The Shit to Know Thursdays

Whats Up boys,

Welcome to the place where you get it all. Your news served up with a side of Alpha. Don’t mind if i do…..

Market Indices & Commodities

Politics
Bolivian Coup put down 🧨

Shit went down in Bolivia on Wednesday, a coup was attempted by general Juan José Zúñiga. His forces occupied the main square in the capital, La Paz. Armored vehicles rammed the palace door and soldiers tried to break into government offices.

The coup stems from a shit tone of economic struggles the country has been having recently. The country has been wreaked by dwindling foreign currency reserves, particularly the US dollar, and shortages of fuel and other basic necessities. Not fucking good.

The coup was put down fairly easily in the end and the country has railed around the president. Hopefully, things start to get better for the country.

Cars  
Volkswagen pump 5 billion into EV company Rivian 🚘

This one made a splash this week. Volkswagen decided it was a good idea to invest up to 5 billion into Rivian. This resulted in shares rocketing 40% in Rivian while Volkswagen dropped by 2%. This surge in cash is vital for Rivian, who will use it to stay alive. Rivian have struggled to be profitable despite selling $70,000 cars.

The added cashflow is expected to allow the car company develop less expensive cars.

For Volkswagen, analysts and investors see the investment as a move to solve the company's software struggles. I really don’t know about this. Do software troubles really cost 5 billion. Surely they could just hire some tech nerds to patch their shit. What you guys think ? Maybe there is more than meets the eye on this deal.

Pharma
Novo Nordisk weight loss drug inventors Invest Billions into North Carolina site.

Have you heard of Wegovy.

If you haven’t it’s this weight loss drug that has burst onto the scene and people can’t get enough of this shit. I’m not too versed on the ins and outs of this thing, but from what I am seeing you take it and watch the pounds come off. Sounds good I guess, but surely it’s a bit too good to be true.

Well anyways, the company that makes this stuff unveiled a significant investment plan, committing $4.1bn to construct a second facility and to finish a factory in Clayton, North Carolina (NC), US.

This comes as Novo Nordisk try to meet the US ‘skinny jab’ demand. This isn’t all from the U.S. though. China just approved Wegovy and according to a 2020 report from the country’s National Health Commission more than half of China’s 1.4 billion population are overweight or obese. So the company will need the North Carolina factory to start shiting out the jabs.

AI
Amazon unveiled its new AI chatbot, Metis🤖

Amazon has unveiled its new AI chatbot, Metis, which is designed to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

This new chatbot, managed by Amazon’s AGI team and led by Rohit Prasad and Vishal Sharma, is to provide intelligent, conversational responses and AI-agent capabilities.

The launch of Metis could significantly impact the AI assistant market, intensifying a rivalry with major players like Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI. I like it, more competition the better the products eventually will be.

Production problems
Airbus delays production targets due to supply chain issues

Finally some uplifting news for Boeing: Airbus isn’t doing so hot. ⁠

The European planemaker and Boeing archnemesis saw its stock nosedive almost 10% on Tuesday after it cut production targets for 2024. Airbus now expects to churn out just 770 commercial jets this year compared to 800 it was hoping to ship previously, due to parts shortages.

The funny thing about this whole thing is it’s actually partially Boeing’s fault. In the aftermath of the Alaska Airlines door plug incident earlier this year (along with about a a hundred others) helped Airbus widen its lead as the largest commercial planemaker in the world, but it also made airlines even more reliant on its deliveries. ⁠

So if you future vacation is pricey next year. This could be why.

Bet on it
Wager on Inflation & global temperatures ☀

This is some crazy shit!

The electronic brokerage, Interactive Brokers Group is launching commission-free penny contracts on July 8th that will let its customers make wagers on future events just by choosing “yes” or “no” on its website.

For example: If you think the consumer price index will surpass 313.23 in the next inflation report, you’d take a “yes” position and pony up $0.83 for the 83% odds in your favor. Correct contracts pay out $1, and wrong predictions get nothing.⁠

ForecastEx contracts will also cover US unemployment, retail, and more economic indicators, plus national and global temperatures—and even atmospheric CO2 numbers.⁠

My heads gone with this one. The amount of insider trading will be a joke. Shit ill befriend my local weather man and go ham on this shit.

I don’t know, what do ye boys think of all this?

Thank you 
That’s all Folks

Friday is on the horizon. I can almost taste it.