🍽️ Ozempic-era food

…and a rising NFTide

Ghosting the snack aisle (Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images)

Sponsored by

Yesterday's Market Moves   Dow Jones 36,117 (+0.17%) S&P 500 4,586 (+0.80%) Nasdaq 14,340 (+1.37%) Bitcoin $43,248 (-1.09%) Dow Jones 36,117 (+0.17%) S&P 500 4,586 (+0.80%) Nasdaq 14,340 (+1.37%) Bitcoin $43,248 (-1.09%)

Hey Snackers, Emily in Paris < Krispy in Paris? 500 Parisians waited in line (some camping out overnight) for a taste of Krispy Kreme doughnuts this week, after the glazed icon opened its first location in France. Croissants are shaking. The Dow and S&P 500 rallied yesterday to break a three-day losing streak as investors waited for the November jobs report today (more cooling's expected). The techy Nasdaq popped with big names like Alphabet, Nvidia, and AMD leading the charge. 🧠 Let's get quizzical: Pop into our quick Snacks Seven quiz to test your knowledge of this week's biz news. Here's an appetizer: Which company is set to join the S&P 500 this month? (Check your answer.)

Ozemportunity

Food brands are trying to adapt to the Ozempic era by following past playbooks Ozempic face-off… As more people take appetite-suppressing drugs like Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro, analysts have said the meds' effects could eat into food sales. Walmart called out the drugs for a slight pullback in cart sizes. But food giants have a plan: create companion products that complement low-cal diets. Protein power: Nestlé and General Mills are creating protein-packed products to offset the muscle mass that Ozempic-takers typically lose on their LB-shedding journey. Smaller portions: Oreo maker Mondelez is expanding its line of individually wrapped snacks that have under 200 calories per pack. Makin' every calorie count… As many as 24M people — or nearly 7% of Americans — could be taking weight-loss meds in 2035, potentially slashing their calories by 30%, Morgan Stanley estimates. But while shrinking waistlines could hurt some grub sales (think: fast food, sugary snacks, anything resembling KFC's Double Down sando), other foods could see a surge. BellRing Brands (PowerBar, Premier Protein) expect sales of its products to jump. BellRing and Ensure maker Abbott Labs are also making some options with extra nutrients tailored to folks taking Ozempic. Twinning: Others, like startup Supergut, are looking to replace expensive weight-loss drugs. Supergut markets its prebiotic fiber-filled shakes and bars as "nature's Ozempic." Sales are up 50% and the brand's headed to grocery-store shelves. THE TAKEAWAY Weight loss can be a gain… It's not the # of calories that matter; it's how you market them. Food brands have adapted to diet changes before, making gluten-free products when GF made its way onto menus, limiting carbs for Atkins and keto followers, and slapping "Zero" on products that cut out added sugars. Ozempic diets are food brands' latest opp to market new products.

Sponsored by Percent Wall Street's investment story of the next few years Street cred: If you ask the Wall Street Journal, private credit is what the big institutional investors are most excited about.* And it's no surprise why: during times of high inflation and high interest rates, private credit has had a stellar performance record. Pro-found: While the big professional investors have used private credit for years as a tool for diversification and higher APY, Percent makes this asset class available to individual accredited investors. Where "yield" means go… With an average yield of 18.72% APY as of November 30, 2023, private credit from Percent can be a high-yield source of income for your portfolio — even if you're not a professional fund manager.  Get up to $500 with your first investment.

FUNGY

NFTs are staging a comeback in a market where OpenSea's no longer the big ship The Yacht Club's feelin' packed… As bitcoin boomed last week to a 20-month high, non-fungible tokens showed signs of waking from crypto winter's hibernation. On the ethereum blockchain — which is home to marquee NFT collections including Bored Apes, CryptoPunks, and Pudgy Penguins — weekly trading volumes jumped 250% over two months (as of Monday). In the past month, prices of the cheapest CryptoPunks (aka: floor price) are up nearly 45%. Success breeds… success? Industry analysts point to the price of ether — which climbed nearly 40% over the past two months to $2.3K — as likely contributing to the trading surge. An OpenSea change… While the rising NFTide may spur déjà vu, anyone just now returning to the non-fungible scene will find a market vastly changed from the hype-filled days of late 2021. For starters, OpenSea is no longer the dominant NFT marketplace. In its spot on the podium: Blur. Launched in 2022, Blur is now home to nearly 80% of ethereum NFT transaction volume, with OpenSea clocking a mere 17% (ouch). Aiding its coup: Blur's token airdrops helped it pull traders from OpenSea, and its low creator royalty fee — which OpenSea begrudgingly copied — means sellers can keep more of their profits (bad for artists, but good for traders). THE TAKEAWAY Growth can go sideways as well as up… While overall transactions #s are still way down from their peak, ethereum-based NFTs are having a moment. But rival blockchains are also seeing growth. Ordinals (essentially bitcoin-based NFTs) are once again so popular that they're driving up transaction fees on the OG blockchain. And over on the Solana blockchain, NFT sales volume was up nearly 30% over the past week.

What else we're Snackin' ChipOff: Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI said they would buy rival AMD's newest AI chip. Nvidia accounts for 70%+ of AI-chip sales, but if AMD's chip is cheaper and more powerful, it could pose a serious threat. Rx: The Biden admin announced a framework for revoking drug patents to help curb high med prices. Several big pharma cos have already (begrudgingly) agreed to participate in the president's drug-price-negotiation program. Cart: Amazon's testing a $10/month subscription for Prime members that offers free deliveries from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. As ecomm growth slows, reliable grocery orders could help boost revenue. Merry: Airline stocks rose after JetBlue hiked its sales outlook for this quarter. While the carrier's expecting a year-over-year dip, it said travel demand's healthy as people fly home for the holidays. MadeIn: China's exports grew for the first time in six months, a promising sign for the world's second-biggest economy, which has been struggling to recover since lifting its strict pandemic restrictions. 🍪 Thanks for Snacking with us! Want to share the Snacks? Invite your friends to sign up here.

Snack Fact Of the Day This year was the least affordable for homebuying in at least 11 years Read more

Friday November jobs report  Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and ethereum and shares of: Amazon, Eli Lilly, Microsoft, Nvidia, Walmart, and Yum Brands *Source: The Wall Street Journal Advertiser's disclosure: Alternative investments are speculative and possess a high level of risk. No assurance can be given that investors will receive a return of their capital. Investments in private placements are highly illiquid and those investors who cannot hold an investment for an indefinite term should not invest.

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 Sherwood Terms and Conditions • Our Editorial Principles • Contact Us • Privacy Policy • Advertise with us Unsubscribe