Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for May 21st in 3:15 minutes.

♻️ You’re getting a chance to hear from Blackrock’s Evy Hambro tomorrow, you lucky things. You’ll find out why a building a “circular economy” – one that benefits businesses, society, and the environment – is so essential to achieving a sustainable future. Sign up here

Today's big stories

Oatly listed on the stock market on Thursday, and investors lapped it up
There's a market that's set to surge after trading at a massive discount to stocks for the last ten years – Read Now
American department store Kohl’s posted expectation-busting earnings as demand for apparel surges

Hot Milk

What’s Going On Here?

Oatly floated on the US stock market on Thursday, and investors gave the plant-based milk maker a warm welcome: its share price immediately frothed up 30%.

What Does This Mean?

It’s no surprise Oatly’s newly public stock was in such high demand. Consumers’ environmental and nutritional concerns have pushed plant-based products into the mainstream, and investors have long been looking for ways to back the companies fueling the category’s rise.

Their enthusiasm allowed Oatly to price its initial public offering (IPO) at the top end of its intended range, raising more than $1.4 billion in the process. The company plans to spend part of the proceeds on paying back a sustainability-linked loan, with the rest funding its ongoing expansion in the particularly fast-growing oat milk market – as well as the development of new products like plant-based cheese.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: Competition? What competition?
The IPO valued Oatly overall at $10 billion – a tidy step up from $2 billion just ten months ago (tweet this). That valuation amounts to 24x last year’s sales, compared to Beyond Meat’s 16x and Danone’s relatively paltry 2x (which might be because its two plant-based milk brands – Alpro and Silk – are just small cogs in a much bigger dairy machine). But even as new competition keeps coming onto the scene, Oatly’s ubiquitous brand means its growth is – at least for now – continuing to outstrip its rivals’.

The bigger picture: There’s even more room for plant-based milk to grow.
Oatly’s successful IPO came the day after website-hosting service Squarespace’s shares fell 13% on their own market debut. The difference might in part be down to a precedent set by Beyond Meat: the company’s stock price has risen more than 300% in the two years since it went public, despite a few ups and downs along the way. Investors, then, may well expect Oatly to be to plant-based dairy what Beyond Meat’s been to plant-based meat.

You might also like: Should you milk Oatly’s IPO for all it’s worth?

Copy to share story: https://www.finimize.com/wp/news/hot-milk/

🙋 Ask a question

2. Analyst Take

Vaccines Have Changed The Markets

What’s Going On Here?

Back in 2008, commodity prices were six times higher than those of global stocks. But in the decade since, it’s stocks that have led the way.

Even now, in spite of their recent rally, commodities are still trading at 50% less than their stock market counterparts – the biggest discount on record.

Still, there are a couple of good reasons to think the vaccine-fueled recovery will help commodities not just close the gap, but actually overtake stocks altogether.

And if that turns out to be true, it could be well worth moving your portfolio in a new direction.

So that’s today’s Insight: why there’s so much potential upside for commodities, and how to buy in before they show stocks who’s boss.

Read or listen to the Insight here

Join the big crypto platform about town

You’ve probably already heard of eToro, and there’s a good reason for that.

It’s one of the leading cryptocurrency platforms out there, having built a reputation for giving you the platform, information, and features you need to scratch your crypto itch.

For starters, you’ll get an easy-to-use interface with state-of-the-art security, available on mobile or desktop. That’s a given.

Next up, you can use eToro’s virtual portfolio to practice completely risk free. You’ll get $100K in “play money” to try out its platform, using real-time market data.

And better still, you’ll be able to learn more about the crypto investing world with an extensive catalogue of market guides – not to mention a newsletter so good we’re a little jealous.

Join eToro’s global community of 20 million investors: get started now.

Join eToro

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