…and the billion-dollar eclipse economy
| Bit by bit (Mark Felix/Getty Images) | |
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Last Week's Market Moves | | Dow Jones
38,904 (-2.27%) | S&P 500
5,204 (-0.95%) | Nasdaq
16,249 (-0.80%) | Bitcoin
$67,515 (-3.42%) |
| Dow Jones
38,904 (-2.27%) | S&P 500
5,204 (-0.95%) | Nasdaq
16,249 (-0.80%) | Bitcoin
$67,515 (-3.42%) |
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Hey Snackers, Honey, iHome: Apple's said to be looking to build a robot that can follow owners around their homes, similar to Amazon's $1.6K Astro bot. Our suggestion: make it cute like a Poo-Chi. Markets were wobbly last week, with major US indexes ticking down. The big news: employers added 303K jobs in March, 100K more than expected (but the Fed's not sweating the surge). Up next, big banks including JPMorgan and Wells Fargo kick off Q1 earnings. | Btw... Do you want to start getting Snacks daily? Or prefer to unsubscribe? Manage your subscription preferences here. | |
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The companies powering bitcoin score record revenues ahead of this month's "halving" squeeze | Partying before the storm… As crypto traders celebrated a rally last month, the businesses that keep bitcoin chugging along were quietly raking in record revenues. Bitcoin miners — the people and (increasingly) publicly traded companies that validate BTC transactions and add them to the blockchain — notched a staggering $2B in revenues in March. That was partly thanks to the skyrocketing price of bitcoin, the OG crypto, which in mid-March hit an all-time high of more than $73K. Memecoins like dogwifhat and shiba inu also surged on the crypt-thusiasm. At work: Mining corps including Marathon Digital, Hut 8, and Riot Platforms are rewarded with BTC when they mine a block. Payday: But the process is pricey, and miners sell BTC to cover costs like electricity, equipment, facilities, and staff. Higher bitcoin prices can = higher revenues for miners.
Hunkerin' down… A shake-up's looming on the crypto industry's horizon. Sometime around April 20 (the date isn't fixed, because it's determined by code) the BTC reward that miners earn is set to be sliced in half. Welcome to the "halving," an industry-wide pay cut that rears its head every four years. It means miners will be unleashing fewer BTC into the world for essentially the same amount of work. While it's welcomed by crypto enthusiasts — who argue that fewer bitcoins being made each day will lead to BTC price gains (which is far from guaranteed) — the halving means miners will be competing over a smaller slice of crypto pie. |  | THE TAKEAWAY |
| Think big when the pickings get slim… Miners prepared for the last halving, in 2020, by spending serious $$ to upgrade to more powerful chips and finding cheaper (and more creative) energy sources. The industry boomed: there are now at least 25 mining companies on the Nasdaq, versus two in 2020. Now experts point to a "break glass in case of emergency" tool in miners' toolbox: mergers. Analysts expect "meaningful" M&A activity in the back half of the year as bitcoin's post-halving reality shakes out. | |
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| More Biscoffs, less Boeing… Delta's earnings land on Wednesday, while Boeing jet-delivery delays roil the airline industry. Delta doesn't fly Boeing Max jets, but it did order $13B+ worth of the new 737 Max 10s (delivery could be delayed till 2027). The airline pulled in record sales last year and doubled its Q4 profit as postpandemic "revenge travel" continued, fueled by international vacays. Americans' splurges on global travel boomed 30% last year — 5X the rate of overall spending growth. Delta's expected to report an earnings increase as travelers go for the long haul. Total eclipse of the credit card… Up to 4M people are expected to travel for today's solar eclipse, generating $1.5B in econ activity for the states hosting them (FYI: tourists could spend ~$244/person). Cities like Dallas and Cleveland, which will see the sun fully obscured by the moon, could benefit as hotels and restos offer eclipse-weekend packages (picture: cocktails and viewing glasses). It's not just cities: Delta and United saw big bookings for flights along the #PathOfTotality, and Krispy Kreme, Sonic, and Sunchips are serving up themed snacks. | |
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| #ReleaseTheVials… TikTokers are pleading with Eli Lilly to sell single-dose vials of its weight-loss drug, Zepbound, on their own without accompanying injector pens. Zepbound, which launched late last year, is in short supply because Eli Lilly can't make the pens fast enough. It joins similar drugs on the FDA's shortage list, including Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Novo Nordisk's Wegovy. Pharma cos are looking to scale up production as retailers like Costco start offering access to scripts. Meantime, the FDA has warned folks about sketchy knockoffs. Block your boss… California is mulling a "right to disconnect" bill that would guarantee salaried workers the right to ignore calls, texts, emails, and DMs from their employers after work. The pandemic eroded work-life norms, with over half of US workers saying they answer work messages outside paid hours. It'd be the US's first right-to-disconnect law, though countries including Ireland, France, and Australia already have them in place. Elsewhere in office law, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders last month intro'd a 32-hour-workweek bill in the Senate. | |
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What else we're Snackin' | Muted: Coachella's this weekend, but it seems folks may be over flower crowns. It took a month for the fest's opening weekend to sell out (vs. 40 minutes in 2022) as pricey festivals struggle to stay in business. Cluck: The USDA paid poultry farmers $500M+ last year for losses incurred from killing chickens and turkeys exposed to the bird flu. The US's largest egg producer, Cal-Maine, recently culled 1.6M exposed birds. Steam: Mocha prices could get frothy. Coffee-bean prices have soared 68% in the past year, hitting record highs along with the cost of cacao beans. Droughts and heatwaves related to the climate crisis have curbed harvests.
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Snack Fact Of the Day | 63% of new IRS audits last year were aimed at filers making less than $200K/yr | | |
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This Week | Monday: Total solar eclipse moves across North America Tuesday: Earnings expected from WD-40 and Tilray Brands Wednesday: March CPI released. Earnings expected from Delta and Rent the Runway. Japan PM visits US Thursday: Masters Tournament tees off. Earnings expected from CarMax and Constellation Brands Friday: Earnings expected from Citigroup, Progressive, BlackRock, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan
Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shiba inu and shares of: Amazon, Apple, Delta, Eli Lilly, and Riot Platforms Correction: In Friday's Snacks Seven Quiz, we goofed by saying the answer to question No. 5 was Experian. The correct answer, of course, was AT&T. We regret the error. *Advertiser's disclosure: As the leader in tax preparation, more federal returns are prepared with TurboTax than any other tax preparation provider. Visit http://turbotax.intuit.com/lp/yoy/guarantees.jsp for TurboTax product guarantees and other important information. Limited time offer for TurboTax 2023. Discount applies to TurboTax federal products only. Actual prices are determined at the time of print or e-file and are subject to change without notice. Terms, conditions, features, availability, pricing, fees, service and support options are subject to change without notice. Intuit, TurboTax and TurboTax Online, among others, are registered trademarks and/or service marks of Intuit Inc. in the United States and other countries. | |
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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 | |
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