Welcome to our #60 weekly newsletter.
Every week we curate key content and apply a female lens so you can stay informed and inspired about money and investing.
Stay in the know.
Keep on top of global economic, financial and investing news and trends. And read about what this means for you and your money in 2021 during Covid-19 and beyond.
If you’re short on time, listen to the audio for a brief overview.
“For women taking control of their financial future”
-Jana Hlistova
From The Purse
Editorial from the Founder
Global bonds have lost $1.5bn in value over the last four weeks, this is in large part due to a concern in inflation rising (as bond yields have increased).
US President, Joe Biden signed the $1.9tn stimulus bill on Thursday: the new law will allow the distribution of direct payments valued at $1,400 each to 160m US citizens.
Meanwhile the European Central Bank (ECB) draft forecasts inflation to be fleeting and has confirmed they will step up the pace of bond-buying (for the next 3 months).
The Bank of England (BoE) Governor, Andrew Bailey has said that risks to the UK economy remain tilted to the downside, however he does not expect to tighten monetary policy (for now). The speech follows a sharp rise in U.K. interest rates in financial markets over the past month.
Meanwhile, UK exports of goods to the EU plunged by 40.7% in January during the first month since Brexit and the toughest Covid lockdown since the first wave of the pandemic.
Bitcoin hit a new all-time high at $60,000+ on Saturday. Bitcoin is up about 1,000% in the past year as a growing number of institutions ‘dabble in Bitcoin’.
Norwegian oil billionaire has bet on Bitcoin: Rokke (which controls oil and oil service companies) is setting up a new business, Seetee to tap into the potential of Bitcoin and will start with $58m in capital.
In the Future Focus section, read about one of the biggest changes to the Ethereum network since its inception in 2015 which can spur gains in the cryptocurrency, Ether.
Roblox, the online gaming company, has directly listed on the New York Stock Exchange and was valued at $38bn at the close of the first day of trading.
In the Have You Seen This? section, Goldman Sachs is embarking on a decade-long quest to inject $10bn into projects that it says will impact one million Black Women.
And we are tracking Backbone Angels: a group of women who have helped lead and build Shopify, have launched a new angel group and it is focused on investing in women and non-binary founders with a specific focus on Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC)-led companies.
Stay safe, look after yourselves and your loved ones.
I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.
Until next week,
Jana
The Big Picture
Global markets and economy news, trends and indicators
Global bonds have lost $1.5tn in value over the past 4 weeks
This is in large part due to a concern in inflation rising.
US President Joe Biden signs $1.9tn Covid-19 pandemic relief bill
The new law provides for distribution of $1,400 in direct payments to 160 million US citizens, among other provisions, to help defray costs during the pandemic and stimulate the economy.
European Central Bank (ECB) drafts forecasts assume any inflation increase will be fleeting
The ECB’s forecasts this week are likely to justify the current stimulus program with a cautious view that envisages no sustained jump in inflation.
ECB to step up the pace of bond buying (over the next 3 months) to keep bond yields in check
However ECB policy makers have no intention of expanding their €1.85tn-($2.2tn) emergency stimulus program.
The ECB’s decision came after weeks of rising yields sparked concern among some policy makers that the euro zone isn’t ready to cope with higher borrowing costs.
Bank of England (BoE) Governor says risks to UK economy remain tilted to the downside
Andrew Bailey reiterated the bank’s guidance that it doesn’t intend to tighten monetary policy (ie increase interest rates), until there’s clear evidence the economy is absorbing excess capacity.
The speech follows a sharp rise in U.K. interest rates in financial markets over the past month.
Investors are starting to anticipate when the central bank might shift from supporting the recovery to controlling its strength.
UK: exports to EU plunge by £5.6bn in the first month since Brexit
UK exports of goods to the EU plunged by 40.7% in January during the first month since Brexit and the toughest Covid lockdown since the first wave of the pandemic.
UK GDP shrank by 2.9% in January
The dip on GDP came about as a result of declines in retail sales and education (as the UK aimed to halt the spread of Covid-19).
Bitcoin & cryptocurrencies
Global news, trends and insights
Bitcoin hits a new all-time high $60,000+ (Saturday, 12.22pm GMT)
Bitcoin is up about 1,000% in the past year amid signs of increasing institutional interest as well as speculative demand.
‘Stimulus checks, Elon Musk’s relentless support, short-sellers throwing in the towel, and weekend liquidity were just what was needed to send Bitcoin above the $60,000 level,’ said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp.
