Morning Download 

Personal finance + economics + markets

Good morning investors! The market was mixed yesterday with a lot happening in the political world.

Fun fact: (or not so fun) 95% of people lose money trading. Don’t be one of them. Counterintuitively, doing nothing is often the best option.

Today we cover:

• The latest jobless claims data

• Reviewing. the crypto world

• Index funds

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📊 Economy and News 

What the latest jobless claims data says

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose moderately last week, while layoffs declined in September.

Initial claims increased by 2,000 to 207,000, slightly lower than the estimated figure of 210,000. Overall, 1.67 million people collected unemployment benefits the week that ended Sept. 23, about 5,000 fewer than the previous week.

Companies are not willing to let go of workers due to the tight labor market. However, claims may go higher next week due to strikes forcing companies to make difficult calls.

The market is cooling but the situation remains right. There were 1.51 job openings for every unemployed person in August and unfilled positions increased by the most in two years.

All eyes are now on Friday’s jobs report but we don’t expect a strong report to convince the Fed to let down its guard against a potential reacceleration of inflation and economic growth. This means another rate hike is coming.

Global hits:

• Serbia and Kosovo might go to war.

• UK’s Metro Bank shares suspended multiple times after plunging more than 25%.

• French train manufacturer Alstom fell 38% to fresh all-time lows after slashing its cash flow guidance.

📈 Stocks

S&P 500 4,258.19 (-0.13%)
DJIA 33,119.57 (-0.030%)
NASDAQ 14,723.22 (-0.36%)
VIX 18.49 (-0.48%)
* Prices as of Oct 6th, 12:20 AM UTC

Microsoft and Amazon end up in UK courts

Tech giants Microsoft and Amazon could be in trouble over apparently making it difficult for users in the UK to use multiple suppliers of vital cloud services.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the country’s antitrust regulator, has launched an investigation to determine whether the two companies are engaged in anti-competitive practices.

The process is expected to take over a year, according to the organization, and will conclude by April 2025.

Both companies vowed to cooperate with the authorities.

The market: Microsoft and Amazon cover about 70% of the cloud computing market in the UK, followed by Google, which has a market share of 5%.

PayPal joins: Amazon and Microsoft aren’t the only two companies facing such a lawsuit, PayPal is also in legal trouble as consumers believe that the fintech’s anti-steering rules stifle competition against lower-cost payment platforms such as Shopify and Stripe. Consumer rights attorneys at Hagens Berman performed an investigation that showed PayPal’s ‘unfair’ pricing policy. According to the report, the company had subjected consumers to excess charges when purchasing from online merchants that accept Venmo or PayPal.

Also, electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive, which fell 23% to 3-month lows, surprised investors with a plan to offer $1.5 billion in convertible notes. The company expects to meet Wall Street expectations of $1.29 to $1.33 billion in the quarter.

🔐 Crypto

Bitcoin $27,467.00 (0.01%)
Ethereum $1,616.63 (0.03%)
Total market cap $1.08T (-0.99%)
* Prices as of Oct 6th, 12:20 AM UTC

The FTX trial is in full swing but there's a lot more happening in the crypto world, here's all you need to know:

• Bitcoin still beating the US dollar versus ‘eggflation’. Does it make Bitcoin a good hedge against inflation?

• About 50% of US consumers are invested in crypto and almost half of them are invested to improve living standards.

• Bitcoin to hit another low? Some experts believe it is time for other coins to shine.

• Crypto VC funding is constantly falling and has hit a 2.5 year low.

💵 Personal Finance

Benefits of investing in index funds

Index funds are a type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks a specific market index. This means that the fund's performance is designed to mirror the performance of the index it tracks.

Here are some of the benefits to investing in index funds:

• Low fees. Index funds typically have very low fees, which means that more of your money goes towards investing and less goes towards paying fees.

• Diversification. Index funds are diversified, which means that they hold a wide variety of assets. This helps to reduce your risk, as you are not putting all of your eggs in one basket.

• Passive management. Index funds are passively managed, which means that they do not try to beat the market. This makes them a good choice for investors who do not want to spend a lot of time managing their investments.

• Long-term performance. Index funds have historically outperformed actively managed funds over the long term. This is because index funds are designed to track the market, which has historically trended upwards.

• Tax efficiency. Index funds tend to be more tax-efficient than actively managed funds. This is because they do not make as many trades, which can lead to capital gains distributions.

• Ease of use. Index funds are easy to buy and sell, and they can be purchased through most brokerage firms.

• Transparency. Index funds are transparent, which means that you can easily see what assets they hold and how they are performing.

Here’s more on index funds:

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👩🏽‍⚖️ Legal Stuff
Nothing in this newsletter is financial advice. Always do your own research and think for yourself