Hi there,
 

Here is this week in charts. 

On top of the world. Tim Cook has created more value for shareholders ($2T) in his 10-year tenure as Apple CEO than any chief executive in history. Even Warren Buffett, who has led Berkshire Hathaway for the past 45 years, and Jeff Bezos, who stepped down from his 24 years at the helm of Amazon earlier this summer, trail Cook. Helped along by pandemic tailwinds, Apple (and the rest of FAMGA) have reached new heights, outperforming the S&P 500 by more than 30 percentage points in 2020.

Signed, sealed, delivered. In 2019, China accounted for 62% of the world’s total parcel shipping volume, with 63.5B packages shipped vs.14.7B in the US. In 2020, China’s number hit 83B, according to the State Post Bureau — that’s 9x more than in 2013. As e-commerce volumes surge, last-mile efficiency has become more important than ever for brands and retailers to stay competitive. 

Into the woods. Robinhood shares dropped on Monday after SEC Chairman Gary Gensler told Barron’s that a ban of payment for order flow — Robinhood’s primary revenue center — was “on the table.” The dip also comes as PayPal is reportedly exploring a stock-trading platform for users, highlighting the boom in retail investing. Robinhood has rebounded a bit this week, and the stock is still well above its IPO price of $38. 

Going overboard. Shipping container rates from China to the US and Europe have surged in recent weeks. Factors like Covid-19 outbreaks, severe weather events, and a shortage of containers in Asia have led to bottlenecks at ports. In early August, shipping rates for the China-US East coast route topped $20,000 — a 500% increase over last year, according to Freightos. Emerging supply chain & logistics tech companies are aiming to drive efficiencies in the space by streamlining and automating processes across the shipping, warehousing, and distribution journey. 

First responder. First of all, great data viz. Also, preliminary evidence from a small, self-reported survey in Italy suggests that men who reported testing positive for Covid-19 also reported experiencing erectile dysfunction at higher rates. Who’s ready to get jabbed?

When a viz is unnecessary. This should just be a table as this terrible viz creates way too much cognitive load. After trying to interpret it for a bit, I considered taking drugs.

I love you.

Anand

@asanwal

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