So long, White Claw: the drink of the summer is Chartreuse, a nearly neon-green herbal liqueur made by monks in the French Alps. Last year sales hit their highest numbers since the 1800s. Vintage. Markets ended an earnings-heavy last week in the green, even after the latest US GDP #s revealed inflation-slowed economic growth. This week, the Fed's largely expected to keep interest rates the same when it meets Wednesday. |
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Tearin' up contracts… The FTC banned noncompete agreements last week. (FYI: a noncompete is a contract that keeps employees from joining rival companies.) The next day, the Chamber of Commerce and biz groups repping AmEx, JPMorgan, Walmart, and other corporations sued to block the rule. At stake: the FTC's rule could cancel 30M noncompetes four months from now, though bankers and some senior execs would be exempt. The FTC says the contracts stifle wage growth by preventing job-hopping — and banning them could lift workers' earnings by $400B+ over the next decade. |
- Pinky swear: Businesses argue noncompetes protect their intellectual property, trade secrets, hot-sauce recipes… basically anything confidential that gives them an edge.
- 50-nifty: A handful of states including California already don't enforce the contracts. A ban in New York (Wall Street's known for its noncompetes) passed but was vetoed.
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Beyond Wall Street… Nearly one in five American workers is under a noncompete. Higher-paying careers including salespeople, engineers, and doctors often require the agreement. But the list goes on to restaurant staff, power washers, cosmetologists, and other workers who make lower wages and don't know biz-specific trade secrets. |
- Side door: The ban may also apply, on a case-by-case basis, to "stay or pay" clauses that require employees to pay a lump sum if they quit before a specified time. Experts say a third of US workers are now under stay-or-pay clauses.
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The Khanconomy has big ambitions… For FTC Chair Lina Khan, this ban is a power move that could bust down the door for more pro-labor, economy-wide laws. Khan's FTC has gone after big biz in courts, pursuing antitrust cases against the likes of Amazon and Microsoft. But its track record for wins has been spotty, and Khan's said courts are slow and timid. Ergo this noncompete ban, the first time the agency's made a regulation to tackle corporate competition in over a half-century. |
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Invest today! Right now, new AI tech and noise is hitting the market daily. They're not all created equal… but execs from Google and Meta have opted to invest in RAD AI, an AI tech that has attracted over 7500+* investors - So why the buzz? 📱RAD's artificial intelligence is poised to disrupt the massive MarTech industry - that's $633B and growing. 💲 The company has landed clients like Hasbro and Skechers for a reason - results and the benefit RAD AI delivers— and clued-in investors see the potential. 🔥RAD AI is designed to attract quality clients with influence — and then expand it. So far, RAD AI has achieved 3.5X ROI across various clients, campaigns, and marketing channels. 💼 RAD is a SaaS-focused model designed to retain enterprise clients for multi-year commitments — and it does. Booked revenue is up nearly 3X over the previous 12 months. So far, RAD AI has raised $27M+ from investors. We mentioned exec investors from Google, and Meta above - Other backers include The Adobe Fund for Design, execs from Amazon, and VCs like Fidelity Ventures. With over 7500+* investors, this is your last chance to invest at this round's valuation. Closes today, April 29 - get in now!** |
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Fancy hats and mint juleps… Hundreds of thousands of horse-racing fans will head to Louisville this weekend to watch the 150th Kentucky Derby. This year's "Run for the Roses" is already boosting biz. Airbnb said searches for Louisville stays during Derby week were up 30% from last year, and the city's airport expects a record number of fliers. Last week, Derby parent Churchill Downs said its Q1 revenue jumped 6% to an all-time high of over $590M thanks partly to record sports betting. Churchill said tickets to the Derby-versary have seen unprecedented demand. Bruised apple… Apple lost its spot as China's #1 smartphone last month, after iPhone sales sank 19% in Q1. FYI: iPhones make up over half of the tech giant's revenue and China is Apple's third-biggest market. Sales have slipped as China-based rivals like Huawei and Honor bite into market share. Apple and Amazon are the latest of the "Mag 7" (which include Google, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, and Nvidia) to report this week. So far, only Tesla has missed earnings estimates, and analysts expect the group's profits to jump 38% for Q1. |
Labor's potential "Mayday"… International Workers' Day is Wednesday, and US labor has somethin' to celebrate. This month, Volkswagen became the first non-Big 3 automaker in the South to unionize while "Sesame Street" writers scored a new deal, averting a strike. Workers are continuing wins from last year, when 100K+ workers unionized with help from the National Labor Relations Board, a 20-year+ high. But a Supreme Court case between the board and Starbucks (which reports tomorrow) could shift the momentum: Starbs is seeking to limit the agency's powers. Google's rot problem… Google's core product — search — has come under fire as critics say its once streamlined design has become bloated under ads and spam. Researchers found it's become less-user friendly, weighed down by lower-quality top results as netizens learn to game the system — issues that could compound as GenAI spreads across the web. Ed Zitron dove into how Google's efforts to please Wall Street pushed out a staffer who helped build the search engine. The result: allowing the foundation of the modern internet to become a worse product. |
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- Glitch: TSMC, the top chipmaker, has gotten billions from the Biden admin to ramp up semiconductor facilities in Phoenix. But clashing work ethics — and tensions between US and Taiwanese workers — have reportedly led to production delays.
- Flight: Luxury air-taxi biz Blade has become more of an ambulance than a fancy ride to the airport. Last year over half of its revenue came from delivering hearts, livers, and lungs around the US.
- ESGone: Withdrawals from ESG (environmental, social, governance) funds hit their worst-ever level in Q1 as US clients pulled out ~$9B. Poor returns in industries like wind and solar have hurt sustainable investments.
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| Monday: International Dance Day. Earnings expected from Domino's, Royal Philips, Paramount Global, and NXP Semiconductors |
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| Tuesday: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao expected to be sentenced. February US house-price index. April consumer-confidence index. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month begins. Earnings expected from 3M, PayPal, Eli Lilly, McDonald's, Enterprise Products Partners, Coca-Cola, SiriusXM, Marathon Petroleum, Archer Daniels Midland, Stellantis, HSBC, GE HealthCare, Amazon, Advanced Micro Devices, Supermicro, Starbucks, Pinterest, Caesars Entertainment, and Mondelez |
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| Wednesday: Fed interest-rate decision. Job openings. Earnings expected from eBay, Pfizer, CVS, Mastercard, Norwegian Cruise Line, Kraft Heinz, Marriott, Estée Lauder, ADP, Garmin, GlaxoSmithKline, DuPont, Yum Brands, and DoorDash |
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| Thursday: Weekly jobless claims. Earnings expected from Apple, US Steel, Kellanova, Amgen, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Cigna, and Wendy's |
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| Friday: April jobs data. World Press Freedom Day. Earnings expected from Cheniere Energy, Hershey, and FuboTV |
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Authors of this Snacks own shares of Apple, Kraft Heinz, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Microsoft |
Advertiser's Disclosure: *The 7500+ individual investors is as of 04/22/24. **This is a paid advertisement for RAD AI's Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.radintel.ai. Equity crowdfunding investments in private placements, and start-up investments in particular, are speculative and illiquid. They involve a high degree of risk and those investors who cannot afford to lose their entire investment should not invest in start-ups. |
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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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