(Mark Ralston/Getty Images) |
"Call of Duty" could be next |
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National rat summit: experts will gather in Gotham this fall to brainstorm how to tackle the city's rampant rodent problem. Just send them to work in Parisian restaurants? 40K, we hardly knew ye: yesterday the Dow backed slightly off its milestone record. Today investors will be watching retail earnings from Lowe's, Urban Outfitters, and Macy's to get a sense of consumer spending. Nvidia stock rose ahead of its earnings tomorrow. |
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Leveling up Game Pass… The $30B "Call of Duty" franchise might see its sales numbers shrink in coming installments, and not because players are tired of war games. Microsoft will be releasing the series' next entry on its Game Pass subscription service for Xbox and PC players, The Wall Street Journal reported. Instead of forking out $70 for CoD, gamers may be able to access the game (and 100+ others) for between $10 and $17 a month (barring price hikes). Microsoft sealed its $70B purchase of Activision Blizzard last year, and this CoD change would be a big bet to boost subs. |
- Math not mathing: Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick testified last year that it didn't make financial sense to put CoD on subscription services like Game Pass.
- Cracked: New CoD entries are released each year, selling ~25M copies each. With its current 34M Game Pass subscribers, it would take Microsoft three months to match the $1B "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II" made in its opening week.
- Expectation vs. reality: Microsoft aims to hit 100M Game Pass subscribers by the end of the decade, but its 28% growth rate in 2022 was far below its 73% target. Analysts estimate growth slowed to 13% last year.
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The console woes… Microsoft hasn't had the best time with its latest console generation. It loses about $200 on every Xbox sold, and last year the seven-year-old Nintendo Switch sold twice as many units as the newest Xbox. Sony's PlayStation 5 is estimated to be outselling the latest Xboxes by 5x. But Sony isn't at the level it wants to be either: the PS5 just missed a trimmed-down annual sales target. |
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Growth requires thinking outside the box… Struggling to invigorate console sales, Microsoft and Sony have turned to subscriptions, microtransactions, paid downloadable content, layoffs, and pricey add-on hardware like VR. Microsoft might think it's worth losing some CoD revenue if it means boosting monthly subs. |
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Personalize Your Portfolio |
Investing these days can seem daunting and many people feel overwhelmed by all the options available to them. That's why Nasdaq built the Investor Education Suite to demystify these tools so you can unlock value in your trading strategies. An individual investment approach… Much like your weekly grocery list, Strategically Managed Accounts, or SMAs, bring a personal touch to investing that allows you to curate the perfect "securities shopping basket" that meets your unique financial goals and preferences. Seek to Allocate. Discover if SMAs are right for you. |
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Inflation who?… Yesterday Target said it would reduce prices on 5K+ items, from Clorox wipes and Prime energy drinks to private-label milk and diapers. Unlike its grocery-heavy rival Walmart, most of Target's revenue comes from discretionary categories like beauty, electronics, and home decor. But as inflation eats into the budget of Target's key middle-class customers, the retailer is feeling the strain. |
- Rollback: Last year, Target's annual sales fell for the first time since 2016 as customers cut back on nonessentials like new bedding, air fryers, and flat-screen TVs. FYI: Target reports quarterly #s tomorrow.
- Rollout: Target appears to be one of the first major retailers to widely reverse price hikes that have pushed shoppers to their limit.
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Shift to thrift… US consumers have stomached higher prices for years as inflation has stayed sticky. Consumer prices are still up 21% since December 2019, and Americans are hitting a wall: McDonald's, Starbucks, Kraft Heinz, and Home Depot disappointed in Q1 as folks cut back. Over half of US consumers across nearly every income level say they're slashing nonessential spending because of high grocery costs (grocery prices have outpaced inflation over the past four years). In January, European grocery chain Carrefour said it was pulling Pepsi products from many of its shelves after the Lay's and Lipton parent hiked prices for seven straight quarters. |
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We may've hit "peak price hike"… As savings dwindle, Americans are getting a lot pickier about purchases. Some businesses are taking note: last week McD's said it was planning to step up deals to counter its slowing sales. In February, Coke said consumers should see more "normalized pricing levels" this year after the company's several price bumps. |
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- UnMute: Zoom raised its annual forecast after reporting solid 3% year-over-year revenue growth. The video-conference icon's pushing AI integrations as it rides the hybrid-work wave.
- GLP: Hims & Hers stock soared nearly 30% after the telehealth co said it'll offer injectable weight-loss drugs, following similar moves from WeightWatchers and Noom. Companies want to capitalize on the ballooning market.
- ExitAI: OpenAI tried to reassure the public after several top execs (including cofounder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever) left the company. CEO Sam Altman denied that OpenAI was irresponsibly rushing releases.
- Faketoshi: A UK judge said that Craig Wright lied and forged documents to support his (disputed) claim that he's the inventor of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright had sued BTC developers to try to gain control over the crypto.
- Cruise: Ryanair said that its revenue was up 25% on the year and that it notched a record annual profit. The European budget airline saw its passenger #s pump past prepandemic levels, helping it overcome rising fuel costs.
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- World Meditation Day
- International Tea Day
- Earnings expected from Lowe's, Macy's, AutoZone, and Urban Outfitters
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Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares of: Kraft Heinz, Microsoft, Nvidia, Starbucks, and Walmart |
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