Finimize - 👩‍⚕️ SPACs... aren't going to make it

Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for January 24th in 3:11 minutes.

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Today's big stories

UK retail sales plummeted last month as Omicron wreaked havoc
Here are the stocks and trends that the world's biggest hedge funds have been investing in lately – Read Now
More and more SPACs are calling it quits on their stock market listings

Long Shot

What’s Going On Here?

Data out on Friday showed that UK retail sales fell by more than expected last month, but the odds weren't exactly in their favor…

What Does This Mean?

December was never going to live up to November’s bumper growth in retail sales, especially after an Omicron-driven surge brought a whole new wave of restrictions and jitters. But even then, those sales were down 3.7% in December from the month before – a long way off the 0.6% drop economists were expecting, and the biggest since the start of the country’s third lockdown last January (tweet this). They were down across the board too, with spending in clothing and sports stores falling 8%, furniture stores 3%, and gas stations 5%. It could be worse, mind you: UK retail sales were still 2.6% higher than they were before Covid kicked in.

Why Should I Care?

Zooming in: It could be a hard year.
A lot of countries are dealing with rising prices right now, it’s true, but Brits might have a particularly tough time ahead. For one thing, the government’s already moving to claw back the cash it spent during the pandemic, starting by raising taxes in April in a bid to raise £14 billion ($19 billion) this year. And for another, the Bank of England is expected to hike interest rates again next month – a move that’ll make it even more expensive to borrow what they need.

The bigger picture: It could be a really hard year.
Given all that, it's no wonder UK consumer confidence – a measure of how settled shoppers are with their personal finances and the wider economy – just hit its lowest level in almost a year, according to data out on Friday. In fact, KPMG thinks as many as a third of shoppers won’t buy as many nice-to-haves this year as they did last. And since it’s those “consumer discretionaries” that drive so much economic growth, it doesn’t bode well for the country’s recovery.

You might also like: Interest rate hikes aren’t just a UK problem. Here are six ways to protect your portfolio.

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Analyst Take

Where Have The 20 Biggest Hedge Funds Been Investing?

Carl Hazeley, Analyst

What’s Going On Here?

Hedge funds have been under a lot of pressure in the last couple of years.

It’s not easy to find assets that outperform the market when almost everything’s been climbing indiscriminately, after all.

But they’ve risen to the challenge, with the world’s 20 biggest hedge funds earning a record $65 billion for their customers last year.

There are a few ways they’ve done that: investing in tech stocks (yep, still), taking “defensive” positions, and betting on market volatility.

So that’s today’s Insight: the trends the world’s biggest hedge funds are investing in, and the stocks and funds they’re using to invest.

Read or listen to the Insight here

This CEO puts his money where his mouth is

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Take Fund That Flip’s founder and CEO, who personally invests in the company’s real estate deals. Every month, he shares the properties he’s adding to his portfolio (along with how they’re performing) in his Dogfooding series.

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If it’s good enough for the CEO, it just might be worth checking out.

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Fund That Flip, Inc. does not make investment recommendations, and any information found herein should not be construed as such. This information is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security, which can only be made through official offering documents that contain important information about risks, fees, and expenses.

Any investment information contained herein has been secured from sources Fund That Flip, Inc. believes are reliable, but we make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy of such information and accept no liability therefore. We recommend that you consult with a financial advisor, attorney, accountant, and any other professional that can help you to understand and assess the risks associated with any investment opportunity. Fund That Flip, Inc. is able to make investment opportunities available, only to accredited investors who submit required verification.