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Ridesharing in Focus as Momentum Jumps in Growth Names (WRPT, UBER, LYFT, DASH, DELHY, AMZN)

Ride-hailing and food delivery are two popular investment themes that have gained significant attention in recent years, and key players are generally…

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Ride-hailing and food delivery are two popular investment themes that have gained significant attention in recent years, and key players are generally involved in both themes.

The ride-sharing industry has experienced significant growth (compound annual growth rate of around 18% from 2016 to 2022) and is expected to continue to see accelerating growth in the years ahead.

According to a research report by Zion Market Research estimates that the global ride-hailing market was valued at $36.8 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $218.8 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 25.1% during the forecast period 2021 to 2028.

Factors such as the increasing use of smartphones, the convenience and cost-effectiveness of ride-sharing services, and a growing preference for on-demand services are all contributing to the industry’s growth. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift towards contactless transportation options, which has further boosted the demand for ride-sharing services.

The delivery market is also growing at a rapid pace. The on-demand delivery market is also expected to grow at a fast pace, with a CAGR of over 25% from 2020 to 2025, driven by the increasing adoption of smartphones and the growing preference for on-demand services.

Both ride-hailing and food delivery have become popular investment themes due to their high growth potential and the potential for high returns.

With risk assets starting to shrug off bad news and the Fed looking to pause its tightening campaign, investors ready to put new money to work for the next market cycle should take a closer look at stocks tied to this strong growth theme.

With that in mind, we take a closer look below at some of the interesting opportunities in the personal transportation services marketplace.

 

Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) is a transportation technology company that offers a mobile app that connects riders with drivers for transportation services.

The app allows users to request rides, track the location of their driver, and pay for the ride directly through the app. Uber also offers other transportation services such as Uber Eats for food delivery and Uber for Business for corporate transportation solutions.

Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) recently announced an integration with CDK Global, a leading automotive retail software provider. The integration allows dealerships to request rides with Uber on behalf of guests and customers directly within CDK Hailer, including rides for customers returning home or to the office after dropping their car off for service at a dealership. With Uber for Business, CDK’s clients can create a seamless experience for customers, business guests, or whoever is on the move.

“At Uber for Business, we are redefining the automotive dealership experience for staff and customers,” said Susan Anderson, Global Head of Uber for Business. “We know dealers care about receiving high customer satisfaction index scores, saving time and resources, and increasing profitability. With Uber, it’s all possible. Plus, when you request a ride, you’re delivering an exceptional experience to your customers—one they won’t forget.”

The context for this announcement is a bit of a bid, with shares acting well over the past five days, up about 5% in that timeframe.

Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) managed to rope in revenues totaling $8.3B in overall sales during the company’s most recently reported quarterly financial data — a figure that represents a rate of top line growth of 72.2%, as compared to year-ago data in comparable terms. In addition, the company is battling some balance sheet hurdles, with cash levels struggling to keep up with current liabilities ($5.5B against $9B, respectively).

 

Warpspeed Taxi Inc (OTCMKTS: WRPT) has developed a ride-hailing and food delivery computer and mobile device application known as “WarpSpeedTaxi USA” that will provide consumers with convenient door-to-door transport that leverages smart mobility platforms to connect drivers with passengers and lets drivers use their personal vehicles. This pits WRPT as the upstart disruptor trying to take on Uber and Lyft.

But Uber and Lyft face a critical headwind: to grow further, they need to tap into non-English-speaking markets with diverse cultural factors and an inherent distrust of multinational western corporate models. English is the primary language in 8 of the world’s 205 countries, and it is the secondary language in another 64. The other 133 countries have their own language, where English is neither primary nor secondary. Put another way, 94% of the world’s population does not speak English as their first language. 75% doesn’t speak English at all. This is where WRPT has a critical advantage given its model of local diversification across the world.

Warpspeed Taxi Inc (OTCMKTS: WRPT) just put out a big update yesterday noting that it has completed the development and beta testing of its WarpSpeed Taxi software and is ready to launch the app in the United States. In order to fund the application launch, the Company intends to complete an offering of its common stock in reliance on Regulation A.

