Uber has 1st positive cash flow, hackers steal almost BRL 1 billion in crypto and what matters in the market

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Uber generates cash for the first time

Uber recorded for the first time in its history a positive quarterly cash flow. This means that, from April to June, the company’s operations stopped burning cash.

The result, added to the company’s positive outlook for the coming months, made Uber’s shares end this Tuesday (2) with a high of 18.9% on Nasdaq.

In numbers: free cash generation was $382 million (R$ 1.9 billion) in the second quarter, above what analysts had predicted.

• The company recorded a loss ($2.6 billionor R$ 13.6 billion), but the figure was influenced by accounting adjustments due to the fall in the value of its shares in other companies, such as the Chinese Didi, owner of 99 in Brazil.

What explains: Uber recorded an increase of 31% in the number of drivers and couriers on its platform, to nearly 5 million, a record. The number of monthly active users (122 million) was also the highest in history.

• The result allayed analysts’ fears that users could exit the app with rising fuel prices.
• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said inflationary pressure had driven more people to the platform in search of extra income, citing that 70% of new drivers attributed the decision to that factor.
• Revenues from the delivery and transportation segments were above analysts’ forecasts. Compared to the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, the number of trips jumped 12%.

why it matters: Uber has always been one of the great symbols of the “era of cash-burning startups”, which did not treat profit as a priority and now face difficulties with high interest rates.

In 2018, for example, the company’s operations burned $2 billion (R$ 10.5 billion, at the current price).

Is it worth buying Petrobras just for the dividends?

After the record dividends announced by Petrobras, is it worth buying shares in the company just to pocket the distribution of profits? Analysts heard by Sheet explain that it doesn’t make much sense.

Understand: the amount corresponds to approx. BRL 6.73 per share, with the cut-off date set on August 11. Whoever buys until that date will receive the dividends in the account.

• The big thing is that on the following day, August 12, the value of the shares will be automatically discounted by the value of the dividend distributed per share, that is, they stay for them.
• There is a possibility that stocks will appreciate after the cut-off date, but there is also a chance that they will decline. Therefore, buying thinking only in the short term ends up being more risky.

Yes but… Specialists point out that this does not mean that the state-owned company’s shares are not promising for the long term.

• João Frota Salles, from Senso Investimentos, believes that the low cost of extracting oil in the pre-salt layer (about US$ 20 a barrel) puts Petrobras at an advantage over its global competitors.
• Ilan Arbetman, from Ativa Investimentos, sees the company well positioned to take advantage of the positive moment of oil prices, with a healthy operating balance.

uncertainties: what still holds back the potential of the state-owned company’s actions in relation to its competitors, analysts recall, are the possibilities of political interference. Even the outcome of the election can affect the roles.

• Senso’s Salles claims that a re-election of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) puts a privatization of Petrobras on the radar.
• If Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) returns to the presidency, the analyst says that the direction tends to be the opposite, with the possible return of the investment strategy in areas that are not a priority for the business.

App Attracts ‘Instagram Root’ Fans

Amid criticism that Instagram is trying to “imitate” TikTok, an app that harks back to the early days of the photo social network has attracted more and more users. This is the newly created BeReal.

Understand: the app allows only one publication per day. After receiving a notification, the user has two minutes to post a photo – with simultaneous portraits taken by the front and rear cameras. The time of notices varies.

• This is also the only way to see what your friends have posted.
• Overproduced and filtered photos? None of that. The user can only access the camera through the application itself. See more details here.

Instagram is not the same anymore? Criticism of the network increased especially after relevant influencers on the platform, such as the American Kylie Jenner, asked her to stop trying to imitate TikTok – fever among young people.

• They were referring to Instagram’s full-screen and third-party content recommendation tests, two strengths of the Chinese algorithm.
• Meta backed off on Thursday (28) and said it would pause the full-screen test and ease up on third-party content suggestion.
• Complaints should only postpone an irreversible process, writes Ronaldo Lemos. Read in this week’s column the reason and consequences of this new trend.

What explains? The movement of Instagram, which had been started with the video editing tool Reels, is to keep the user longer on the platform, a relevant indicator for advertisers.

Hackers steal almost BRL 1 billion in crypto

The American cryptocurrency company Nomad suffered a theft of US$ 190 million (almost BRL 1 billion), according to crypto analysis company PeckShield.

Nomad said it was “aware of the incident” and was investigating, without giving further details or the value of the theft. She also stated that she is trying to identify the accounts involved and recover the funds.

Understand: the theft targeted Nomad’s ‘bridge’ — a tool that allows users to transfer tokens between blockchains. It has shown itself to be a vulnerability of the crypto universe and has been increasingly the target of theft.

• More of $1 billion was stolen from bridges so far in 2022, according to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.
• The latest major theft in the industry involved the Ronin blockchain platform, used as the basis for the popular online game Axie Infinity. In March, hackers stole almost $615 million in cryptocurrencies from their systems.

more about cryptos:

A Brit who mistakenly threw away a hard drive nearly ten years ago while cleaning his house now wants to dig a landfill to retrieve his digital wallet with 8,000 bitcoins worth about BRL 1 billion.

Robinhood, the popular U.S. crypto investment platform, said on Tuesday it was laying off 23% of employees. The company boomed along with the sector last year, but has been struggling with the drops in prices in 2022.