Aug 17, 2021 Sign Up

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"I hate when people confuse education with intelligence, you can have a bachelor's degree and still be an idiot." — Elon Musk

Good morning! If you have been vaccinated, you might be needing another shot soon. US experts are expected to recommend Covid-19 vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second dose. More finance firms are flocking away from New York – State Street (firm behind Wall Street's 'Fearless Girl' statue) became the latest casualty, as it announced that it's vacating its NYC offices.

If you still have not subscribed to Short Squeez yet, now is the time and this is the link. 

1. Story of the Day: Walmart Goes Crypto

Walmart is looking to get in on the action with cryptocurrencies and has initiated a search for a digital currency and cryptocurrency product lead. "As an expert in Digital Currencies/Cryptocurrency and Blockchain related technologies, you will drive the vision for the product and capabilities roadmap," the job posting reads. 

America's largest private employer's move comes days after its competitor Amazon announced its own search for a cryptocurrency lead as the e-commerce giant reportedly looks to begin accepting digital currencies as payments for its products "as soon as possible". 

That sentiment has been echoed by other Fortune 500 companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Apple and PayPal, which are all hiring for cryptocurrency positions. Postings for cryptocurrency jobs on Indeed have jumped 118% compared to last year.

Some companies including Starbucks, Whole Foods and Home Depot already allow customers to pay with cryptocurrency indirectly through applications that convert the digital currency into US dollars.

Short Squeez Takeaway: More Fortune 500 companies warming up to digital currencies and investing in their crypto infrastructure, is great news for the crypto HODL gang. Crypto has been making a comeback recently – on Saturday, the crypto market topped $2 trillion for the first time in nearly 3 months after all major currencies rallied. Bitcoin is up 55% from a low of $30k on July 20th.

Source: CNBC

2. Markets Rundown

• In a messy day for markets with plenty of headlines but little in the way of logical price action, the tech-heavy Nasdaq continued to lag behind the broader stock market

Movers & Shakers

• (+) AMC ($AMC) +7% on the heels of a good weekend at the box office.
• (+) Doximity ($DOCS) +5% after an encouraging fiscal first-quarter earnings report.
  
• (–) Paysafe ($PSFE) -15% after lowering Q3 guidance in its Q2 earnings call.

3. Top Reads

A Message from Daloopa: Automate Your Modeling

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4. Book of the Day: Everything Is F*cked: A Book about Hope

We live in an interesting time. Materially, everything is the best it’s ever been—we are freer, healthier and wealthier than any people in human history. Yet, somehow everything seems to be irreparably and horribly f*cked—the planet is warming, governments are failing, economies are collapsing, and everyone is perpetually offended on Twitter. At this moment in history, when we have access to technology, education and communication our ancestors couldn’t even dream of, so many of us come back to an overriding feeling of hopelessness.

In Everthing Is F*cked, Manson turns his gaze from the inevitable flaws within each individual self to the endless calamities taking place in the world around us. Drawing from the pool of psychological research on these topics, as well as the timeless wisdom of philosophers such as Plato, Nietzsche, and Tom Waits, he looks at our relationships with money, entertainment and the internet, and how too much of a good thing can psychologically eat us alive.

5. Daily Visual: Largest Fintech Companies

Source: Finex Investing

6.  Daily Acumen: Antifade Model: Part 1

Generally, companies’ valuations follow the classic “fading return” model where it is assumed that eventually, all returns fade to the cost of capital. Yet ValuAnalysis research confirms that a growing number of disruptive companies are not following this path – instead their economic rent (the ratio of free cash flow to economic assets) increases over time rather than decreases and is described as the “Antifade”.

Some companies are implementing or rolling out transformational technologies, which are leveraging their asset base in a way unseen and unknown in previous instances, with the clear consequence of expanding the economic rent.

ValuAnalysis has identified a number of structural trends that are driving leverage across industries:

• A ‘platform effect’ (or instant global reach) is generating hypergrowth for some global companies such as Amazon

• An energy challenge is triggering a total re-think of the Automotive sector, with Tesla at the center of this revolution

• Dematerialization of payments is increasing the franchise of companies like Visa

• Growth is accelerating in some previously cyclical sectors, in particular semi-conductors. 5G, an acceleration in computing and artificial intelligence and Industry 4.0, are driving this.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at how Amazon fits into the Antifade model.

Source: ValuAnalysis

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