🪙 Messi meme sitch

…and Netflix earnings, plus the "doping Olympics"

Crypto offside? (Elsa/Getty Images)

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Last Week's Market Moves   Dow Jones 40,001 (+1.59%) S&P 500 5,615 (+0.87%) Nasdaq 18,398 (+0.25%) Bitcoin $57,672 (+4.05%) Dow Jones 40,001 (+1.59%) S&P 500 5,615 (+0.87%) Nasdaq 18,398 (+0.25%) Bitcoin $57,672 (+4.05%)

Hey Snackers, New York City is taking a corporate approach to its trash problem. In 2022, it paid consulting firm McKinsey $1.6M to conduct a study on how the Big Apple can curb its overflow of garbage (pls fix, thx). Last week, it announced a plan for its trash-can revolution. Stocks rose for the week, and on Friday the Dow closed at a record high for the first time since May. Traders are betting on a September rate cut after comments from Fed Chair Powell last week. The June inflation report showed that US consumer prices fell on a monthly basis for the first time in four years. 🧠 One quiz is all it takes: Our Snacks Seven quiz is back to test your knowledge of last week's biggest biz stories. Try the first q: Which non-alcoholic-beverage company reportedly doubled its valuation to $800M? (Check your answer.)

A-Listed

Celebs join the latest crypto craze (again) by promoting memecoins Messy marketing… Between Copa América games, Lionel Messi recently appeared to promote a memecoin to his half-billion Instagram followers. The coin's price 4x'd after Messi's post. The soccer icon's just the latest celeb to endorse memecoins, highly speculative crypto tokens that tend to thrive on online hype and community. Caitlyn Jenner, Jason Derulo, and rapper Rich the Kid have all launched memecoins, which are down about 40 to 90% from their peaks. They and other celebs have said they were lured into promoting coins that Rich the Kid called "pump and dump" schemes. Other stars have denied involvement in memecoins linked to them: Kiss me less: Last week fans poured funds into "Doja" coins after artist Doja Cat's X account posted about them — only for the singer to say she'd been hacked. Hulk Hogan also told his followers to disregard posts that his account is said to have made promoting "Hulk" coins. The new trend on the block… Nearly half a million memecoins were minted on the solana blockchain in May, and celebs hopped on the trend. It's not their first crypto go-round. In 2017, when bitcoin's value 20x'd, public figures like Paris Hilton and Jamie Foxx promoted new coins launching on the blockchain, aka "initial coin offerings." Then, around 2021 (the same year a "Bored Ape" NFT sold for $3.4M) to 2022, Jake Paul, DJ Khaled, and David Dobrik promoted NFTs that turned out to be "rug pulls" (meaning the project's creators vanished after taking investors' money). Pushback: Some view celeb attention as a sign that a crypto trend has already peaked. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said he's "quite unhappy" with celebs' memecoin moves, saying their sole purpose is to make money rather than fund worthy causes. THE TAKEAWAY Risky for many, rewarding for few… Altogether, memecoins' value has fallen 27% in the past month and 41% from this year's peak, as of Friday, according to CoinMarketCap. Lawyers said US regulators could fine celebs for pushing memecoins (in 2022, Kim K paid $1.3M to settle charges related to a coin promo). But ultimately it's their fans who could bear the brunt of the financial fallout. Read this online

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Events

Coming up this week Bingeing "Bridgerton"… with commercial breaks. Netflix is set to report as streaming starts looking more like cable (ads and bundles galore). In April, Netflix doubled its quarterly profit to $2.3B while subscribers grew 16% to 270M. The stream leader has benefited from its password-mooching crackdown and cheaper ad tier. In May, Netflix said the ad tier had 40M users and made up nearly half of all sign-ups in countries where it's offered. FYI: Netflix earns more $$/user from its ad tier than from its premium subs. Wall Street's expecting more growth when Netflix reports. Insurance headaches… UnitedHealth is on deck to report as regulators take a scalpel to the industry. In Q1, the US's largest private health insurer reported higher revenue after 2M more Americans signed up for its coverage. Its Optum pharmacy services biz also had strong growth, but it may be in hot water. The FTC is reportedly gearing up to sue the three biggest pharmacy-benefits managers — UnitedHealth's Optum Rx, CVS's Caremark, and Cigna's Express Scripts — which last year processed 80% of US prescriptions. Last week the FTC said these price-negotiating intermediaries are inflating drug costs.

