Tiger Woods' indoor-golf league rolled out last night, on a bet that fans want to watch their favorite players rack up screen time. Golfers tee off into a massive screen displaying a simulated fairway. Can we get some fores in the chat? The techy Nasdaq dropped nearly 2% yesterday as strong econ data had investors questioning future rate cuts. There were 8.1M open jobs in November, the highest level since May. Fewer than 3.1M Americans quit their jobs that month, suggesting that the Big Stay is sticking around. |
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Pizza slice, french fry… repeat. Park City Mountain skiers have been stuck on the bunny slopes after owner Vail Resorts kept two-thirds of the Utah resort's trails closed, including nearly all its most advanced runs. More than 200 Park City safety patrollers have been on strike for more than a week, causing a staffing crisis at America's largest ski resort during the busy holiday season. Park City's ski patrollers' union aimed to close negotiations with Vail Resorts before the ski season started, but the $7B company rejected workers' pay-bump proposal, saying its wage hikes have outpaced inflation. |
- Après-strike: Skiers are going viral by sharing pics of long lift lines and complaining about their ruined New Year's vacay.
- Snowblow up: Some posters blamed striking workers for their bad days on the mountain, while others supported the union and put the onus on Vail Resorts.
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Patagonia vests galore… Critics are using the strike to talk about how Vail Resorts' private-equity past led it to dominate America's skiing scene. Back when PE firm Apollo Global owned Vail Resorts in the '90s, the ski staple started gobbling up smaller slopes and grew from owning 4 resorts in 1997 to 42 today. It's now estimated to be the US's biggest ski-resort operator. Vail and rival Alterra control more than half of the US's ski-resort market. Much of their revenue comes from lift tickets that cost ~$300 on peak days and their $1K+ multi-mountain season passes (Vail's Epic Pass and Alterra's Ikon Pass). |
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Strikes can be a slippery slope… because they can draw attention to other parts of a company's biz. Vail Resorts is in the middle of a social-media storm that's grown to cover much more than the strike. It's now a larger conversation about prohibitive costs that critics say exclude casual skiers from the sport. |
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$40 billion. That's how much Facebook makes off American users' data annually. And that's just one company. Almost all of today's tech giants profit from their users' data — no wonder data has been called the new oil. But Mode Mobile is turning the digital oil or data boom on its head, creating an opportunity for investors. Mode's software turns smartphones into passive income generators, paying users for their data. And by helping users earn and save $325M+, Mode has seen 3-year revenue growth of 32,481%. This ranked them the #1 software company1 on Deloitte's 2023 fastest-growing companies list. And Mode's not stopping there, having recently been granted their stock ticker $MODE by the Nasdaq and securing partnerships with Walmart and Best Buy.2 Don't miss your chance to tap into the data boom. Become a pre-IPO2 Mode shareholder and earn up to 100% bonus shares3 today.4 |
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$40 billion. That's how much Facebook makes off American users' data annually. And that's just one company. Almost all of today's tech giants profit from their users' data — no wonder data has been called the new oil. But Mode Mobile is turning the digital oil or data boom on its head, creating an opportunity for investors. Mode's software turns smartphones into passive income generators, paying users for their data. And by helping users earn and save $325M+, Mode has seen 3-year revenue growth of 32,481%. This ranked them the #1 software company1 on Deloitte's 2023 fastest-growing companies list. And Mode's not stopping there, having recently been granted their stock ticker $MODE by the Nasdaq and securing partnerships with Walmart and Best Buy.2 Don't miss your chance to tap into the data boom. Become a pre-IPO2 Mode shareholder and earn up to 100% bonus shares3 today.4 |
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Hasta la vista… Some of crypto's top regulators are bidding adieu ahead of this month's inauguration of pro-crypto President-elect Trump. On Monday, Fed Vice Chair Michael Barr said he was peacing out, and yesterday CFTC head Rostin Behnam announced plans to resign. Behnam had sought to lock in the CFTC's role as bitcoin's top regulator and give it oversight of crypto exchanges, while Barr had advocated for guardrails. Industry advocates called Barr's exit a "huge win." |
- Trend setter: Behnam and Barr are taking a page from SEC boss (and, to many, crypto-industry buzzkill) Gary Gensler, who said he'd step down this month.
- Follow the leader: SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga, who argued that lots of cryptocurrencies were likely securities, is also resigning.
- Price party: Bitcoin climbed back past its $100K milestone on Monday, before giving up ground yesterday.
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Big plans… As the old guard waves goodbye, a new class of crypto regulators that includes incoming crypto-friendly SEC Chair Paul Atkins is champing at the bit. Meantime, advocacy groups like the Coinbase- and Kraken-backed Stand with Crypto along with the Blockchain Association have policy wish lists ready to go. Near the top: stablecoin legislation, access to banking services, an executive order to create a bitcoin stockpile, regulatory clarity, and the creation of a crypto council. FYI: the industry spent $133M on last year's US election. |
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Victory comes with risks… Crypto celebrated Trump's reelection as a leap toward the mainstream-ization of digital assets. But it doesn't mean everything in Crypto Land is suddenly peachy. With some of crypto's top cops handing in their badges, analysts and regulators say the scandal-rocked industry (ahem, FTX) could run the risk of going off the rails again. |
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A look back at last year's fundamentals doesn't make this year look so hot. Read more. |
Getty stock spiked 24% yesterday after news that it agreed to merge with rival Shutterstock to create an image-licensing behemoth worth $3.7B. The photo stars said Getty shareholders would own nearly 55% of the merged company. Moderna shares rose 12% yesterday after the first bird-flu death was reported in the US on Monday. The biotech giant's working on a vaccine for the H5N1 bird flu, which the CDC said had 66 confirmed human cases in the States. Shares of Serve Robotics, which makes autonomous sidewalk delivery bots, dropped 19% yesterday after it announced an $80M share offering. The Nvidia-backed startup has plans to unleash 2,000 robots in partnership with Uber Eats this year. |
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The Smartphone Story Isn't Over Yet… |
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The Smartphone Story Isn't Over Yet… |
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- OpenAI competitor Anthropic is looking to raise $2B in its latest funding round, which would value it at $60B.
- Sony said it's developing movie versions of PlayStation series "Helldivers" and "Horizon," adding to an already beefy list of screen adaptations.
- Meta, mirroring X, is replacing its US fact-checkers with community notes and moving its moderation teams from California to Texas.
- The US Defense Secretary added Tencent, China's most valuable corp, to its list of "Chinese military companies" that Pentagon contractors should avoid.
- Panera CEO José Dueñas stepped down after less than two years at the helm of the struggling soup-and-sandwich chain.
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- ADP employment data and consumer credit
- Fed's December meeting minutes released
- Earnings expected from Albertsons and PriceSmart
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Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares of: Nvidia, Moderna, Sony, and Uber |
Advertiser's disclosures: 1 The Deloitte rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period. 2 Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur. 3 A minimum investment of $1,950 is required to receive bonus shares. 100% bonus shares are offered on investments of $9,950+. 4 Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile's Regulation A+ Offering. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing in private company securities is not suitable for all investors because it is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. It should only be considered a long-term investment. You must be prepared to withstand a total loss of your investment. Private company securities are also highly illiquid, and there is no guarantee that a market will develop for such securities. 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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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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