Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for July 9th in 3:11 minutes.

☕️ Finimized over a hot chocolate at Smith the Grocer in Wellington, New Zealand (7°C/44°F 🌧)

Today's big stories

The European Central Bank raised its inflation target to 2%
Our analyst looks into whether Robinhood’s upcoming listing will make for a good investment – Read Now
Food delivery firm Deliveroo upgraded its sales growth forecast, initially sending its shares higher

Upping The Ante

What’s Going On Here?

The European Central Bank (ECB) raised its inflation target on Thursday in a high-stakes gamble on the future health of the continent’s economy.

What Does This Mean?

For the past 18 years, the ECB’s aimed for annual price rises to come in “below but close to 2%” – an objective it’s undershot for almost a decade. Now, however, Europe’s central bank is opting for a more tangible target of 2% flat. That’s a slight escalation on paper – but may be greater in reality, given that the ECB has said it’ll allow inflation to overshoot when economic conditions require it.

The increase allows the Bank to carry on with its current policies of ultra-low interest rates and ultra-large bond buying, supporting the European economic recovery even if that means higher inflation in the short term. But Thursday’s strategic shift went deeper: the ECB is also sharpening its focus on climate change, including by taking into account sustainability criteria when purchasing company bonds (tweet this).

Why Should I Care?

For markets: Infectious? Hold ‘Em.
The prospect of more quantitative easing and lower rates for longer helped European government bonds rally on Thursday. But investors also fled to their relative safety as stock markets sank on fears that fresh restrictions to counter the fast-spreading Delta variant of coronavirus could take the shine off the global economic recovery.

The bigger picture: Casino Royale.
The world’s major central banks are at sixes and sevens over how to withdraw extraordinary economic support measures introduced at the height of the pandemic. The ECB gave no indication as to when it’ll start raising interest rates again – but the US central bank reckons it’ll have increased them twice by 2023. China, meanwhile, hinted earlier this week that it may soon reduce the amount of cash its banks have to keep in reserve, boosting local lending. The big risk for the ECB is that it’s caught out by another economic hiccup before things get back to normal.

You might also like: Five ways to protect your portfolio against rising inflation.

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2. Analyst Take

Should You Invest In Robinhood’s IPO?

What’s Going On Here?

Robinhood is one of Silicon Valley’s most valuable and fastest-growing startups.

And the fintech firm that pioneered commission-free stock trading is soon selling shares of its own in an initial public offering that could value the company as high as $40 billion.

But the big question is: will it make a good investment?

There are factors in its favor, including impressive recent growth. But there are reasons to steer clear too – not least major regulatory risk.

With this in mind, it’s important to assess whether Robinhood’s $40 billion valuation is justified.

So that’s today’s Insight: how much Robinhood should really be worth – and whether you should buy in.

Read or listen to the Insight here

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