☀️☕️ All the News That’s Fit to TikTok

📝 Focus

• All the News That’s Fit to TikTok

📊 In the Markets

• Producer prices and retail sales down

• Target up (but)

📖 MoneyFitt Explains

🎓️ The Opening (and closing) Bell

📝 Focus

All the News that’s Fit to TikTok

About a third (32%) of Americans under 30 say they regularly get news on TikTok, a higher share than before. Perhaps more surprisingly, this only drops to 15% among those aged 30 to 49, according to a Pew Research survey.

The number of TikTok users accessing news via the app surged from 22% to 43% within the last year, in contrast with many other social media sites, where news consumption has either declined or stayed about the same in recent years. (Among Facebook users, the exact same percentage get their news there, with only the share of Twitter/X users higher, at over half.)

Despite Meta's attempts to reduce news content amid regulatory pressures worldwide, Facebook remains the most preferred platform for news overall, with 30% of Americans regularly consuming news there, followed by YouTube at 26%, Instagram at 16% and now TikTok with 14%, up from just 3% in 2020. (Why not daily newsletters?)

With half of US adults relying on social media for news, news outlets are competing for attention and ad revenue on TikTok and other platforms, particularly targeting the coveted Gen Z audience.

..... ▷ In 2023, an estimated 4.9 billion people use social media across the world and in 2022, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide came to 151 minutes per day.

Social media is now among the most used news sources worldwide, outpacing radio, print news publications, blogs, and word-of-mouth. News, of course, nowadays refers to events and issues outside the realm of friends and family as per an earlier era of social media.

A 2020 survey showed over 80% of respondents in India aged 16 to 70 years old used social networks as their main news outlet, and in a 2023 survey, 78% of respondents in Nigeria said they used social media as a source of news. More than half the adults in the majority of surveyed countries say they get their news on social media.

85% of social media users surveyed said that they relied on Twitter (X) and Facebook for their news when they woke up. 68% of millennials, in particular, consume most of their news through Facebook, and 24% of high school students get their news through Instagram.

Surprisingly, news consumers on social media don’t necessarily consume it via video.

..... ▷ It has transformed news delivery, but with a double-edged sword of democratisation and dangers.

While it has empowered citizen journalism, providing a platform for marginalised voices and broadened access to information, it has also fueled the spread of misinformation and eroded trust in traditional media outlets.

A 2022 study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that only 38% of Americans believe that traditional media outlets do a good job of reporting the news accurately and without bias.

..... ▷ On the other hand, despite the majority of adults surveyed in each country reporting that they used social networks to keep up to date with news and current affairs, a 2018 study (admittedly an eternity ago) showed that social media is the least trusted news source in the world. 

Under 35% of adults in Europe considered social networks to be trustworthy. 

This erosion of trust is partly due to the spread of misinformation on social media, which can spread rapidly and widely, often reaching millions of people before it is debunked. The algorithms used by social media companies can also amplify misinformation, as they are designed to promote content that is likely to generate engagement.

In addition to the spread of misinformation, social media can also create echo chambers, where users are only exposed to news and information that confirms their existing beliefs. This can lead to increased polarisation and a decline in civil discourse (a fond and distant memory on Twitter / X.)

🇸🇬 Singapore: Let’s Get MoneyFitt!

📊 In the Markets

Hong Kong is off to the races right from the opening bell🎓 (there actually isn’t one in HK) after the sharp US rally on Tuesday on rate-cutting hopes after October inflation came in softer than expected month-over-month at a big round ZERO percent.

Coupled with Beijing reporting better-than-expected retail sales and industrial data for the same month, the HK/China benchmark Hang Seng Index put on close to 4% in a single day.

China’s retail sales and industrial production grew by 7.6% and 4.6% from a year ago, significantly better than the 7% and 4.4% growth forecast by HK and Shanghai’s Finest in a Reuters poll. The real estate sector continued to be a drag on growth. Relatively low ticket items drove retail sales, showing the fragility of this leg of the recovery and more or less corresponding to trends seen in the recent Singles Day sales.

Even Tokyo added 1.2% on the broad market TOPIX index (and double that on the price-weighted Nikkei 225) despite data showing Japan’s economy shrank during the third quarter by much much more than expected.

GDP came in with a 2.1% decline vs Tokyo’s Finest’s best guesses of a 0.6% decline. It was the first drop in four quarters and came amid slowing global demand and rising domestic inflation, an evil combination that pushes out a normalisation (upwards) of Japanese interest rates and Japanese Government Bond (JGB) Yields. 

That would likely need to involve a more formal dismantling of its controversial and market-distorting Yield Curve Control policy in which JGB yields are targeted by selling and buying bonds. The central bank continues to target a 0% yield on the 10-year government bond to stimulate the economy out of its decades-long slumber (though the “band” around the target has recently been widened.)

London’s FTSE 100 added 0.6% on a sharp drop in the UK’s October inflation rate to 4.6% from 6.7% the previous month, easing pressure on the Bank of England to continue tightening monetary policy. The prospect of rate cuts still seems remote, though, with core inflation remaining too high at 5.7%. The FTSE is still marginally down for the year. 

US stocks edged higher on Wednesday on fresh figures reinforcing the notion of easing price pressures in the country and supporting Tuesday’s narrative that the Federal Reserve might have concluded its series of interest rate hikes. 

October producer prices unexpectedly saw the biggest drop in three-and-a-half years, declining by 0.5% thanks to cheaper gasoline. Economists were expecting a 0.1% increase. Compared to the level a year ago, the Producer Price Index (PPI) rose by 1.3%, compared to a 2.2% rise in September, bringing it below the 2% target the Fed sees for consumer prices. 

Tuesday's report suggests a potential weakening in demand for the beginning of the fourth quarter, but despite signs of a cooling labour market, there's no immediate sign of an impending recession, especially with retail sales falling by less than forecast in October, adding to the growing expectation of a soft landing for the US economy

Target's earnings beat and positive fourth-quarter profit forecast led to a massive 18% surge in its share price that added $9bn to its market value (or about 2-½ Macy’s). Target reported earnings of $2.10 per share, obliterating the average of Wall Street's Finest’s best guesses of $1.48. 

Traders focused on Target's success in reducing inventory levels and ignored a worrying 4.9% decline in comparable sales, largely from continuing falls in discretionary categories, particularly furniture and electronics. They also ignored CEO Brian Cornell’s warning that the company continued to see signs that consumers were feeling the pressure from high-interest rates, increased credit card debt and student loan repayments. While “still spending,” they were forced “to make trade-offs in their family budgets (and) delaying their spending until the last moment.” The average “ticket size” in dollar terms held up, but only by higher prices as consumers were buying fewer items per trip

All eyes on Walmart, which reports on Thursday.