Stocks for short trading week Jun 02 - 08, 2021
The payments and e-commerce collision is accelerating
The List
No new changes to the week. IPOE has completed the reverse merger with SoFi so it now trades as SOFI. Get to know the company a bit more through an interview with their CEO below.
See historical performance
A bit more about SoFi
Now that the merger with IPOE is complete, the SoFi (SOFI) CEO was doing the rounds on business shows, showing off how their super-app for finance will compete against the other players in the crowded space.
Watch an interview with their CEO below. The discussion gets more interesting after about 2:45 or so as they dig deeper into the app’s capabilities and competitive advantage(s).
CNBC: SoFi CEO Anthony Noto on trading debut: Trend toward digital finance is accelerating
The partnerships in e-commerce continue. And it’s pulling in payments.
Last week I wrote about a partnership between Shopify (SHOP) and Google (GOOG). And since then, we’ve seen a few more indicators that the two areas of payments and e-commerce are continuing to get tied together as the battle between “Amazon” & “Everyone Else” continues.
First, a similar collaboration was struck, this time between payments solution Square (SQ) and Google (GOOG) to offer Square Merchants an easier way to put their products into search results.
Benzinga: Square-Google Collaborate to Help Sellers Procure New Online Customers
Second, and more interesting, is a that job post has surfaced for Apple (AAPL), which implies that they’re looking to ramp up their payment capabilities as well.
CNBC: Apple is looking to strike deals with ‘alternative payments’ providers
It made me think that Affirm (AFRM) might make a good candidate for Apple since they’re a well-known public company in the ‘buy-now-pay-later’ space and already have a partnership with Shopify (SHOP).
Or alternatively, how long until Amazon (AMZN) decides to get into selling stocks, banking and hey, why not, crypto? Or tokenize Amazon gift card points. It will be interesting to see how these worlds collide.
Should we add Nvidia to the list?
After a blockbuster earnings report and potential 4 for 1 stock split upcoming, it was starting to look likely that Nvidia (NVDA) might be a good candidate for adding to the list. They’re selling products in 4 different growth areas that I like; video games, crypto, AI/machine learning & cloud computing. It’s hard to bet against a company that’s going to benefit from all of those trends.
The stock price dipped after earnings down to around $620 and it has since worked back up to ~$650, near all-time highs. It seems to be hitting some resistance there so I’m watching closely to see if it can break through.
That said, the company trades at a premium relative to other chipmakers so perhaps being patient and waiting until it falls below ~$600 makes more sense. What do you think? What price would you be interested in buying NVDA in the near future?
Fool: NVIDIA Profit Surges on Record Revenue Growth
Is it Data or Oil or both?
As the economy either booms-just-right or overheats, Tom Lee of Fundstrat is pushing the case that the Energy sector is a good investment this year.
CNBC: Fundstrat’s Tom Lee says it’s time to ‘HODL’ the energy trade, and here’s why
If you don’t want to buy Energy so directly, then you could have another look at C3.ai (AI). Most of their revenue comes from large Energy clients. And their stock popped yesterday after announcing a long-term renewal with Shell. C3.ai has earnings expected Jun 02 after close so buy slowly just in case there are some sudden price swings.
Fool: Why C3.ai Stock Skyrocketed Today
Be more opportunistic than leveraged
I don’t think that the market can reach a consensus about inflation or where to go from here. On the one hand, everything is saying ‘go’ from a market & government perspective. And on the other hand, this can’t last that much longer without causing other potential problems from overheating & inflation. Watch these two videos back-to-back to get a sense of where we might be headed and plan accordingly.
CNBC: Josh Brown on stocks: We don’t have to overcomplicate it
CNBC: Allianz’s El-Erian on what the Fed should do to deal with inflation
Spare Change
Here I list some long-shot names & ideas that you should only put small money into. Sometimes winners, sometimes losers, always exciting.
Acorns is going public via SPAC merger
Acorns (PACX) presents itself as a ‘best practice’ saving and investing app which focuses on encouraging users to save & invest small amounts on a regular basis in diversified funds for long-term growth. This sets them apart from the more ‘trading’ focused apps like Robinhood and SoFi.
If you want to learn more about the app or their business, you can watch the interview with their CEO below. They’ve gained 2 million paying subscribers since 2019, totaling 4 million now, and have more than 50% of their growth from organic referrals. Not bad.
CNBC: Acorns CEO on going public via a SPAC
That’s all for the shortened trading week. Buy NVDA yay or nay?
-B
Spare Ventures is a free weekly newsletter, sign up below. Unsubscribe anytime. I will not share your information with anyone.