SoFi Blog

In our efforts to bring you the latest updates on things that might impact your financial life, we may occasionally enter the political fray, covering candidates, bills, laws and more.
Please note: SoFi does not endorse or take official positions on any candidates and the bills they may be sponsoring or proposing. We may occasionally support legislation that we believe would be beneficial to our members, and will make sure to call it out when we do. Our reporting otherwise is for informational purposes only, and shouldn’t be construed as an endorsement.

As the election cycle heats up in anticipation of the 2020 presidential election, national student loan debt relief is becoming a red-hot topic. Mark Huelsman , associate director of policy and research at Demos, shares that Americans can likely expect dramatic student-debt relief proposals, in contrast to previous election debates, saying that, “There is more consensus about the need to go big on college affordability than there has been in previous election cycles.”

Industry insights, IPO updates, and fun facts about some of the world’s favorite firms.

So far, you might describe 2019 as the year of the unicorn companies. These are startup companies valued over $1 billion, and many of them—like Lyft, Beyond Meat, and Zoom—are hitting the market for the first time. But what’s driving this current trend in IPOs, and will it continue?

Millennials come with a litany of perceptions. They’re sometimes stereotyped as lazy, not having or wanting jobs, and portrayed as bingeing on Netflix and probiotic drinks from the comfort of their parents’ basement.

With murky perceptions like this, it could be easy to believe that millennials aren’t interested in investing for their futures. Of course, this narrative is overly simplistic at best, and dead wrong at worst.

Many millennials have had to overcome major obstacles to homeownership that their parents didn’t have, such as college costs that are growing faster than wages and ever-mounting student loan balances .

For some, Uber’s initial public offering (IPO) has been a major disappointment so far. The ride-sharing company, which has disrupted the transportation industry, went public on May 10, 2019 and its stock price immediately began to fall. Here’s a look at what happened and some factors that may have caused Uber’s IPO tumble.

What Happened with Uber’s IPO?

On Thursday afternoon, Uber set its IPO price at $45 a share . At that price, the company had a projected value of $82.5 billion .

However, when the markets opened on Friday morning, the stock immediately began trading at 6.7% below the IPO price at $42 a share. By the end of trading, the stock was down 7.6% below , closing at $41.57. The company raised $8.1 billion in its IPO, which gave it an initial valuation of $76.5 billion .

The stock fared no better on its second day of trading. Prices slid another 11% , or $4.47, to end at $37.10, or 18% lower than the IPO price. And though the stock price had recovered a bit by the end of its third day of trading, closing at $39.96, that was still well below its opening share price on Friday.

First came SoFi’s fee-waived* ETFs, SoFi Select 500 ETF (ticker: SFY) and SoFi Next 500 ETF (ticker: SFYX), providing our members access to diversified US equity for only $10 per share.

Then came the SoFi Gig Economy ETF (ticker: GIGE), a first-of-its-kind thematic ETF focused on the companies revolutionizing how individuals live and work. SoFi is now excited to highlight the fourth ETF in our line-up: the SoFi 50 ETF (ticker: SFYF).