The Company is pleased to announce that it is also going to commence the development of commercial software that it will employ in order to establish distribution centers in rural areas around the world. According to its release, a large percentage of the world population lives in rural areas in non-Western countries where most consumers purchase goods through local shops. Local shop owners have traditionally purchased their inventory from wholesalers located in the nearby major city. Using an automated inventory and product delivery system that it develops in-house, WarpSpeed intends to provide rural businesses with an alternative means of accessing consumer goods that it hopes will be more efficient and cost-effective than existing supply chain options.

This new project, which WarpSpeed intends to brand as Pinnacle DSB (pinnacledsb.com), will include the creation of a large distribution center in a major city. The local shop owners will be provided with a locked tablet in order to access real-time inventory data to place purchase orders at competitive prices. Logistics will be implemented for a weekly delivery system to deliver ordered products. WarpSpeed Taxi has commissioned a detailed business plan, which it expects to post online within two weeks.

Warpspeed Taxi Inc (OTCMKTS: WRPT) President and CEO, Daniel Okelo, noted, “while we raise the necessary funds to launch WarpSpeed Taxi in the USA, we can start the Pinnacle DSB project that is a unique business model with a very significant potential to provide product distribution to a large market that has been ignored.”

 

DoorDash Inc. (NYSE:DASH) is a food delivery company that allows customers to order food from local restaurants and have it delivered to their home or office.

The company partners with local restaurants and independent contractors (known as “Dashers”) to pick up and deliver orders. Customers can place orders through the DoorDash app or website, and track the progress of their delivery in real-time. DoorDash also offers a subscription service called DashPass that gives customers discounts on eligible orders and waived delivery fees.

DoorDash Inc. (NYSE:DASH) recently announced a partnership with Toronto restaurateur and owner of Chinese-Jamaican fusion restaurant Patois, Craig Wong to celebrate Lunar New Year. As part of the partnership, DoorDash customers will be able to order Soft Shell Crab Long Life Noodle from January 18 until January 30 to ring in the new year.

“Canada is known for having some of the greatest culinary experiences, with varying cuisines, flavours and chefs, including Craig Wong,” says Shilpa Arora, General Manager, DoorDash Canada. “We are extremely excited to partner with Craig and Patois around Lunar New Year and beyond, to celebrate and raise awareness of the outstanding Asian culinary scene across Canada.”

If you’re long this stock, then you’re liking how the stock has responded to the announcement. DASH shares have been moving higher over the past week overall, pushing about 8% to the upside on above average trading volume.

DoorDash Inc. (NYSE:DASH) managed to rope in revenues totaling $1.7B in overall sales during the company’s most recently reported quarterly financial data — a figure that represents a rate of top line growth of 33.4%, as compared to year-ago data in comparable terms. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels exceeding current liabilities ($3.8B against $2.2B).

 

Other key players in the space include Delivery Hero SE ADR (OTC US:DELHY), Lyft Inc. (Nasdaq:LYFT), and Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN).

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The post Ridesharing in Focus as Momentum Jumps in Growth Names (WRPT, UBER, LYFT, DASH, DELHY, AMZN) appeared first on Wall Street PR.

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New findings on hair loss in men

A receding hairline, a total loss of hair from the crown, and ultimately, the classical horseshoe-shaped pattern of baldness: Previous research into male…

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A receding hairline, a total loss of hair from the crown, and ultimately, the classical horseshoe-shaped pattern of baldness: Previous research into male pattern hair loss, also termed androgenetic alopecia, has implicated multiple common genetic variants. Human geneticists from the University Hospital of Bonn (UKB) and by the Transdisciplinary Research Unit “Life & Health” of the University of Bonn have now performed a systematic investigation of the extent to which rare genetic variants may also contribute to this disorder. For this purpose, they analyzed the genetic sequences of 72,469 male participants from the UK Biobank project. The analyses identified five significantly associated genes, and further corroborated genes implicated in previous research. The results have now been published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications.

