Snapshots That Wow!

Tides, they are a changin’

Even prior to the european revival, research spending at government institutions and universities in Europe was higher than in USA, in 2023.

Source: Economist

BNPL soon to be BPL?

Annual "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) transaction volume is expected to reach a record $116.7 billion in 2025.

That is double the 2022 total and 7 times higher than in 2020.

A LendingTree survey showed that ~25% of users now rely on BNPL to buy groceries, up sharply from 14% last year.

Meanwhile, almost 25% of BNPL users missed at least one payment in 2025, up from 15% in 2021, according to Fed data.

Source: Kobeissi Letter

DM is the new EM?

Hermes, the leading luxury brand, saw revenue growth come in much stronger from developed markets especially from Europe unlike earlier expectations of China leading luxury growth.

Source: Hermes Investor Presentation

Go green with more mines?

Greenfield investments in Lithium will be required to the tune of almost entire existing commissioned supply of lithium.

Source: Rio Tinto Investor Presentation

Yeh duniya peetal ki?

CME Copper went down over 20% on a single day on Thursday, 31st July. Trump imposed a 50% tariff on all semi-finished copper products coming into the US but stopped short of applying the duty to imported refined copper, sparing domestic industries from potential higher costs.

There is roughly nine-month of excess stock of copper is there in USA (imports of copper into USA had gone up last few months). Now that copper duty has not come on semi-finished copper, it could lead to a glut and hence the (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) CME copper price fall.

Source: Bloomberg

“Kahi pe sambhal ke rakha hai”

Lenskart has disclosed in its IPO filing that a company promoter hasn't been able to locate his college degree -- and the university isn't responding. Reminds us all those times when we keep something so carefully that we are unable to locate it ourselves, later on.

Source: Lenskart DRHP