Polestar reported first-ever profit as a public company (3 min read)
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Polestar reported its quarterly financials on Friday for the first time since becoming public. The company missed the revenue estimates but sales were up 105% from the previous year and more importantly, generated $4 million gross profit in Q3. They also expect the current fourth quarter to be the strongest sales quarter of the year. The only concern is the potential supply chain issue and lockdowns in China that may affect their production capacity. Polestar stocks jumped more than 20% after the news.

Disney plans targeted hiring freeze and job cuts (2 min read)
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Disney is limiting headcounts and reviewing areas in the company to trim costs which may potentially lead to job cuts. Disney is the only media giant who has yet to announce any plans to eliminate jobs this year. The company had recently reported disappointing quarterly results that sharply sent their stocks lower. Their streaming service, Disney+, lost $1.47 billion in the last quarter but the company expects it to improve in 2023 and reach profitability by 2024.

Nobel economist says a soft landing is 'increasingly plausible' (2 min read)

Nobel economist, Paul Krugman, said the recent CPI report showing inflation slowed more than expected increased the likelihood of a soft landing to the economy. He also echoed comments from Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel that the data may be overstating the actual inflation. Housing accounts for more than half of the CPI but it takes about 18 months to reflect the changes in housing prices on the official statistics. Given the drop in home prices recently, inflation might be less than what the CPI showed.

Oil settles higher as China eases COVID curbs (2 min read)

Oil prices climbed slightly higher on Friday after China officially announced some easing to the country’s strict COVID policies. The easing includes shortening quarantine time by two days and eliminating penalties on airlines for bringing infected passengers. Oil prices went up nearly 3% after the news, but are still lower compared to the previous week as the US just recently increased the oil inventories.

“Anti-ESG” provider launches key category ETFs (2 min read)

Strive Asset Management launched four new ETFs following the success of its flagship fund debut in August. They are the Strive 1000 Growth ETF (STXG), the Strive 1000 Value ETF (STXV), the Strive 2000 ETF (STXK) and the Strive 1000 Dividend Growth ETF (STXD). The firm is backed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel and Bill Ackman. They are commonly known for their “anti-ESG” investment methodology and have been vocal critics of companies that make fiduciary decisions based on ESG policies.

CoinShares reveals $30.3m exposure to FTX (2 min read)

The largest digital asset ETP provider in Europe, CoinShares, confirmed to have more than $30 million exposure in the collapsing crypto exchange FTX. FTX is facing a massive liquidity issue and has frozen most withdrawals from investors. CoinShares said they managed to significantly reduce their holdings prior to the withdrawal freeze, but over 10% of their assets are still with the crypto exchange.

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Thanks,
Thomas

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