Stocks Fall to Start the Week, Futures Open Lower

Dow: -0.60% | Nasdaq: +0.17% | S&P: -0.20%

Catch Up Quick

• Iceland’s long-running trial of a 4-day work week was an “overwhelming success” as zero productivity was lost and pay remained the same

• On a net basis, retail investors bought ~$28B of stocks + ETFs in June

• Porsche will create a new hypercar company with Bugatti and Croatian electric vehicle maker Rimac

• A staggering 41% of workers are considering leaving their current employer (survey from Microsoft) → over 4M people (2.7% of U.S. workers) quit their jobs in April

• Oil prices reached their highest level since 2014 after OPEC+ failed to reach a production deal → Goldman says prices could reach $90/barrel this summer

• The Pentagon cancelled its $10B JEDI cloud deal with Microsoft, sending Amazon ($AMZN) up ~5% (investors think the deal could be re-awarded to the eCommerce giant)

• Neighborhood community platform Nextdoor will go public in a $4.3B SPAC deal, as the CEO eyes ambitious expansion

• Russia’s wealth fund officially cut its U.S. dollar position to zero

• Shares of Chinese ride-hailing company Didi ($DIDI) plunged 20% today as China’s government vows to restrict downloads during a cybersecurity investigation

• UBS downgraded Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) after shares have more than doubled in 6 weeks

• Goldman Sachs upgraded American Express ($AMEX) with a buy rating → sees over 30% upside

• Citigroup downgraded Domino’s Pizza ($DPZ) citing full valuation after its recent price surge

Thought of the Day

• We’ve previously discussed how machine learning + stronger algorithms are hyper-personalizing consumer shopping experiences

• In a similar vein, another eCommerce evolution worth noting is live commerce, or live stream shopping → currently very popular in Asia but has yet to gain real traction in the West

• Live commerce refers to the combination of live streaming and online shopping, allowing influencers to demo products while viewers interact and buy in real-time

• By presenting more product information through an additional level of intimacy and immediacy, live commerce appears to have huge potential in the digital ad realm

• For example, AliExpress LIVE reported a conversion rate of 320K goods added to the cart per 1M views

• While traditional retail and eCommerce players like Amazon and Kohl’s have explored live commerce integrations, social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube may be better positioned 

• The success of live commerce is heavily predicated on the influencer hosting the session, and these platforms host robust influencer networks and millions of loyal, under-monitized followers 

• And while live commerce has taken off in certain regions, only 26% of purchasing decisions in the U.S. are based on influencer recommendations

• This compares to 44% with respect to Generation Z (Kantar Research), a demographic with less disposable income accounting for a smaller % of eCommerce sales

• Though as these younger generations age, live commerce may become even more feasible and social media platforms will have a real shot at stealing eCommerce market share from Amazon and other big players assuming the tech giants refuse to collaborate!

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