Welcome Back,

Jobless claims hit the highest level in almost two years.

Together with 🤝🏽

Market Headlines 👀 

• US initial weekly jobless claims come in at 261k; est: 235k.

• European Central Bank set to hike its benchmark rate .25bps next week.

• TikTok aims to quadruple its e-commerce business this year to $20b.

• Tesla (TSLA) is exploring investing into building a factory in Spain and has begun conversations.

• S&P 500 officially enters a bull market, rallying 20+% off its low in October.

Earnings 💸

• DocuSign (DOCU)

  • EPS: $0.72 beats (exp. $0.55)

  • Revenue: $661.4m beats (exp. $642m)

S&P 500 Heap Map

A Note From Unlimited Funds

Bob Elliott, a former investment committee executive from Bridgewater Associates, has moved into his newest venture - Unlimited Funds, a startup ETF issuer. The firm’s mission is to help investors access returns of sophisticated investment strategies. A prominent voice in the financial community on Twitter, Bob will provide research and insights through the month in this section daily.

Diversified Alpha Is Better Than Constrained Beta: Investors are always looking for a way to reduce their risk while preserving upside. While defined outcome managers pitch constrained beta as a way to reduce risk, there is only one consistent free lunch in investing: diversification.

Defined outcome funds simply transform the pattern of single asset returns and with it incurring substantial fees and performance drag as capping big upside years matters more than limiting downside. While it might work out in any given year, over time investors are much better off using diversified active management to reduce their risk relative to an index.

Further analysis — > Read more !

Recap Around the Street 🧠

Could this be further evidence of a labor market slowdown? Keep an eye on continuing claims as an indicator of long term stickiness in labor displacement. (Contributed by Benjamin Lavine, CIO at 3D/L Capital).

Market Preview 🎞️

• US Federal reserve in blackout period ahead of FOMC meeting next week

That’s all for today, folks! We’ll be back around the same time Monday with a curated list of important news, economic data and market highlights. 

🔔 Be the first to know. Ensure you never do more than one read if you:

• Move our emails (especially your subscriber introduction) to your primary inbox (Quick instructions).

• 👋 Say hi. Responding to our emails (if any) lets your email provider know to not block us from your main inbox.