Price Force One, assemble (Nathan Howard/Getty Images) |
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| Hey Snackers, This biz gives moon dust a whole new meaning: folks are forking out thousands to have their ashes launched to the lunar surface. Call it a final resting space. Stocks ticked up yesterday after Fed Chair Powell said the US central bank is likely to cut rates "at some point this year," but not until inflation's tamed. Next week's February consumer prices report should shed some light on how that's going. Because of a technical issue, we're sending an afternoon Snacks — and we'll be back in your inbox tomorrow morning. |
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The price is not right… The White House this week announced the creation of a strike force tasked with battling "unfair and illegal" corporate pricing in sectors like healthcare, grocery, and housing. The force'll be helmed jointly by the FTC and DOJ, the agencies that've led the admin's robust antitrust agenda. President Biden, who'll address the country in his State of the Union tonight, has blamed eye-popping receipts (and Americans' grim economic outlook) on corporate price gouging. Even as prices for grocery staples have fallen, officials said some corporations are keeping sticker prices high. |
- Commercerating: The US Chamber of Commerce and banking groups were quick to criticize Biden's price fighters and the admin's new rule capping credit-card late fees at $8 (down from a $32 average).
- Grocery grappling: The FTC last month sued to block the $25B Kroger-Albertsons supermarket merger, saying it could raise prices. The admin's also increased average SNAP benefits by twice the amount that grocery prices have risen.
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The war on greedflation… Greedflation — when companies hike prices to boost profits despite not "needing" to — has gone from fringe theory to presidential talking point. In Q2 and Q3 last year, corporate profits drove 53% of inflation. In the 40 years before the pandemic, that figure was just 11%. Now more economists (and Cookie Monster) are sounding the alarm on profit-pumping moves like shrinkflation. European grocery chain Carrefour (the world's seventh-largest retailer) said it would no longer carry Pepsi products in stores because of continued price hikes. |
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 THE TAKEAWAY
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Striking while the iron costs 20% more… The Biden admin's pricing Power Rangers are part of an effort central to the president's reelection push: combating high prices. The White House has argued that corporate greed is keeping Americans from feeling the effects of cooling inflation. High prices, a top concern for Americans, have capped the president's economic approval rating at 40% or below since 2021. |
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Your top trading tool? Transparency. |
The retail detail: Self-directed retail investors have the power to move markets. With the Retail Trading Activity Tracker, Nasdaq is bringing enhanced transparency to that trading activity for all market participants. It covers $30B USD/day of retail trades across 9,500+ US stocks, ADRs and ETPs — public data, backed by Nasdaq's deep markets expertise and delivered in a digestible format. Ticker-level tracking. Nasdaq's proprietary dataset traces the daily buying and selling activity of retail investors at the ticker level. All types of investors can use it to gauge momentum, analyze buy/sell sentiment, and translate information into insights. Access the Retail Trading Activity Tracker via Nasdaq Data Link in your preferred format: Python, R, Excel and other libraries. |
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Your top trading tool? Transparency. |
The retail detail: Self-directed retail investors have the power to move markets. With the Retail Trading Activity Tracker, Nasdaq is bringing enhanced transparency to that trading activity for all market participants. It covers $30B USD/day of retail trades across 9,500+ US stocks, ADRs and ETPs — public data, backed by Nasdaq's deep markets expertise and delivered in a digestible format. Ticker-level tracking. Nasdaq's proprietary dataset traces the daily buying and selling activity of retail investors at the ticker level. All types of investors can use it to gauge momentum, analyze buy/sell sentiment, and translate information into insights. Access the Retail Trading Activity Tracker via Nasdaq Data Link in your preferred format: Python, R, Excel and other libraries. |
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When Lagos gives you lemons… Binance halted transactions using Nigerian currency after the country's officials reportedly demanded $10B in compensation from the world's largest crypto exchange and arrested two of its visiting execs. Nigeria, Africa's largest economy and a major crypto hub, accused Binance of price-fixing practices that it said plunged its currency: since last summer, the naira has lost 70% of its value. The gov't also argues that Binance acts as a gateway for bad actors to launder money and finance terror. |
- Stress test: Nigeria wants an audience with Binance CEO Richard Teng, who was hastily promoted to the role after founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in the US.
- Pressure: Nigeria recently suspended Coinbase, Kraken, and other crypto exchanges as the gov't tries to control the naira's slide and the cost-of-living crisis it's exacerbating.
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Seeking digital solutions… to IRL issues. About a fifth of the world's unbanked population is in sub-Saharan Africa, where 350M people don't use banks. People in the region have turned to digital currencies as a way to store and send money. One in five South Africans and Nigerians owns digital assets (compared to ~10% of people globally) and more bitcoin is traded in Nigeria than in any other region. The OG crypto is seen as a less volatile alternative to local currencies experiencing rapid inflation — like Nigeria's naira and * spins globe * Argentina's peso. |
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THE TAKEAWAY |
Crypto's a two-sided coin… Nigerian officials have said crypto trading is accelerating the hyperinflation of the country's currency. To shore up their economies, several African countries have banned crypto, including Nigeria from 2021 to 2023. At the same time, some countries with inflation struggles are all in on digital assets: El Salvador scrapped its local currency in favor of the US dollar and bitcoin, which are both accepted as legal tender there, and Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, is vocally pro-crypto. |
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📸 Flashy… The Coachella fest said it's releasing nonfungible tokens that'll double as passes to the California music bash. The NFT market plunged after its nearly $24B sales-volume peak in January 2022, but has recently been turning up the volume. 🤖 Techy… Some Coinbase users saw incorrect account balances of $0 on Tuesday as bitcoin hit a record high. It's the second time the exchange had glitched in a week, and follows a long history of outages and errors coinciding with bitcoin rallies. 🤹♀️ Quirky… Binance made a perfume called "CRYPTO" to celebrate International Women's Day (the scent: ozone, salt, and moss) and maybe freshen up PR. The exchange agreed to pay $4.3B to settle US anti-money-laundering charges. |
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- Fitch: Abercrombie enjoyed 21% sales growth in the holiday quarter as its rebrand continued to pay off (no more moose logos or shirtless models). Younger gens have returned to A&F for basics like hoodies and jeans.
- Miss: The average FICO credit score of US adults fell last year for the first time in more than a decade. Creditworthiness took a hit as Americans struggled with repaying record-high credit-card debt.
- TokOff: A bipartisan group of US lawmakers intro'd a bill that would force TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance to sell off the app or be blocked from US app stores. TikTok said it's equivalent to an "outright ban."
- Drama: OpenAI published fundraising-related emails from cofounder Elon Musk as a rebuttal to his lawsuit. Musk sued OpenAI, accusing the former nonprofit biz of focusing too much on profit.
- Kicked: Foot Locker stock slipped ~20% after the biz unboxed a holiday-szn loss. The onetime mall fave said it had slashed prices to clear out unsold sneakers, but the discounts stomped on profit.
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Jeff Bezos surpassed Elon Musk to become the world's richest person (again) |
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- Initial jobless claims
- President Biden's State of the Union speech
- Earnings expected from Kroger, American Eagle, Burlington Stores, Broadcom, Costco, DocuSign, and Gap
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Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin |
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