Extreme-weather effects (Josh Edelson/Getty Images) |
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Hey Snackers, The floating piece of wood that saved Rose at the end of "Titanic" was auctioned off for $719K. The buyer can finally find out whether Jack could've fit on the slab too. Stocks kicked off the second quarter on a meh note: the S&P 500 and Dow slipped yesterday as the 10-year Treasury yield rose near its highest level of the year. |
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Hope you're good with names… The US hurricane season (typically June through November) could see as many as 25 named storms develop in the Atlantic Ocean this year, well above the usual 14. A half dozen of them — with names like Debby, Milton, and Patty — could make landfall as warmer ocean temps make for ideal storm fuel. This hurricane szn could start earlier and last longer. |
- Hot tub: Ocean temps in the tropical Atlantic — where 75% of major hurricanes form — are eight weeks ahead of schedule. The hotter-than-usual temps mirror past bad storm years like 2005 (Katrina) and 2020 (the most active year on record).
- Sooner, longer: Warm water feeds hurricanes, and ocean temps have been shattering records for the past year. That could cause storms to form before June and last beyond November.
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Insurers are evacuating… Even with a milder hurricane season last year, the US experienced a record # of weather and climate disasters that cost over $1B each. That has sent insurers running. In Florida, where homeowners pay the highest premiums in the country, nine insurers have shuttered or merged since 2021. A dozen ditched Louisiana in the past three years. The average home-insurance premium in Florida skyrocketed 42% last year. By the end of this year, it could approach $12K (quadruple the national average). |
- Backstop: Citizens, a state-backed insurer created as a last resort, has become Florida's biggest property insurer as private companies bow out.
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 THE TAKEAWAY
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Climate crisis → insurance crisis... As extreme-weather events from fires to floods become the norm, home-insurance rates are expected to hit a record $2.5K this year. And it's getting harder to get covered at all as insurers flee disaster-prone states. Last month, State Farm (California's largest insurer) cut coverage for 72K CA homes as the state's wildfire risks rise. |
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Invest in This AI Start-Up Dubbed 'Game-Changing Tech' by Fortune 1000 Execs* |
How do you know which AI company(s) could be huge in the future? RAD AI decodes the language of the internet into actionable, highly valuable insights. Put simply, the tech helps brands create content their customers love. All eyes on AI… Cisco just spent $28B on its largest AI acquisition ever and Reddit's move to license data for AI has single-handedly re-energized the IPO market. That's the market power of AI… As for RAD, the potential is evident by the numbers… |
- $27M raised since 2018 from 6,500+ investors, including VCs, and execs at Google, Amazon and Meta.
- ~3X revenue growth from 2022 to 2023 — while landing major clients, including Hasbro, Skechers, Sweetgreen, and more.
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Invest in This AI Start-Up Dubbed 'Game-Changing Tech' by Fortune 1000 Execs* |
How do you know which AI company(s) could be huge in the future? RAD AI decodes the language of the internet into actionable, highly valuable insights. Put simply, the tech helps brands create content their customers love. All eyes on AI… Cisco just spent $28B on its largest AI acquisition ever and Reddit's move to license data for AI has single-handedly re-energized the IPO market. That's the market power of AI… As for RAD, the potential is evident by the numbers… |
- $27M raised since 2018 from 6,500+ investors, including VCs, and execs at Google, Amazon and Meta.
- ~3X revenue growth from 2022 to 2023 — while landing major clients, including Hasbro, Skechers, Sweetgreen, and more.
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Happier meal… California fast-food employees got a juicy pay bump yesterday: their minimum wage got hiked to $20/hour — now among the highest in the US. The law, passed last year, fattens paychecks for ~500K workers at chains with 60+ US locations (McDonald's, Burger King, all the biggies). A Fast Food Council was also formed to create rules for CA's industry, which could heat up calls for similar changes across the US. |
- Crispy: The minimum wage in the Golden State was already among the highest in the nation at $16/hour (~$3 higher than the average wage for US fast-food workers).
- Still, before the $20/hour change, CA fast-food workers made only ~$35K/year, which is below the state's poverty line.
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Hot oil… Proponents of the $20 minimum say most fast-food workers are adults with families who need to earn more to afford CA's high cost of living — not teens with summer gigs like Kenan and Kel. But some restaurant owners argue the raise is too high and that to afford it they'll have to raise menu prices, bring in automation (hello, Chipotle Autocado), cut worker' hours, or close locations. |
- Dollar(s) menu: McDonald's, Starbucks, Chipotle, and Jack in the Box have said they plan to raise CA menu prices to cover higher labor costs.
- Pick up: Pizza Hut preemptively laid off hundreds of CA delivery drivers in December, pushing customers to third-party apps like DoorDash.
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THE TAKEAWAY |
One state can start a pay-it-forward chain… as long as no one orders 55 burgers. The national minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. But wage boosts are being pushed through at the city, county, and state level. Worker advocates hope that California (the US's largest state economy) will inspire labor reform nationwide, and not just in the fast-grub industry. |
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- Bars: AT&T is investigating a leak that exposed 73M customers' data (including SSNs) on the dark web. Telecom giants' practice of selling customer data to ad firms has expanded security risks.
- Land: United's asking pilots to take unpaid time off starting next month as delayed Boeing jet deliveries leave the airline overstaffed. United paused pilot hiring this spring as it cut flight hours.
- PizzAI: Taco Bell and KFC parent Yum Brands said its "AI-first mentality" will let its biz live más (picture: chatbot cooking tips, AI drive-thrus). Yum sees customer data as its "secret sauce" for personalization.
- PFA$: A judge approved 3M's $12.5B settlement over its role in US drinking water contaminated with "forever chemicals." 3M said it'd stop making the cancer-linked chemicals by the end of next year.
- Word: Microsoft plans to sell its Teams app separately from its Office suite everywhere, after unbundling the products in Europe last year. The move comes as EU regulators hit US tech biggies with antitrust fines.
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US manufacturing grew last month for the first time in 1.5 years |
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- February job openings
- Earnings expected from Paychex, Cal-Maine Foods, and Dave & Buster's
- International Fact-Checking Day
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Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Microsoft, Starbucks, and Yum Brands Advertiser's disclosure: *The executives are also advisory board members, and clients of RAD AI. **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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