Credit: University Hospital Bonn / Katharina Wislsperger

A receding hairline, a total loss of hair from the crown, and ultimately, the classical horseshoe-shaped pattern of baldness: Previous research into male pattern hair loss, also termed androgenetic alopecia, has implicated multiple common genetic variants. Human geneticists from the University Hospital of Bonn (UKB) and by the Transdisciplinary Research Unit “Life & Health” of the University of Bonn have now performed a systematic investigation of the extent to which rare genetic variants may also contribute to this disorder. For this purpose, they analyzed the genetic sequences of 72,469 male participants from the UK Biobank project. The analyses identified five significantly associated genes, and further corroborated genes implicated in previous research. The results have now been published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications.

Male-pattern hair loss is the most common form of hair loss in men, and is largely attributable to hereditary factors. Current treatment options and risk prediction are suboptimal, thus necessitating research into the genetic underpinnings of the condition. To date, studies worldwide have focused primarily on common genetic variants, and have implicated more than 350 genetic loci, in particular the androgen receptor gene, which is located on the maternally inherited X chromosome. In contrast, the contribution to this common condition of rare genetic variants has traditionally been assumed to be low. However, systematic analyses of rare variants have been lacking. “Such analyses are more challenging as they require large cohorts, and the genetic sequences must be captured base by base, e.g., through genome or exome sequencing of affected individuals,” explained first author Sabrina Henne, who is a doctoral student at the Institute of Human Genetics at the UKB and the University of Bonn. The statistical challenge lies in the fact that these rare genetic variants may be carried by very few, or even single, individuals. “That is why we apply gene-based analyses that first collapse variants on the basis of the genes in which they are located,” explained corresponding author PD Dr. Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach, who is a research group leader at the Institute of Human Genetics at the UKB at the University of Bonn. Among other methods, the Bonn researchers used a type of sequence kernel association test (SKAT), which is a popular method for detecting associations with rare variants, as well as GenRisk, which is a method developed at the Institute of Genomic Statistics and Bioinformatics (IGSB) at the UKB and the University of Bonn.

Possible relevance of rare variants in male-pattern hair loss

The research involved the analysis of genetic sequences from 72,469 male UK Biobank participants. Within this extensive data set, Bonn geneticists, together with researchers from the IGSB and the Center for Human Genetics at the University Hospital Marburg, examined rare gene variants that occur in less than one percent of the population. Using modern bioinformatic and statistical methods, they found associations between male-pattern hair loss and rare genetic variants in the following five genes: EDA2R, WNT10A, HEPH, CEPT1, and EIF3F.

Prior to the analyses, EDA2R and WNT10A were already considered candidate genes, as based on previous analyses of common variants. “Our study provides further evidence that these two genes play a role, and that this occurs through both common and rare variants,” explained Dr. Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach. Similarly, HEPH is located in a genetic region that has already been implicated by common variants, namely the EDA2R/Androgen receptor, which is a region that has consistently shown the strongest association with male-pattern hair loss in past association studies. “However, HEPH itself has never been considered as a candidate gene. Our study suggests that it may also play a role,” explained Sabrina Henne. “The genes CEPT1 and EIF3F are located in genetic regions that have not yet been associated with male-pattern hair loss. They are thus entirely new candidate genes, and we hypothesize that rare variants within these genes contribute to the genetic predisposition. HEPH, CEPT1, and EIF3F represent highly plausible new candidate genes, given their previously described role in hair development and growth.” Furthermore, the results of the study suggest that genes that are known to cause rare inherited diseases affecting both skin and hair (such as the ectodermal dysplasias) may also play a role in the development of male-pattern hair loss. The researchers hope that the puzzle pieces they have discovered will improve understanding of the causes of hair loss, and thus facilitate reliable risk prediction and improved treatment strategies.

The research was supported by funding from the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn. Prof. Dr. Markus Nöthen, Director of the Institute of Human Genetics at UKB and co-author of the study, is a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) “Life and Health” at the University of Bonn. The publication costs in open access format were funded by the DEAL project of the University of Bonn.


