Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for August 24th in 3:01 minutes.

⛓ Join Grayscale’s Craig Salm for An Introduction to Investing In Chainlink on August 24th, and find out how to invest in Chainlink before anyone else. It’ll be, ahem, off the chain. Get your free ticket

Today's big stories

Economic activity in the eurozone and the US fell short of expectations this month
There are plenty of ways to give your portfolio a boost, but one strategy in particular might be more effective than most – Read Now
Dividends are on course to hit $1.4 trillion this year, meaning they’ve almost completely recovered from the pandemic

Slip Hazard

What’s Going On Here?

Fresh data out on Monday showed economic activity in the US and the eurozone lost traction in August, and some investors reckon the slide’s only just begun…

What Does This Mean?

Monthly business activity surveys ask company managers how busy they’ve been compared to the month before, providing a near real-time snapshot of economic performance. And while the eurozone followed up a record-breaking July with another uptick in activity in August, that activity – across both manufacturing and services industries – fell short of economists’ forecasts. The story was the same in the US: economic activity’s on the up, but not by quite as much as expected. And this, if some analysts are to be believed, could just be a sign of things to come.

Why Should I Care?

The bigger picture: A potential Greek tragedy.
Investors are paying more and more attention to the Delta variant, which is driving a rise in cases even among fully vaccinated people. That brings with it two major risks to economic growth: even more lockdowns – which might lead to less spending and hamstrung businesses – and even more disruptions to supply chains. If, after all, there are more people in isolation, parts won’t get to where they need to be, and there’ll be fewer products available to drive the recovery.

For markets: Traders are on the money.
Traders right now are effectively betting that the European Central Bank won’t increase eurozone interest rates for another three years – and even then, it’ll be by just 0.1%. What’s notable, though, is that they were expecting a 0.3% hike back in May, suggesting they’ve been quick to adjust as new European data takes on a slightly less optimistic color.

You might also like: How interest rates are influencing every investment you make.

Copy to share story: https://www.finimize.com/wp/news/slip-hazard/

🙋 Ask a question

2. Analyst Take

How To Turbocharge Your Portfolio

What’s Going On Here?

There are thousands of tactical asset allocation strategies out there: some good, some not.

Vigilant Asset Allocation (VAA) is one of the former. In fact, it’s one of the best-performing of the past 50 years, generating an average annual return of 18%.

That’s nearly double the traditional 60/40 portfolio’s 9.8%, even if there are a few risks you’ll want to be aware of.

So that’s today’s Insight: how the VAA works, and how to implement it using exchange-traded funds.

Read or listen to the Insight here

How to invest in startups

You’ve got stocks and bonds covered, but startups have always been out of reach. Not anymore.

With Chisos, investors like you have the opportunity to invest in a portfolio of startups.

See, Chisos carefully selects a number of high-potential startup founders and provides them with capital. So you’ll be able to invest in a bundle of startups at once – more than 250 of them.

And it gets better. Chisos targets founders that are typically overlooked and underrepresented – so you’ll be helping minority groups access the funding they need to start and grow companies.

Plus, investing in a diverse group of startups rather than just one means you’re taking on less risk.

Head over to Wefunder and consider Chisos today.

Find Out More

Flashback Sequence

What’s Going On Here?

Dividend payouts are on course to hit $1.4 trillion this year, as – cue the wavey camera effect – companies and investors are reminded what it was like back in the good old days.

What Does This Mean?

Companies paid out $472 billion worth of dividends in the second quarter of 2021, up 26% from the same time last year. And sure, the jump was always going to look big given that companies were clinging onto as much cash as they could a year ago. But even if you block out the last twelve months (and we often try), payouts were only 7% lower last quarter than they were at the same time in 2019. In other words, we’re edging closer and closer to pre-pandemic levels. That gap’s only set to close too: research out on Monday from Janus Henderson showed that 84% of companies are planning to maintain or increase their dividends this year. That would bring total shareholder payouts this year to $1.4 trillion – just 3% below the beforetimes.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: Who are the big payers?
If you’re looking for the biggest dividend-payers, mining companies – whose earnings came back swinging with commodity prices earlier in the year – could be a good bet, along with industrials, banks, and consumer discretionaries (tweet this). “Defensive” sectors like consumer staples and telecoms, meanwhile, are lagging behind, while the pandemic-battered travel and leisure industries need every dollar they have right now.

The bigger picture: Where are the big payers?
As for where in the world to look, the UK and Europe – whose second-quarter payouts were up 61% and 66% respectively – are good leaping-off points, while Canada helped drive North American payouts to a record high. Asia’s 45% dividend growth looks good too, with Korean giant Samsung even poaching the title of world’s biggest dividend payer from Switzerland’s Nestlé. You’d do well to avoid emerging markets, though: the pandemic’s still giving their economies a particularly hard time, and their payouts fell 3% versus the same time last year.

