Good morning and happy Friday everyone!

As you might have noticed in the last couple of days, I’ve added a “Market Snapshot” section at the beginning of the newsletter. The intention was to provide a quick recap of what happened in the stock market the previous day.

I was hoping to get some feedback on whether this new section provides any value, or is it in the way as you browse through the snippets, or simply doesn’t really matter?

Appreciate it if you could reply to this email and let me know!

Highlights: A big chuck of the stock market losses on Thursday were driven by the US financial sector, which was down more than 4.1% for its worst day since June 2020. The sell-off was led by SVB Financial plummeting over 60% after announcing a $1.75 billion stock sale, dragging down other bank stocks as well.

Market Timing & Interest Rates (3 min read)
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Short-term rates are closing in at 5%, making the yields more appealing to investors who have been forced to take on risk. There’s no way to know for sure when the yield will come back down, but short-term cash still offers more stability than stocks currently as the market remains extremely volatile. If you made an allocation to cash and the stock market dips, you would have avoided some losses and can shift back to stocks when yields fall. If the stock markets soared instead, you might have missed some gains, but you still at least clipped 5% returns on cash.

Frontier countries to suffer most if Fed rate gets to 6% -analysts (4 min read)
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As the Fed could raise rates as high as 6%, emerging markets may face challenges and possibly be the most affected. Markets are pricing in a 5.5%-5.75% range for September, while the CME FedWatch tool shows a near 50% chance to hit 6% that month. Analysts predict that India's rupee, China's yuan, and the Philippine and Chilean pesos could weaken as much as 5% if the Fed ramps up rates to 6%. China's reopening and diverging global growth paths may lessen the blow for larger economies, but emerging economies could suffer.

Silicon Valley Bank shares slide on stock-sale plan to cope with cash burn (3 min read)
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Shares of SVB Financial Group fell 60% after the bank launched a $1.75 billion share sale to tackle reduced deposits from start-ups struggling for funds amid increased spending. SVB is the banking partner for nearly half of US venture-backed tech and healthcare firms. The bank’s CEO said cash burn by clients increased in February, with venture capital funding expected to remain constrained in the near term. SVB has sold $21 billion of its securities portfolio, which will result in an after-tax loss of $1.8 billion in the first quarter.

Apple to Shake Up International Sales Operations to Make India Its Own Region (3 min read)
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Apple is restructuring its management of international businesses to put more focus on India, making it its own sales region for the first time. The move comes after Apple saw demand for its products in the country surge, with record revenue generated last quarter. Apple’s CEO recently said the company is putting a lot of emphasis on the market and compared it to the early years in China. The country is also becoming more important to Apple's product development as many of its key suppliers have been making the shift to the region as well.

JP Morgan’s JEPI Soars, Set to Become No. 1 Active ETF (4 min read)
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The JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) has gained almost $5 billion in inflows this year, surprising even its managers, and is on track to become the largest actively managed US-listed ETF. The fund's strategy invests in equity-linked notes that mimic the returns of a S&P 500 covered call strategy, generating yield while capping price appreciation potential. JEPI also invests in undervalued stocks using a low-volatility value strategy. The result is a unique portfolio with a double-digit yield that has outperformed the S&P 500 with lower volatility.

Best Biotech ETFs by Performance (5 min read)
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Biotechnology is a rapidly growing field that has gained a lot of attention from investors in recent years. There is a good chance it will expand in the coming years due to its innovation addressing aging populations. Biotech ETFs are a great way to tap into the potential high returns in this field by taking the guesswork out of choosing which stocks to hold. This article highlights the top 5 biotech ETFs ranked and measured by their performance in the past year.

That's it for today! You can reply to this email if you have any comments or feedback.

Thanks,
Thomas

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