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Canadian dollar edges higher as retail sales rebound

Canada retail sales climb 2% The Canadian dollar has posted losses on Friday. In the European session, USD/CAD is trading at 1.3446, down 0.28%. Canada’s…

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  • Canada retail sales climb 2%

The Canadian dollar has posted losses on Friday. In the European session, USD/CAD is trading at 1.3446, down 0.28%.

Canada’s retail sales jump

Canada’s retail sales rebounded in impressive fashion on Friday. Retail sales in July jumped 2% y/y, following a -0.6% reading in June and beating the 0.5% consensus estimate. On a monthly basis, retail sales rose 0.3%, up from 0.1% in June but shy of the consensus estimate of 0.4%. The good news was tempered by the August estimate, which stands at -0.3% m/m and would be the first decline since March. The Canadian dollar showed little reaction to the retail sales release.

The Bank of Canada doesn’t meet again until October 25th and policy makers will have plenty of data to monitor in the meantime. The BoC has been walking a tightrope that will be familiar to most central banks, that of trying to balance the risks of over and under-tightening. The difficulty in finding the right balance was highlighted in the BoC summary of deliberations of the policy meeting earlier this month.

The BoC decided to hold the benchmark rate at 5.0% after concluding that earlier rate hikes were having an effect and slowing economic growth. The summary indicated that policy makers were concerned that a pause might send the wrong message that rate cuts might be on the way. With inflation still above the BOC’s target, the central bank is not looking at rate cuts and stressed at the September meeting that rate hikes were still on the table and that inflation remained too high.

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USD/CAD Technical

  • USD/CAD is testing resistance at 1.3468. The next resistance line is 1.3553
  • 1.3408 and 1.3323 are the next support lines

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Quantitative Tightening Is Not Biggest Threat To Global Yields

Quantitative Tightening Is Not Biggest Threat To Global Yields

Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,

The Bank of England’s…

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Quantitative Tightening Is Not Biggest Threat To Global Yields

Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,

The Bank of England’s quantitative tightening program shows that unwinding central-bank bond portfolios, even with outright sales, need not be disruptive for markets. The greater risk for US and global yields comes from positive stock-bond correlations driving risk premia wider.

The BOE has been a pioneer and a thought leader in QT. While the Fed and ECB have only allowed bonds to run off naturally to help achieve their balance-sheet contraction goals, the BOE has sold gilts outright in addition to allowing bonds to mature.

So far, it has not led to any significant market disruption. This enabled the BOE Thursday to increase the pace of reduction in the Asset Purchase Facility (APF) from £80 billion last year to £100 billion over the coming 12 months from October (while holding Bank Rate steady). As colleague Ven Ram also noted, the schedule of maturing bonds next year allowed the bank to keep gilts sales unchanged from last year while increasing the total amount of the APF’s decrease.

The QT watchwords from the bank are “gradual and predictable.” If gilt sales are conducted in such a way, then market disruption should be minimized. The chart below shows the BOE’s own assessment of the impact of bond sales on the market.

The BOE estimates that of the ~40 bps of term-premium increase since the MPC voted to begin QT in February 2022, about 10-15 bps comes from QT specifically – small in comparison to the overall rise in yields since that time.

QT or bond sales, though, are not the most critical risk facing bond prices in the current cycle. Rising and now positive stock-bond correlations threaten to lead to a structural rise in bond risk premium, and lower prices. The correlation is now positive in the US, Japan, and the UK.

In a positive stock-bond correlation world, bonds lose their portfolio-hedge and recession-hedge capabilities, and thus become less sought after. The penny has not fully dropped yet, but the negative term premium for bonds is increasing, and is prone to rising much higher as they become less desirable.

Yields of developed market countries are biased structurally higher, but QT is unlikely to be the culprit. Instead, it allows central banks to reload their capacity for a future time when they may need to restart quantitative easing, in order to stabilize the market from sharply rising term premia.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/22/2023 - 09:10

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