…and TikTok wants to be the new Shein (minus the drama)
The summer of picket signs (Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images)
Yesterday's Market Moves
Dow Jones 35,520 (+0.23%)
S&P 500 4,567 (-0.02%)
Nasdaq 14,127 (-0.12%)
Bitcoin $29,466 (+0.79%)
Dow Jones 35,520 (+0.23%)
S&P 500 4,567 (-0.02%)
Nasdaq 14,127 (-0.12%)
Bitcoin $29,466 (+0.79%)
Hey Snackers,
To complete its rebrand to X, Twitter snatched the @X handle from its owner of 16 years, Gene X. Hwang. Instead of paying for it, Twitter (X?) reportedly offered Hwang any other available handle, before changing his @X to @x12345678998765. Rolls off the tongue.
The Fed bumped interest rates 25 basis points, to a 22-year-high, and left open the possibility of more hikes. Stocks closed mixed as the Dow notched its longest winning streak since 1987, lifted by Boeing. After the bell, Meta popped as investors double-tapped its earnings report.
Delivered
UPS's historic deal with the Teamsters shows hot strike summer starting to yield worker wins
Driving a hard bargain… now with air-conditioning. This week, UPS and the Teamsters union reached a tentative agreement (which covers 340K UPS workers), likely averting what would've been one of the largest — and costliest — strikes in US history.
For unions: The deal features a 48% raise for part-time workers and a $7.50/hour hike for all union employees over five years, 7.5K new full-time Teamster positions, and (finally) AC in new delivery vans.
For UPS: It's avoiding a calamitous strike that could've cost the US an estimated $7B over 10 days, and retaining major clients that may've jumped ship.
For competitors: less stress. UPS ships about a quarter of US packages, and FedEx, Amazon, and USPS wouldn't have been able to handle the excess volume.
Cross-union solidarity is in… As simultaneous labor strikes pop up around the US, unions are teaming up to fuel what's become a hot strike summer. A union representing UPS's 3.3K pilots said its members would honor a Teamsters strike and stop working in solidarity. In the entertainment industry, striking WGA writers and SAG-AFTRA actors are picketing together, and the two unions have overlapping demands. Collaborative action is happening across industries too: WGA and SAG members have joined the picket lines of 15K striking Los Angeles hotel workers.
THE TAKEAWAY
Momentum is motivating… With a tight labor market, the highest level of public approval for unions since 1965, and shared pains like automation and AI, hot strike summer could lead to more worker wins. The Teamsters' deal could embolden other labor battles, like the United Auto Workers' contract with GM, Ford, and Stellantis that covers 150K workers and expires in September. The two unions have already held joint rallies.
TokShop
TikTok could join the "Made in China" online-shopping craze to take on Shein and Temu
As seen on TikTok… TikTok's said to be swiping into online shopping with a new marketplace aimed at bringing (more) Chinese goods to the US. The store ("TikTok Shop Shopping Center") would collab with China-based vendors to sell everything from tank tops to laptops, on a new page in the app. TikTok would handle product storage, marketing, and delivery to the US. The shop could hit the States next month.
Small cart: TikTok dipped its toes into ecomm by launching TikTok Shop in the US last year, but it's primarily designed for merchants to showcase their products on digi-storefronts.
Big trunk: TikTok hopes its new marketplace can quadruple the app's transaction volume from $5B last year to $20B this year. But competition is stiff.
Made in China mania… Chinese retailers like Shein and Temu have become global ecomm go-tos thanks to super-low prices and endless product catalogs. Last year, the e-retailers earned a combined $800M+ in sales. Still, TikTok has 1B+ active users, and more than half say they've made a purchase after seeing a product on the app. But social users don't always = social shoppers. This year Meta killed its Instagram Shop tab and its live shopping feature.
THE TAKEAWAY
Big dreams can have loose seams… Despite TikTok's popularity, its US shopping ambitions could come with more snags than sales. It's still at risk of getting banned over data privacy concerns, and entering the ecomm market might not help its case. Shein has been accused of selling clothes made with forced labor in China, and American lawmakers have urged an investigation. Last month, cybersecurity experts warned that Temu could be scraping sensitive personal data.
DEFI(NE)
Heard on the Block: "cryptojacking"
🤫 Like torrenting hundreds of movies using your neighbor's WiFi…
Crypto mining at scale these days involves warehouses full of specialized chips cooled by whirring fans or complex immersion baths. Instead of investing in that pricey setup, hackers install mining software on unsuspecting victims' computers. The process, known as "cryptojacking," makes schools, libraries, or financial firms bear the costs of mining. 332M+ cryptojacking attacks were spotted in the first half of this year — nearly 5X more than all of last year.
What else we're Snackin'
Metup: Meta enjoyed double-digit revenue growth for the first time since 2021 and gave a sunny forecast as ads rebounded (Googlereported a similar trend). CEO Zuck said he's excited about AI, AR, and Threads.
Barb: While "Barbie" keeps raking in box-office $$, Mattelsaid its Q2 sales fell 12%. Doll sales rose 10% thanks to Disney princesses, but Barbie sagged. Still, the movie hype could boost demand this quarter.
Joan: Netflixis offering up to $900K/year to hire an AI-focused product manager. One element of the Hollywood actors and writers' strike is the threat posed by AI tech (picture: Salma Hayek deep fakes).
Pop: Cokehad sparkling quarterly sales growth and profit as people kept snatching up its famous bevs despite several price hikes. The cola king said it's done hiking prices in the US and Europe this year.
GPS:Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and TomTom are joining forces to try to end Apple and Google's maps dominance. The group released an open dataset that could help app developers build their own maps.
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Snack Fact Of the Day
AI was mentioned 90 times in Google's Q2 earnings call, and 73 in Microsoft's
Earnings expected from Boston Beer, Crocs, Comcast, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Hertz Global, Hershey, Keurig Dr Pepper, Mastercard, McDonald's, Mondelez, Oatly, PG&E, Royal Caribbean, Roku, Shell, Southwest Airlines, Sweetgreen, T-Mobile, Valero, and Intel
Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Amazon, Apple, Boston Beer, Comcast, Google, GM, Microsoft, Mattel, and Roku
Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more
