Robinhood Warns of Meme Frenzy & Britain Wins Key Tax Exemption

Before its much-hyped IPO listing, retail trading app Robinhood has warned investors of another potential "meme stock" rally. 

Boom Bust's Ben Swann and Christy Ai join the program to analyze the pre-IPO news for the controversy-laden app. 

They then take a spin around the globe for a look at international stock market performance. 

Shifting to geopolitics, tensions are on the rise in the South China Sea as the United States and Japan have begun joint military drills in the region. RT's Alex Mihailovich files a report on the growing concern in Southeast Asia. 

Turning to  Europe, where the United Kingdom has managed to receive a key exemption in the newly backed global minimum tax proposal. Hilary Fordwich of the British-American Business Association gives her forecast on the new carve-out and what it spells for London as a banking hub in post-Brexit Europe.

The IPO is dead! Here comes the SPAC!

Are SPACs a useful innovation, a mania, or both? The SPAC boom in part reflects a rebellion by Silicon Valley types, who have long grumbled about having to go through an IPO.

Silicon Valley has thrived by inventing new ways of doing things, from searching for information to contacting friends. So it may come as no surprise that the Valley is eagerly embracing another sort of disruption: special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), as an alternative to the conventional initial public offering (IPO) for startups.

Here is a selection of articles from The Economist on the SPAC.

• The Spectacular boom on Wall Street
• Why SPACs are Wall Street’s latest craze
• What the SPAC craze means for tech investing
• Amsterdam’s financial center gains an edge over continental rivals

Brexit and the City - How Brexit is affecting London’ position and status

The fortunes of financial centers may swing less wildly than the markets they host, but swing they do. Brexit has robbed the City of London, the capital’s financial district, of much of its swagger. World-conquering ambition has given way to anxious defensiveness.

When the post-Brexit transition period ends and Britain leaves the single market on December 31st, British-registered financial firms will lose the “passporting” rights that have long allowed them to sell funds, debt, advice or insurance to clients across the EU unimpeded, as if they were domestic.

Read the full article HERE

Europe - How it all hangs together

This diagram puts all of Europe's pacts and treaties into one understandable diagram.

The vultures are circling: EU states eye up London's finance crown

From Finextra –
“As states across Europe eye up London's business riches and tout their EU-friendly fintech credentials, German centre-right political party Freie Demokraten is taking a cheekily direct approach, driving a giant billboard truck into the heart of the capital emblazoned with an invite for Brexit-scarred startups to move to Berlin.”

Read more>>

The 9 ways Brexit will affect foreign banks

From Financial Times -

“Banks across Europe and the US have been battered by Brexit. Shares in big global banks outside the UK fell anywhere from 7 to 20 per cent on the day after the UK voted to quit the EU. Though other parts of the market have since recovered, non-UK banks have failed to make back all of their losses.

Brexit will change overseas banks significantly, sometimes for the good. Here are nine ways the vote will affect them.”

Read More>>

Solvency II: An EU Regulation in a non-EU Nation

From Bobs Guide –

“Following the Brexit campaign, many financial professionals have been left wondering what to do about regulation. Michael Gove claimed that the UK would be better off without the £600 million a week that is spent on EU regulation costs. Although this is a disputed subject, it must be said that the number of European directives and standards in place is colossal. Will the UK continue to comply with EU regulations such as Solvency II, or will there be a stream of new standards that come into force in the years to come?”

Read more>>