Norwegian oil billionaire joins the bets on bitcoin
Oil billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke has come out strongly in favour of Bitcoin.
Rokke’s Aker ASA (which controls oil and oil service companies and has more recently branched out into green tech and renewable energy companies) is setting up a new business, Seetee AS, to tap into the potential of Bitcoin.
For now, Rokke’s investment will be small, and Seetee will start with just 500 million kroner ($58 million) in capital.
According to a filing with the SEC, the new product is a debt instrument which contains an ‘unequally weighted’ basket of reference stocks that either own cryptocurrency or operate business linked to it.
The debt instrument contains companies including:
MicroStrategy, Square, Riot Blockchain and Nvidia Corporation.
MicroStrategy buys more bitcoin (262) valued at $15m
As of 12 March, 2021, MicroStrategy hold 91,326 bitcoin acquired for $2.211bn (at an average price $24,214 per bitcoin).
Chinese app Meitu buys $40m worth of bitcoin and ether
Meitu, a Chinese company that makes a photo editing app, bought $22.1m worth of ether and $17.9m worth of bitcoin on 5 March.
The Chinese appmaker appears to be the first major company to buy ether, a cryptocurrency that works on the Ethereum blockchain.
The company said cryptocurrencies provide ‘diversification to holding cash’ and said it could launch blockchain-based apps.
Future Focus
Keeping an eye on key predictions, innovations and what’s going to impact the future
Ethereum blockchain developers approved one of the biggest changes to the network since its inception in 2015 (which can spur gains in Ether)
Known as EIP 1559, the change solves a current problem: Ethereum users can only estimate how much Ether will be needed for transactions to be processed, a guessing game that has spawned sites such as ETH Gas Station to help people know how much to pay.
The reduced supply of Ether will likely lead to rising prices as demand for the coins increases.
Companies: winners & losers
Companies to watch and share price movements
Roblox closes at $38bn valuation on first day of trading (New York stock exchange)
The online gaming company with a large preteen following, made strong gains as it began trading.
The company’s share price ended trading at $69.50 after opening at $64.50, giving it a market capitalisation of $38.3bn.
Its share price was more than 50% higher than what private investors paid for Roblox stock during a $520m financing in January.
Based in Silicon Valley, Roblox hosts more than 18m user-developed virtual worlds where people go to play games and interact with friends. The company makes money from sales of a virtual currency, Robux, which can be used for purchases within the games.
Have You Seen This?
Female-focused news, reports, research, campaigns
Goldman puts $10bn behind fight to equalise ‘Black Womenomics’
Goldman Sachs is embarking on a decade-long quest to inject $10 billion into projects that it says will impact one million Black women.
The announcement comes alongside new "Black Womenomics" research released by the bank. Some key findings include:
Goldman estimates trimming the earnings gap for Black women would boost economic growth by as much as 2.1% each year.
Black women's hourly earnings gap is 15% compared with white women — and 35% compared with white men, Goldman found.
Only 0.5% of single Black women own their own business — a rate 24 times lower than for single white men, per Goldman's research.
Meanwhile, single Black women are six times less likely to own stocks than single white men and nearly 50% less likely to own a home.
Know this: closing the gender equity gap is crucial but perhaps even more urgent is the need to close the intersectional gender equity gap. As you can see by the data above, there is a lot of work to do to level the playing field for Black Women. Major corporations have increasingly been investing more in anti-racist causes since the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor.
What We’re Tracking
Female and diversity-focused products or services, start-ups and businesses led by women/diverse founders, investment and research.
Backbone Angels (Canada): group of women who have helped lead and build Shopify have launched a new angel group and it is focused on investing in women and non-binary founders with a specific focus on Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC)-led companies.
The group consists of 10 angel investors who have held various management-level roles at Shopify.
The group includes Shopify chief talent office Brittany Forsyth; Erin Zipes, vice president of assistant general counsel; Anna Lambert director of product acceleration; Konval Matin, director of merchant storytelling; Atlee Clark, the director of operations for Shop.
The group has made more than 50 individual angel investments over the years.
‘We need a collective effort to change where money goes, which founders are backed, and by whom,” Backbone Angels wrote on Twitter. “This is why we started Backbone. We are coming together to invest in women and non-binary founders with a focus on investments in Black, Indigenous, and Women of Colour-led companies.’
Coffee Break? Read This
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We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.
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