Let The Tapering Begin

The Federal Reserve, the U.S’s central bank, announced that it would begin tapering its asset purchases later this month. 💯 🇺🇸

Tapering is a critical first step before the Fed hikes interest rates. In effect, tapering will result in the end of the COVID-era monetary stimulus.

Since the pandemic started, the Fed has been buying $120 billion worth of bonds each month. That has provided a lot of benefit to financial markets and the economy, namely by reducing interest rates.

Tapering should theoretically scare investors, who could decide to retreat from assets such as stocks, commodities, and crypto if yields rise. However, the announcement today actually saw stocks rise to new highs. 👏 That’s likely because, even if rates rise a few points, it’s not much of an alternative to a 7-9% return from indexes.

America’s central banking authority also claimed inflation is still transitory (and expect it to continue to run hot through next year.) Hopefully they’re right, because inflation-adjusted Series I bonds got a serious rate hike in their latest issuance: they will earn 7.12% for the next six months. 

There’s been a ton of exciting IPO news recently, and today was no exception — Allbirds had its successful market debut as $BIRD stock skyrocketed above 90%. 📈 🦅

Allbirds is a direct-to-consumer sneaker brand, currently valued at about $4 billion after its successful first day of trading. The company raised $300 million from the offering alone as shares opened at $21.21/share and closed at $28.64, up 91%. 💸

Allbirds is famous for its eco-friendly shoes and attention to sustainability. The company’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO Joey Zwillinger shared “I think why the demand was so great … investors were really attracted by the opportunity to put their capital against great opportunity to create outcomes that were better for the planet.”

With all its newly-raised capital, Allbirds hopes to boost business by expanding product lines and opening additional brick-and-mortar stores. Although the company has yet to make a profit, Allbirds executives are confident that the public listing will remedy its profitability in the near future. 

American semiconductors company Qualcomm boasted about its latest quarterly earnings today. The company also flexed that there’s even more good ahead from its guidance. 💪

Qualcomm reported net income of $2.8 billion (EPS of $2.55/share) on its $9.3 billion in revenue. The company’s revenue for Fiscal 2021 is up 43% YoY. Both figures bested analysts’ best guesses by double-digits. 👌

Qualcomm’s success suggests that it is mostly unaffected by the ongoing semi shortage, which has altered pricing and product availability at competitors such as Taiwan Semiconductor and Samsung. Both are almost universally relied upon by tech leaders like Apple, Intel, and AMD. 

Qualcomm’s niche might just be somewhat sheltered from pervasive problems within the semi industry. Qualcomm can thank its diversification efforts — revenue from handsets, antennas, and internet of things (IoT) — for that. In many cases, each segment of its business is using different fabs, allowing the company to keep its capacity open and sustain supply.

Check out the whole report here. $QCOM is up over 8% today.

Roku dipped 8.55% in extended trading on weak guidance and a sales miss. 👎

$ROKU | EPS: $0.48 (vs. $0.06 expected) | Revenue: $680 million (vs. $683.5 million expected) | Link to Report

Fastly flew 6.7% this evening after an earnings and sales beat. Is this the beginning of $FSLY‘s turnaround?? Place your bets… $FSLY is still down 39% YTD.

$FSLY | EPS: ($0.11) (vs. ($0.19) expected) | Revenue: $87 million (vs. $83.8 million expected) | Link to Report

Fisker Inc came out with third quarter earnings after the bell. 🔔 The company reported no revenue on larger than estimated losses.

$FSR | EPS: ($0.37) (vs. ($0.34) expected) | Revenue: $0 (vs. $0 expected) | Link to Report