Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for July 5th in 3:11 minutes.

☕️ Finimized over a strawberry banana smoothie at Coffee Bar Bonch in Saint Petersburg, Russia (31°C/87°F ⛅️)

Today's big stories

Robinhood revealed both surging revenues and losses ahead of its much-anticipated initial public offering
Renewable energy stocks are looking relatively cheap right now, and here’s how to find the most promising of them – Read Now
The US economy added a higher-than-expected 850,000 jobs in June

Outlaw And Order

What’s Going On Here?

Robinhood doesn’t do things by the book: the trading app revealed both surging revenues and losses late last week ahead of its much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO).

What Does This Mean?

New retail investors flocked to Robinhood last year, pushing its first-quarter revenue 300% higher and its monthly active users to 18 million – twice as many as the same time the year before. That was mostly down to an explosion in cryptocurrency trading, which made up 17% of Robinhood’s first-quarter revenue.

But things weren’t all hunky dory. A lot of the crypto revenue was from less-than-reliable dogecoin trading – the joke cryptocurrency that’s now down by more than 65% from May highs (tweet this). Likewise, the company carried out some emergency fundraising amid the “meme stock frenzy”, which led to an extraordinary $1.4 billion loss in the first quarter.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: New versus old.
Robinhood’s revenue has surged almost fourfold to $1.3 billion in the last four quarters – a growth trajectory that could see its revenue hit $5 billion over the next four. With its IPO rumored to value the firm as much as $40 billion, that’d imply a valuation multiple of 8x forecasted sales. That’s not outlandish, especially considering it’s not far off that of brokerage Charles Schwab’s. But there is one big difference between the two: the bulk of Robinhood’s revenue comes from selling its customer’s orders to so-called market makers in a practice known as “payment for order flow” – one that’s increasingly at risk of regulatory clampdown.

The bigger picture: South Korea steps up.
This listing would give America’s record-setting IPO market another shot in the arm. But South Korea is giving the country a run for its money: Kakao Pay – the country’s biggest online payment provider – filed for a listing that could raise the fintech company as much as $1.4 billion. And that comes hot on the heels of blockbuster IPO filings from fellow Korean fintech Kakao Bank, as well as video game maker Krafton.

You might also like: How to tell an IPO blockbuster from an IPO flop.

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2. Analyst Take

Why Aren’t Renewable Energy Stocks Getting Any Love?

What’s going on here?

Renewable energy stocks had a stellar rise in 2020.

But they’ve fallen out of favor this year, with the European Renewable Energy index down around 25% from its January peak.

That seems odd: they’re cheap relative to their growth potential, and they’re looking at decades of growth as governments roll back fossil fuels.

That might be why investment banks from Goldman Sachs to Royal Bank of Canada think the recent selloff’s presented you with the perfect entry point.

So that’s today’s Insight: why renewable energy stocks are remarkable value right now, as well as how to pick the winners.

Read or listen to the Insight here