quarterly profit almost doubled from a year ago, and it said it’s expecting its sales and profit to return to pre-pandemic levels this year. Still, that confidence is the exception among automakers, not the rule: its rivals are still battling a chip shortage that’s losing them billions of dollars in revenue.

You might also like: How to invest like a venture capitalist.

Copy to share story: https://www.finimize.com/wp/news/arigato-but-no-arigato/

🙋 Ask a question

2. Analyst Take

Why Short Sellers Aren’t The Enemy

What’s Going On Here?

Stock markets went a little crazy at the start of the year, with small investors working together to drive up out-of-favor stocks and hurt the short sellers betting against them.

The narrative became the financiers versus the people, which is why plenty of bystanders cheered when New York-based hedge fund was forced to abandon its short positions on GameStop.

Carson Block – founder of hedge fund Muddy Waters, who found fame exposing several US-listed Chinese companies as fraudulent – gets it. He does.

But short sellers, Carson says, aren’t the enemy. In fact, they’re the “pebble in shoe” of “dirtbags”, “charlatans”, and “shitcos”.

So we sat down with Carson, and asked him why he thinks you should cut short sellers some slack.

Read or listen to the Insight here

The Role Of The CFO

Join Stripe’s webinar with host Christa Davies (CFO of Aon), as she’s joined by Caroline Sherry (CFO of Hostelworld Group), Erez Rozenberg (CFO of GlassesUSA.com), Stephen Crowley (CFO of Flipdish), and Jordan McKee (Research Director at 451 Research) for an online panel discussion focusing on the CFO’s role in driving an adaptive business powered by technology.

Tune in on Tuesday 18th May at 1pm BST / 2pm CEST.

Register here

When you support our sponsors, you support us. Thanks for that.