Cannabis stocks surge as Biden overhauls U.S. marijuana policy (1 min read)

US-listed cannabis companies surged on Thursday after President Biden changed the policy on marijuana, pardoning all prior federal offenses of the drug’s possessions. Federal officials are reviewing how marijuana should be classified under this new policy. Tilery brands and Canopy Growth, two of the most well-known cannabis stocks, jumped 22% and 31% respectively after the news. Marijuana related companies have surged in 2018 after Canada legalized the drug but have since reversed as the industry failed to expand as quickly as investors anticipated.

Oil prices rise 1% on cuts to OPEC+ output targets (3 min read)
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Since OPEC+ announced the cut in oil productions on Tuesday, oil prices went up by about 1%, the highest in three weeks. The output came as the Fed and other central banks are raising interest rates to combat inflations. Higher oil prices will likely reduce demand in the current environment which in turn could put a limit on the price increase. The US is also assessing whether to release more supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and continues to look for other ways to reduce market control of OPEC and its allies.

Peloton is undergoing another round of layoffs to ‘save’ the company (2 min read)
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Peloton is eliminating another 500 jobs as a part of their restructuring plan to cut costs. This is the fourth round of layoffs this year. The company has been focusing on reviving the business as their revenues have dropped rapidly in the last several quarters. Peloton’s CEO said the current priority is to optimize efficiencies and reduce costs to simplify the business and achieve a break-even cash flow by year end. This layoff marks the completion of the vast majority of their restructuring plan. Peloton now has less than half the employees it had in 2021.

Mutual Funds With Illiquid Assets Pose Risk to Financial System (3 min read)
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Illiquid assets can take days to trade and mutual funds are priced at the end of the trading day. This creates a liquidity mismatch between the trading price and the underlying holdings. This mismatch in prices can force mutual funds to sell their assets more rapidly during times of high redemptions which amplifies the drop in values in those assets. Some mutual funds were forced to sell their holdings during the pandemic after experiencing only 5% outflows. They may be further tested again now as rates are rising and high economic uncertainty spreads.

Strive Debuts Its First Semiconductor ETF (2 min read)
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Strive Asset Management introduced its third ETF, the Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF (SHOC). This ETF tracks the performance of the 30 largest semiconductor companies in the US and uses a proprietary portfolio weighting method. The top three holdings are Texas Instruments Inc., Broadcom Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which collectively are almost 22% of the whole portfolio. SHOC is listed on the NYSE and has a management fee of 0.40%.

ROI Calculator (Investing tool)

Investing is a long-term game and this ROI calculator may be a handy tool to help you better prepare. It projects your investment returns based on your time horizon, estimated rate of returns, initial capital,  how much you contribute and at what frequency. It also included the expected inflation rate and tax rate as inputs to help adjust for a more accurate projected return. After inputting the required fields, it will generate a detailed report with breakdowns year to year.

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Thanks,
Thomas

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