You might also like: How to find the best dividend-paying stocks.

Copy to share story: https://www.finimize.com/wp/news/flashback-sequence/

🙋 Ask a question

💬 Quote of the day

“Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.”

– Sholom Aleichem (a Yiddish author and playwright)

Tweet this

5G. It’s the future.

That’s probably why Motley Fool has marked it down as one of the most exciting investment opportunities out there right now.

5G, after all, is moving into the mainstream thanks to Apple’s first-ever 5G iPhones. Analysts have high hopes for where it’ll go from here.

But Motley Fool doesn’t think Apple is the only way – nor the most lucrative one – to play the trend.

In fact, they know one listed US company that makes a component so essential to the 5G iPhone that Apple’s expected to include it in every new iPhone they make.

You can find out what that company is for free: just head over to Motley Fool.

Get The Stock

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

🎯 On Our Radar

Save the planet, but at what cost? A new eco-movement would sacrifice millions of lives.
Discover finance that’s fair, sustainable, and inclusive. Your money really does matter, and where you invest could change the world. Capital at risk.*
The wrong kind of influencer. How social media fraud is taking off.
Someone’s getting fired. One man versus an entertainment powerhouse.
Fast fashion is a dirty secret. Our habit is creating a problem somewhere else in the world.

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

🌎 Finimize Live

⚔️ A head to head for the ages

You might be in this investing thing for the long game, looking to build your wealth bit by bit in a hands off way. Or you might be looking to pick and choose the right stocks at the right moment, and benefit from a big but risky win. As for which side you fall on, our Are You An Investor Or A Trader? event might be able to provide some clarity.

😎 How To Invest In Smart Contracts: 5pm UK time, August 24th
🤔 Are You An Investor Or A Trader?: 12pm UK time, August 25th
🙌 How To Create A Diversified Portfolio: 1pm UK time, August 26th
🚀 How To Profit From Open Banking: 5pm UK time, August 27th
💰 How To Value Any Company: 6pm UK time, August 31st
💉 How To Get Your Dose Of Healthcare 2.0: 5pm UK time, September 1st
🤔 The Pros And Cons Of Alternative Investments: 5pm UK time, September 6th
📚 How To Navigate Investing In A Meme Stonk World: 2pm UK time, September 8th
💥 How To Master The Crypto Ecosystem: 5pm UK time, September 14th
🔒 Navigating The World Of Bitcoin Security: 6pm UK time, September 21st
♻️ How To Turn Your Portfolio Green : 6pm UK time, September 23rd
🤠 How To Win Big With Fractional Shares: 5pm UK time, September 28th

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

❤️ Share with a friend

Your Referrals: 0

Thanks for reading Reader. If you liked today's brief, we'd love for you to share it with a friend. If they sign up on your unique link, you’ll earn some sweet swag.

Share your unique link:

https://finimize.com/invite/?kid=177ZWC

You stay classy, Reader 😉

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Give feedback

Want to advertise with us too? Get in touch

Image Credits:

Image credits: jaboo2foto - Shutterstock | nito - Shutterstock

Preferences:

Update your email or change preferences

View in browser

Unsubscribe from all Finimize Emails

😴

Crafted by Finimize Ltd. | Third Floor, 1 New Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1AN, UK.

All content provided by Finimize Ltd. is for informational and educational purposes only and is not meant to represent trade or investment recommendations. You signed up to this mailing list at finimize.com or through one of our partners. © Finimize 2021

Finimize - 📉 We’ve been Delta bad hand

Today's big stories

Slip Hazard

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

How To Turbocharge Your Portfolio

How to invest in startups

Flashback Sequence

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

5G. It’s the future.

⚔️ A head to head for the ages

Older messages

📉 This isn't what Robinhood planned

💪 Tencent (kinda) shows China who's boss

👀 A strategy to avoid market crashes

🚀 Analysts say "buy the dip"

ESG + profit = 🚀

You Might Also Like

Don’t think you can afford life insurance?

What are you hiding Elon?? (Tesla’s secret 69% dividend)

Giving thanks for inflation, Paul Mescal and more

💚 Holding space for career pivots

Harry's Take 11-27-24 Michael Saylor Has Seen an Impressive Learning Curve Playing Bitcoin at MicroStrategy!

The heterogenous effects of carbon pricing: macro and micro evidence

💉 A slimming proposal

Earn higher APY with a short-term CD

Do You Expect to Rely on Social Security?

Silicon Valley Angel Investor Predicts AI Market Shock