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Zoom out

Stories we're watching The Olympics on steroids… With the Paris Olympics a week away, its pro-doping copycat is hoping to raise some cash. The Enhanced Games, an Olympics-style event that'll allow FDA-approved performance-enhancing drugs, is in talks to raise $300M. Backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, the competition says it'll give big cash prizes to athletes who break "clean" records (but just one athlete's signed up so far). The games' founder said streamers have offered major sums for the TV rights. He already signed a docu-series deal with Ridley Scott's production co. Home is where the savings are… More young Americans are opting to delay the "roommate who soaks the dishes" stage and live at home for longer. Last year, 71% of 18- to 24-year-olds lived with their parents or other relatives. 28% of those 25 to 34 did the same. Both figures were up sharply from decades past, when Americans got married and bought houses earlier. With record home prices, high rents, and a difficult job market for grads (just 13% of entry-level applicants have found work this year), zillennials are increasingly choosing to stay in the nest.

What else we're Snackin' Massive: AT&T last week said that hackers stole call and text records from nearly all its cellular customers (~100M people) in 2022. This April, AT&T suffered a separate breach that affected 73M former and current customers. Mic: "Armchair Expert" host Dax Shepard reportedly signed an $80M deal with Amazon's Wondery to move his podcast exclusively to the platform from Spotify (which has sealed eye-popping deals with hosts like Joe Rogan). Vault: JPMorgan Chase and Citi topped Q2 estimates after seeing strong double-digit growth in their investment-banking divisions. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo shares sank after its net interest income fell 9%.

Snack Fact Of the Day For the first time, Tesla controls less than half of the US's EV market Read more

This Week Monday: GOP National Convention opens in Milwaukee. MLB Home Run Derby. Earnings expected from Goldman Sachs and BlackRock Tuesday: G7 trade ministers meet. Earnings expected from UnitedHealth Group, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Progressive, Charles Schwab, State Street, PNC Financial Services Group, Interactive Brokers, and JB Hunt Transport Services Wednesday: Federal Reserve "Beige Book" released. World Emoji Day. Earnings expected from Johnson & Johnson, ASML Holding, Elevance Health, Ally Financial, Prologis, Synchrony, US Bancorp, Citizens Financial Group, Northern Trust, United Airlines, Alcoa, Discover Financial Services, and Equifax Thursday: Earnings expected from Netflix, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Cintas, Nokia, DR Horton, Domino's, Abbott, Blackstone, Infosys, Textron, Novartis, Snap-on, KeyCorp, Intuitive Surgical, PPG Industries, and AAR Corp. Friday: WNBA All-Star Weekend begins. Earnings expected from Halliburton, Fifth Third Bancorp, Schlumberger, American Express, SLB, Autoliv, and Travelers Cos. Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and ethereum and shares of: Amazon, Apple, CVS, and Tesla Advertiser's disclosures: * This is a paid advertisement for Miso Robotics Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.misorobotics.com. Start-up investments are speculative and involve a high degree of risk. Those investors who cannot afford to lose their entire investment should not invest in start-ups. Companies seeking startup investment tend to be in earlier stages of development and their business model, products and services may not yet be fully developed, operational or tested in the public marketplace. There is no guarantee that the stated valuation and other terms are accurate or in agreement with the market or industry valuations. Further, investors may receive illiquid and/or restricted stock that may be subject to holding period requirements and/or liquidity concerns. DealMaker Securities LLC, a registered broker-dealer, and member of FINRA | SIPC, located at 105 Maxess Road, Suite 124, Melville, NY 11747, is the Intermediary for this offering and is not an affiliate of or connected with the Issuer. Please check our background on FINRA's BrokerCheck.

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