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More locations are closing |
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Prime deals are for closers. Amazon rolled out a car-sales service that lets users add Hyundais to their cart (FYI: pickup only). Unclear if you can return 'em at a Whole Foods near you. Stocks ticked down yesterday with techies seesawing (Alphabet climbed, Nvidia fell). Today, investors have eyes on the monthly consumer inflation report, which could sway the Fed's interest-rate decision next week. |
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Say it 3x fast… GameStop stock spiked yesterday after the old-school video-game retailer reported that quarterly sales fell 20% from a year ago, coming in at $860M. That's a worse sales drop than the 9% decrease it posted for Q3 a year ago, though it swung to a $17M profit last quarter. Falling revenue has been a trend at the strip-mall retailer as more folks stream or download games off the internet (no need to visit a GameStop for the latest "CoD"). Still: |
- Meow rally: The gaming icon saw its stock briefly surge in June after Keith "Roaring Kitty" Gill's social accounts roared back to life.
- Cryptic: Last week GameStop shares spiked after the meme-coin influencer posted an altered image of a Time magazine cover featuring a blank media player.
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Same game… During a 2020 livestream, Gill gave GameStop "a non-zero chance" of successfully reinventing itself, and that chance appears about as slim now. GameStop stock is up 62% this year, though not much has changed in its biz. The updates: as its stock price rose this year, it raised billions in cash by selling 100M+ shares. It announced a trading-card grading partnership with Collectors' Professional Sports Authenticator division, and brought on Collectors CEO Nat Turner as a board member. Meantime, it's shuttering locations: in September the retailer said it was identifying more stores to close. |
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Prices don't always = performance… GameStop is closing stores, its sales are plunging, and there's no clear turnaround strategy in sight. Still, shares are up over 60% this year — more than double what the S&P 500 has gained. It's even outperforming Apple for the year. |
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And could be even better with index options. Did you know you could settle options trades in cash rather than shares? Cboe® index options trade on a broad market index, like the S&P 500, meaning there are no shares to settle at expiration. Instead, your account is credited or debited in cash at expiration — which means no need to worry about share delivery or early assignment. Options trading, made easy. Learn about cash settlement and all the other benefits of index options. |
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New York Chippy… The US is boosting domestic chip production by giving Micron $6.2B to churn out semiconductors in New York and Idaho. It's one of the biggest awards under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, and it's the second time this year the gov't has given Micron a $6.2B infusion. The Commerce Department said the fresh funds would help boost American production of advanced memory chips (think: AI semiconductors) from less than 2% to 10% by 2035. |
- Spendy: The Biden admin has doled out billions to chip cos including Intel and TSMC (which yesterday reported 34% quarterly sales growth). But incoming POTUS Trump has criticized the CHIPS Act's huge price tag.
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Made in the USA… The ramp-up in Stateside chip funding comes as China and the US increasingly cut each other off from their respective industries. Tensions have been simmering for years but recently escalated: this week China opened an antitrust investigation into Nvidia, whose shares fell after the news. Experts see Beijing's move as tit-for-tat retaliation: last week the US added restrictions on sales of advanced chip tech to China and expanded export curbs to 140 Chinese companies. A day after, China restricted the US's access to rare minerals that are key to producing chips and other tech. |
- Both countries say restrictions are meant to protect national-security interests, saying advanced chip tech could be used for military purposes.
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Domestic matters more… when foreign trade's fraught. Both China and the US have taken measures to make their chip industries more self-sufficient. China's Huawei will reportedly mass-produce its advanced AI chips next year to try to rival Nvidia, despite the US's efforts to cut the country off from leading tech. |
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For pharma, addiction is a touchy subject. But investing in research could have great rewards. Read more. |
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- Police charged Luigi Mangione with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, whose killing unleashed the public's frustration with the health-insurance industry.
- Crypto miner MARA (fka Marathon Digital) scooped up $1.1B worth of bitcoin, following in MicroStrategy's footsteps to bulk buy the crypto.
- Oracle shares slid 9% yesterday after the cloud giant's tepid sales growth disappointed investors who'd previously hyped its AI opportunities.
- Boeing is said to have restarted production of its 737 Max jets following a lengthy strike by 33K workers.
- Consulting titan McKinsey, struggling through an industry downturn, promoted about half as many employees to partnership as it usually does.
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- Consumer price index
- Earnings expected from Macy's and Adobe
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Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares of: Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Nvidia |
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