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MONDAY’S MOOD 🐝

We’ll keep it short & sweet today — here’s this week’s hottest investing news topics summarized in 5 infographics / charts to help you settle in after a holiday weekend 👇

1. Labor Market Cooldown 🌨️

4/7 | 🔴 Jobs Report | 📰 CNN | US economy added just 236,000 jobs in March

Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their monthly US employment report… and the numbers came out to be ~underwhelming~

• US employers added just 236,000 jobs in March, well below expectations (indicating that the labor market is cooling off) 🧊

• The unemployment dropped to 3.5% (vs. forecasts of 3.6%) — marking the 1st report in 12mo to come in below expectations 📉

• Industries such as leisure and hospitality, health care and government continued to lead the way in job gains. Industries reporting monthly losses included retail trade, temporary help, manufacturing, construction and information services. 👷

2. De-Dollarization 💵

4/3 | 🔴 Global Trade | 📰 Visual Capitalist | Countries are seeking alternatives to US dollar

The US dollar has dominated global trade for most of recent history — serving as the world reserve currency for close to 80 years… But in our current post-Covid inflationary world economy, other countries are trying to change that.

Over the past year trade in Russian ruble - Chinese yuan has increased 80x 💹

More recently, the de-dollarization process has accelerated:

• Brazil and Argentina have discussed the creation of a common currency for the two largest economies in South America.

• In a conference in Singapore in January, multiple former Southeast Asian officials spoke about de-dollarization efforts underway.

• The UAE and India are in talks to use rupees to trade non-oil commodities in a shift away from the dollar, according to Reuters.

• For the first time in 48 years, Saudi Arabia said that the oil-rich nation is open to trading in currencies besides the U.S. dollar.

3. China’s AI Bubble? 🫧

4/9 | 🔴 Chinese Stocks | 📰 Bloomberg | China’s worried that Chat-GPT may have caused valuation bubble

Following the release of Chat-GPT, generative AI has been the hottest trend we’ve seen since the launch of the internet. 🌶️

Over the past few months, AI-affiliated companies have absolutely ~soared~ in valuation… everyone wants to be a part of the hype. Especially in China.

But now Chinese regulators are worried that their artificial intelligence companies may be at risk of a ‘valuation bubble’ — last week China’s state media urged authorities to step up supervision of potential AI speculation… 🚨

Since then, shares of companies in China’s ChatGPT concept sector have plunged. 📉 This all comes a week after Chinese retail giant announced it will develop & launch a ChatGPT-like technology later this month…

4. The Unicorn Club 🦄

4/9 | 🟢 Private Equity | 📰 CB Insights | How many companies are worth more than $1B?

This chart from CB Insights exploded on Twitter this week… 🤯

It shows how many private companies (startups) are valued at more than $1 billion dollars — there are currently more than 1,200 unicorns throughout the world (more than ever before) 🦄

But what’s crazier is that the rate of new unicorns has actually *slowed down* dramatically throughout the past year; dropping off cliff since Q1 2022 (graph here)

And just look at how many of them are concentrated in Fintech and Internet software & services… interesting to think about where the new ones will show up over the coming years. 🤔

5. Q1 Earnings Szn Begins 📆

4/7 | 🔴 US Stocks | 📰 JH Investments | Analysts expect Q1 numbers to come out lower…

Doesn’t it feel like earnings season just ended?

Well buckle up baby, bc this week it starts all over again. First-quarter corporate earnings reports will ramp back up this week, beginning with the likes of , & then busting open on Friday with major banks , , and

Generally speaking, expectations are low this quarter — analysts expect companies in the S&P 500 to post an avg. earnings decrease of 6.8% compared with the same period a year earlier (the biggest earnings decline since Q2 2020):

OTHER NEWS NUGGETS 🥔

🟢 Tesla slashes prices across all its EV’s again | 📰 Reuters 

“Tesla cut prices in the United States between 2% and nearly 6%, its website showed on Thursday… the fifth such cut in Tesla's largest market since the start of the year comes as the United States prepares to adopt tougher standards this month that are expected to limit EV tax credits.”

🟢 All eyes on Wednesday’s inflation report… | 📰 MorningStar 

“Forecasts for the March CPI report show inflation is expected to post a 5.2% increase from a year ago, according to FactSet’s consensus forecasts. That would be well above the Federal Reserve’s target, but an improvement from the 6% increase shown in the February CPI report.”

🔴 Twitter bans Substack links, sparking feud | 📰 New York Times

“Twitter’s move to swat an upstart was an abrupt deviation from normal behavior among internet companies and publishers. It also provided more grist for critics who say that while Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, has often hailed the importance of free speech, he has not shied from restricting competitors and content that he doesn’t like”

🔴 Samsung reports slimmest profits since ‘09 Financial Crisis | 📰 Bloomberg

“Samsung Electronics said it’s cutting memory chip production after reporting its slimmets profit since theh 2009 financial crisis, a signficant step toward ending a supply glut that had cratered prices across the industry.”

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.

SENTIMENT KEY: 🟢=bullish, 🌑=neutral, 🔴=bearish