(San Francisco)

Twitter took a very big step in its ongoing confrontation with President Trump this week. Over the last couple of years, the social media site has taken some steps to block Trump tweets that were barred under its policies. However, yesterday it took what feels like a monumental step—it started putting warning signs and links on posts that it said contained misleading information. Trump has exploded in his response, saying he could shut down social media companies.

FINSUM: We are of two minds about this. On the one hand Twitter was founded as an alternative source of news and a way for people to express their opinions outside the filter that mainstream news provides. On the other hand, it does not seem right that various social media platforms are being used as unchecked fake-news propaganda machines by both parties.

(Seattle)

You may or may not have heard of Shopify, but if you haven’t, it is probably time to take a hard look. Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce company—a fact which has meant it has been somewhat overlooked by those outside the tech space—that makes offering ecommerce and in-store payment collection easier for small businesses. The idea is to offer the scale and robustness that large companies have to small businesses selling online. It makes its money from subscription fees and add-on services. After initially falling during the lockdown, it has nearly doubled in value and is now worth around $100 bn.

FINSUM: This has been a big run higher, but Shopify sits at the intersection of ecommerce and fintech and may be the long-term competitor to Amazon.

(New York)

You may be wondering what is guiding the market right now, but in reality it is pretty simple. It is the combination of the prospect for reopening the economy, blended with the early results of vaccines that would help accelerate that process. This morning’s pre-market trading was another sign—new promising vaccine news sent S&P 500 futures up 1.5%.

FINSUM: If you want to predict the market, just pay very close attention to pharma news. Stocks in the sector have seen huge bumps because of vaccine hopes, and it is driving the whole market.

(New York)

The stock market may be complicated right now, but some things are abundantly clear. One of those is how the retail sector, and retail stocks in general, are going to react to the crisis. The answer is that big players are going to continue to grow, largely at the expense of smaller retailers. Bigger companies, with sophisticated websites and massive free shipping operations, have been thriving as small companies falter.

FINSUM: Think Amazon and Walmart, maybe Shopify (see other story about Shopify from today), as these companies will be the ones winning orders from customers over the short and long-term.

“While PPP has gotten the bulk of media attention, millions of small business owners are just as upset about EIDL Advance payments”, says Duncan MacDonald-Korth, co-creator of COVID Loan Tracker. “The problem was so bad that we decided to build a tracking tool to help small business owners understand where their application stood”.

COVID Loan Tracker, which started last month to help small business owners find out when and where PPP money was flowing, says that the SBA has not been paying EIDL Advances on the “first come first serve” basis that they promised. “We have mountains of evidence showing that the SBA is not paying these in the order they were received”.

EIDL Advances were supposed to be $10,000 paid to each applicant within three business days. Fast forward around seven weeks and most have still not received it, and those who do only get $1,000 per employee.

As a response, COVID Loan Tracker has built a tracking tool that helps small business owners see where they are in the SBA’s process. In particular, it shows whether others who applied at the same time have been paid, or if those who applied later have been paid ahead of you.

Find the tracker here

Instructions for the EIDL Advance Tracker:
1. Fill out the survey
2. Refresh the page
3. Enter your application number into the tracker and it will automatically show results (note: you may have to wait 10 seconds or so for the tracker to reflect your survey submission)