(Qian Weizhong/Getty Images) |
An LA neighborhood on Tuesday |
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Hershey must be counting on some unprecedented demand for Reese's Cups. The chocolate icon is asking US regulators for permission to buy 90K+ metric tons of cocoa. That's roughly 5K 20-foot containers of beans, and 9x more than the ICE Futures exchange allows. US markets were closed yesterday to honor former President Jimmy Carter. Today, investors have eyes on the monthly jobs report, which could swing the Fed's next interest-rate decision. ⭐ Quizzel Roan: Good luck, babe, on this week's Snacks Seven quiz. Try the first q: |
- Delta said it's giving up its loyalty-program partnership with which company? (Check your answer.)
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Up in flames… For days now, fierce wildfires have raged across the Los Angeles area, leading to at least six deaths and forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. Thousands of acres have burned, along with thousands of structures like homes, businesses, and landmarks. The largest of the fires, which primarily affected the Pacific Palisades, is now the biggest in LA's history. |
- Historic heat: The blaze could be the costliest wildfire in US history, causing an estimated $20B+ in insured losses (or nearly double the cost of the last major blaze).
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Policies in peril… California's no stranger to wildfires, but a rise in global temps has made them more frequent and more severe. As a result, major insurers including State Farm and Nationwide have ditched the Golden State, cutting coverage and canceling home-insurance policies in high-risk areas to avoid paying pricey claims. Between 2019 and 2024, the 90272 ZIP code of the Palisades had 28 of every 100 policy renewals denied. Now, nearly 500K Californians rely on the state's insurer of last resort, FAIR, which lets high-risk homeowners buy fire insurance. |
- Short change: The Palisades (FAIR's fifth-largest policyholder) has nearly $6B in potential claims. But as of last March, the FAIR plan's cash reserve was sitting at only about $700M.
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The stakes are rising… Other high-risk states are under-insured for nearly all major climate disasters including fires, floods, and hurricanes. In Florida last year, Hurricanes Milton and Helene led to an estimated $300B in damages. Experts say there could be a $1T hole in US home insurance from hidden fire and flood losses. Over the past decade, extreme weather events have cost the economy more than $2T and are expected to get worse. |
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The Next Leap in Artificial Intelligence |
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The Next Leap in Artificial Intelligence |
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That's inconvenient… 7-Eleven's parent company is struggling to sling Slurpees: Seven & i Holdings said its quarterly net profit plummeted 89% from last year. Sales in Japan, where the company's based and its shops — or konbinis — are beloved, fared better than its overseas biz. Seven & i maintained its profit forecast for the fiscal year after nearly halving it in October. At that time, Seven & i said it'd shut down 444 underperforming North American stores, citing weak fuel and cigarette sales. 7-Eleven's plunging profit may pump up the pressure to consider outside help. Taquit-no… Seven & i rejected a $39B buyout offer from the Canadian owner of Circle K, Couche-Tard, in September. After Seven & i said the offer "grossly undervalued" its biz, Couche-Tard came back with a $47B bid. But this week, Japan's economy minister said the acquisition of Seven & i by a non-Japanese company is a national-security matter, citing how convenience stores help distribute food during natural disasters. That could make a rival offer from the company's billionaire heir, Junro Ito, more appealing. The Ito family owns 9% of Seven & i, and in November it started trying to pull together $58B to take the company private. |
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Reheating takes a while… 7-Eleven has a turnaround plan that features upping its food game with the fresher options the chain's known for in Japan (like Japanese-style egg sandos and miso ramen). As Sherwood dug into, food's become a bigger piece of convenience-store sales as customers skimp on gas and cigs. A few chains winning the food game: Wawa and Buc-ee's. |
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Gas stations and convenience stores have doubled down on fresh food, and customers are buying in. Read more. |
⚖️ Judgy… The US gov't got the OK to sell 69K bitcoin, valued at $6.5B, linked to the Silk Road. A sale could pressure BTC's price, but it's unclear if it would happen before the inauguration of Trump, who's promised a federal BTC stockpile. 🤔 Sus… Pump.science, the decentralized-science (DeSci) project that lets crypto "degens" bet on meme coins tied to research, is launching a betting platform. Users can wager on the stamina of mice that've been given potentially life-extending drugs. 🌶️ Spicy… Outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler said there's more work to be done regulating crypto, and that investors aren't getting sufficient disclosures from digital-asset cos. The industry has criticized Gensler's SEC, which launched ~100 crypto-related cases. |
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- Disney said that its ad-supported plans on streamers like Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ count 157M users after it hiked prices for commercial-free plans.
- Apple said that it never sold Siri data to advertisers, a week after it settled a related proposed class-action lawsuit for $95M.
- East and Gulf Coast port employers reached a tentative deal with the dockworkers' union, averting a redo of October's 47K-worker strike.
- Shares of Vail Resorts rode the chair lift up Wednesday after the biz said it'd resolved a ski patrollers' strike that had closed slopes.
- Volkswagen delivered 4.8M vehicles last year, down 1.4%, as revved-up competition in China weighed on sales.
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- Employment data and consumer sentiment
- Earnings expected from Constellation Brands, Delta, Tilray, Walgreens, and WD-40
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Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares of: Apple, Delta, and Disney |
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