(Wiktor Szymanowicz/Getty Images) |
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| To apologize for its business-halting outage disaster, CrowdStrike has reportedly offered some corporate partners $10 Uber Eats gift cards. That should cover a side of fries to cry into. Big Tech names fell further into the red yesterday while the Russell 2000 of small-cap stocks gained 1.3%. 😘 Quiz goodbye: Close out the workweek on a high note by testing your biz knowledge with our Snacks Seven quiz. Here's an appetizer: |
- Which fast-casual chain reported growing foot traffic and announced plans to open 315 new locations this year? (Check your answer.)
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The good… Toymakers "Hi, Barbie"… Toymakers are staging a comeback. Hasbro shares jumped yesterday after the Play-Doh and "Transformers" parent topped Q2 estimates and boosted its annual earnings forecast. While total sales fell in the quarter, Hasbro saw a 20% surge in its digital gaming revenue thanks to hit franchises like "Magic: The Gathering" and "Monopoly Go." Hasbro also said it benefited from cost-cutting moves including layoffs. Rival Mattel (Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price) topped expectations after its quarterly profit more than doubled from a year ago (though sales ticked down). While Mattel's doll business has cooled since last year's "Barbie" boost, the toymaker expects adult collectors (#kidults) to fuel demand. The bad… Luxury designers Not Gucci… Luxury giants are losing their shine. Shares of LVMH fell 5% on Wednesday after the Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior parent missed Q2 estimates. Despite "exceptional growth" in Japan, LVMH's profit sank 14% as demand from China (a key luxury market) stayed muted. Gucci and Saint Laurent parent Kering said "ditto" on weak demand from China: sales fell 11% in the first half of the year, and it expects operating profit to be 30% lower in the second half. Cartier owner Richemont watched sales drop 27% in the China region. And while Birkin-bag maker Hermès topped expectations, its store traffic in Asia shrank. The ugly… Carmakers Electro-less… Automakers had a bumpy week. Tesla stock tumbled after the EV icon reported quarterly #s: profit plummeted 45% and revenue from car sales sank 7%. It's the fourth straight quarter that Tesla's had a bummer profit as EV rivals steal roadshare. Ford stock tanked 18% yesterday (its worst day since 2008) after it disappointed on profit as its EV biz lost $1.1B. Still, Ford's overall sales grew in the quarter, driven by momentum for its new F-150 pickups. GM stock had its worst drop since 2022 on Tuesday, even though the Chevy maker reported record Q2 revenue. Investors worried about its growth prospects. |
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AI Investors Back This MarTech Disrupter |
AI-powered content creation is red-hot for investors but only a few have traction. Brands like Hasbro and Skechers are seeing the benefits of RAD AI — while clued-in investors from Google, Meta and Amazon are seeing the potential. Here's why: 📱Award-winning AI: Poised to disrupt the $633B MarTech industry, Fortune 1000 execs partner with RAD AI. ℹ️ Big campaign returns: 3.5X ROI or across various clients, campaigns, and marketing channels for high-profile customers. 💼 Booked revenue is up nearly 3X: The last 12 months has proven that RAD's SaaS-focused model works. It's designed to retain enterprise clients for multi-year commitments — and it does. Backed by the Adobe Fund for Design, RAD has raised $28M+ from 7000+ investors. Accredited investors can get in at this valuation with a 10% share price discount for a limited time — invest in RAD AI here. |
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AI Investors Back This MarTech Disrupter |
AI-powered content creation is red-hot for investors but only a few have traction. Brands like Hasbro and Skechers are seeing the benefits of RAD AI — while clued-in investors from Google, Meta and Amazon are seeing the potential. Here's why: 📱Award-winning AI: Poised to disrupt the $633B MarTech industry, Fortune 1000 execs partner with RAD AI. ℹ️ Big campaign returns: 3.5X ROI or across various clients, campaigns, and marketing channels for high-profile customers. 💼 Booked revenue is up nearly 3X: The last 12 months has proven that RAD's SaaS-focused model works. It's designed to retain enterprise clients for multi-year commitments — and it does. Backed by the Adobe Fund for Design, RAD has raised $28M+ from 7000+ investors. Accredited investors can get in at this valuation with a 10% share price discount for a limited time — invest in RAD AI here. |
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Skimping on shipping… UPS shares fell 12% on Tuesday — its worst day on record — after the parcel titan failed to deliver on investors' expectations. UPS's quarterly profit fell over 30% annually, despite the # of packages it sent rising for the first time in two years. The likely reason for the imbalance: customers are choosing slower, cheaper shipping over expedited, premium options (less "Next Day Air," more "5-7 Day"). At the same time, labor costs to ship those cheaper packages have risen since the Teamsters union negotiated a lucrative new contract for UPS drivers last year. Apparently, UPS's plan to save $1B by cutting thousands of jobs (announced in January) isn't offsetting those pay bumps yet. |
- Anonymous: UPS's CEO said shipping demand from new customers "blew up" last quarter with "much higher" demand than anticipated. She didn't name the new customers, but experts have a pretty good idea.
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$2 tank, two-week shipping… Experts say Shein and Temu have likely flooded UPS with budget shipments. Together, the Chinese ecomm giants send nearly 600K packages to the US each day, a deluge that's already squeezed air-freight capacity. Amazon, UPS's biggest customer, could soon add to the international shipping strain: it's planning to roll out a service this fall that would compete with Shein and Temu by sending low-priced products directly from China to the US. |
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Consequences have consequences… and now industries are getting hit with the second-order effects of booming Chinese ecommerce. That boom was fueled partly by a rule that lets retailers avoid paying certain tariffs for shipments worth less than $800. But US lawmakers are starting to question whether that gives Chinese companies an advantage over domestic ones, and US Customs has started to crack down. |
🪙 Coins… Spot ethereum exchange-traded funds saw $107M in inflows and $1B in trading after their Tuesday debut. That's about 16% of what spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in on their first day of trading in January. 📸 Flashy… Polymarket's trading volume hit an all-time high this month of $260M. The crypto-based prediction market saw bets soar following President Biden's decision not to seek reelection. Meantime, Trump's landed on crypto as a "wedge issue." 💰 Spendy… Former customers of defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox started getting their cash and bitcoin repayments. Traders speculated the transfers could trigger a wave of bitcoin sales and pressure the coin's price. |
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George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images | Cigarettes and asphalt, my friends. Cigarettes and asphalt. Read More. |
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- Query: ChatGPT maker OpenAI announced a prototype for an AI-powered search engine called (you guessed it) SearchGPT. It could pose another threat for Google, which launched an "AI overview" in its search results this year.
- Buckled: The California Supreme Court yesterday upheld Prop 22, a ballot measure allowing Uber, Lyft, and other gig cos to classify the state's 1.4M app-based drivers as contractors rather than employees.
- Bye-brid: A quarter of corporate execs hoped that return-to-office plans would result in voluntary quits, a BambooHR survey suggested. About 80% of companies that implemented RTO said they lost staff as a result.
- OffTune: Universal Music stock plunged 24% yesterday after the record label (which reps Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande) posted disappointing streaming-revenue growth. Physical sales (think: vinyl) outperformed.
- CleanUp: The $25B merger between Kroger and Albertsons (America's largest supermarket chains) was put on ice until a court rules on a lawsuit aiming to block the deal. If approved, the combo-grocer would have 5K US stores.
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| - Earnings expected from Booz Allen Hamilton, Bristol Myers Squibb, 3M, Charter Communications, and Colgate-Palmolive
- Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index
- Paris Olympic Games begin
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Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and ethereum and shares of: Alphabet, Amazon, GM, Tesla, and Uber |
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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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