Twitter Killer
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The Investor’s Podcast Network is a business podcast network. Our main show “We Study Billionaires” has 180M+ downloads.
By?Matthew Gutierrez,?Shawn O'Malley, and?Weronika Pycek?· July 06, 2023
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Mark Zuckerberg just threw a knockout punch with his "Twitter killer" Threads app before even stepping into the ring with Elon Musk??
Whether the punch lands is something we’ll be keenly watching in the coming weeks — let the battle of the billionaires commence.
More on that below.
—?Weronika, Shawn & Matthew
Here’s the rundown:
Today, we'll discuss the?three biggest stories in markets:
All this, and more, in just?5 minutes to read.
POP QUIZ
What’s the current average number of hours worked per week in the U.S.? (Scroll down to find the answer)
CHART OF THE DAY
IN THE NEWS
??Meta Presents Threads App, a Threat to Musk’s Twitter?(Reuters)
Instagram, owned by Meta, has introduced?Threads, a new app aimed at competing with Twitter. This launch poses the most significant challenge to Elon Musk's struggling social media platform to date, gathering over?10 million sign-ups?in the first seven hours and over?30 million after the first day.
How it works:?Threads, although introduced as a separate app, offers users the convenience of logging in with their Instagram credentials and following the same accounts. This seamless integration augments the existing habits of Instagram's massive user base, exceeding 2 billion monthly active users, brands, celebrities, and creators.
This isn’t Meta’s first time emulating successful?products?from emerging rivals. For instance, Instagram’s Reels?feature mirrors TikTok's popular video app, and its Stories feature imitates Snapchat's?disappearing posts.
Why it matters:
Since Musk acquired Twitter for?$44 billion?in October, the platform has undergone significant changes, including thousands of layoffs, relaxed content moderation policies, and no shortage of technical issues for users and advertisers.
Pinching pennies:?Financially, things have been tough. Saddled with debt and burdensome interest expenses, Twitter’s ad revenue has also hit a cliff, falling?50%?in March.
Despite the launch of Threads, Twitter continues to impose?limitations?on the number of tweets users can view per day, a temporary measure implemented to combat data scrapers and bots, according to Musk.
Still, it’s not the type of move you’d expect from a business reliant on overall platform engagement.
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领英推荐
? Downswing in Russian Ruble Continues?(Bloomberg)
Starting land wars in Europe, followed shortly thereafter by harsh sanctions from Western governments, doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in a currency’s value. Add a dramatic mutiny (failed coup?), and the picture is even bleaker.
After a collapse following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ruble rallied sharply as the country forced others to pay for its oil & gas supplies with rubles instead of dollars or euros. It also raised interest rates aggressively from?9.5% to 20%.
Declining exports, namely from lower oil & gas prices, have weighed on the ruble in recent months as less money flows into Russia’s economy.?Year-over-year, revenues from Russia’s main exports (fossil fuels) fell by 25%.
Why it matters:
Kremlin officials acknowledged that the currency had fallen below a key “comfort zone” against the U.S. dollar, blaming “speculative games.”
Ultimately, a weaker ruble only adds to the country’s?economic fragility and fuels inflation?as imports become more expensive while government spending (to support war efforts) surges and labor shortages mount — every person sent to the frontline is one less available worker domestically.
At the same time, wealthy Russians have been keen to move money abroad, with 15 regions in Russia reporting a?70-80%?increase in demand for other currencies since a military rebellion almost two weeks ago.
MORE HEADLINES
?? Private sector added 497,000 jobs in June,?double?expectations
?? Moderna?inks?deal to make medicines in China
?? Americans have?quit quitting?their jobs
?? Maine (partially)?decriminalizes?prostitution
?? The Homebuilder Stock Boom?(WSJ)
Homebuilder stocks?are booming?as homeowners stay put.
Higher mortgage rates have kept many homeowners in place, thus driving the demand for new homes. Consequently, homebuilder stocks have soared upward of?30%, compared with the S&P 500’s 16% rise in 2023.
Large homebuilders such as?D.R. Horton,?Lennar, and?PulteGroup?have seen their share of new-home sales rise from?22% to 31%?over the past five years. The demand is particularly strong in lower-cost states across the American South, where people moved during the pandemic once they realized they could work from home.
Why it matters:
New-home sales were up?12%?in May over the previous month and up?20%?from a year ago, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But existing-home sales in May were up 0.2% over the previous month and down 20% from the previous year.
To be clear, it was a rough 2022 for homebuilder stocks, which fell about 20%. Supply-chain problems plagued builders, and investors questioned how well they’d do with higher interest rates. But a National Association of Home Builders survey showed that?home-builder sentiment fell sharply in 2022 before rebounding this year.
TRIVIA ANSWER
Average weekly hours have fallen in three of the last four months, dropping to about?34.3. The Netherlands, though, enjoys one of the shortest average work weeks globally, at only 29 hours.
SEE YOU NEXT TIME!
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