Buy now, pay later giant Klarna is partnering with DoorDash so you can finance that food delivery bill, leading to a flood of positively hilarious memes on the subject, with people announcing they're closing big burrito deals and many "Big Short" spoofs. Meanwhile, if you're still among us mere mortals who drive themselves to get fast food, Taco Bell is getting an AI upgrade from Nvidia so you can get your Doritos Locos Tacos faster. What a time to be alive. Stocks opened deep in the red on Friday, but erased nearly all their losses after President Donald Trump said there would be some "flexibility" on tariffs he plans to enact on April 2. Buoyed by a late charge (likely influenced by the triple-witching expiry of stock, index, and ETF options), the S&P 500 managed to close marginally higher and the Nasdaq 100 booked a 0.4% gain, while the Russell 2000 dipped 0.6%. The benchmark US stock index posted its first weekly gain since Valentine's Day. March quizness — take a shot at our Snacks Seven Quiz: |
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The streak continues, with Finland notching yet another year atop the UN-sponsored World Happiness Report. Finland managed to nail an average life evaluation of 7.736 out of 10, up by almost 5% since 2012 and smoking their Nordic rivals in the rankings much like Finland's nationally beloved smoked fish. What's their secret, you ask? Well, the countries that do well when their citizens appraise their own happiness tend to have high levels of human development — long life expectancy, good schools, solid income per capita — so that the baseline experience of their citizens comes in at pretty good, even if the country whose core contribution to the global economy is Nokia and ain't exactly the flywheel of the European economy. What's missing from the World Happiness Report is, naturally, any direct measurement of actual happiness. See, the survey is actually asking about life satisfaction, which gets rebranded for the annual report as "happiness," even though last year Finland was all the way down at No. 25 when it comes to bona fide positive emotions as measured by Gallup. Don't get too cocky: the US also fell 24 places down the charts when comparing our pretty solid World Happiness rank to our mediocre Gallup Global Emotions rank. |
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Want to get those numbers up? One takeaway is, well, less takeaway and more eating with friends, as the report spotted that in 2023, about 1 in 4 Americans reported eating all their meals alone the day before, up 53% from two decades prior, and our ranking needs work. |
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The father-son duo revolutionizing homebuilding |
Home construction has been slow, costly, and inefficient for centuries. To change that, in 2017, Paolo and Galiano Tiramani founded BOXABL, bringing factory-built efficiency to a nearly $5T global home construction industry. Where traditional homes take 7+ months to build, new homes can roll off BOXABL's assembly line nearly every 4 hours. Equipped with plumbing, electrical, and HVAC, they're ready to be delivered and lived in. No wonder they've built 600+ already with 190,000+ more reservations from potential buyers.1 Now, the Tiramanis are preparing to unlock even more growth opportunities with Phase 2 — where modules can be configured into larger townhomes, single-family homes, and apartments. No wonder they recently reserved the Nasdaq ticker "$BXBL."2 Invest in BOXABL for just $0.80/share before its raise closes on an offering platform on 3/29.3 |
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Stories we're obsessed with |
- Music lessons: A record 100 million Americans now pay for a music subscription. Given streaming's dominance, it's hard to imagine a new format coming along and changing how we all listen to our favorite artists. But if history is any indication, streaming may not be the final format for music… but imagining what comes next — maybe some technology that allows a closer artist-to-fan connection — is anyone's guess.
Check out our interactive "Brief History of the Music Industry in America."
- AI "Phase 3" stocks: When it comes to AI, we're all looking for the next Nvidia. Well, a table that Goldman Sachs' equity analysts published last week caught the eye of Sherwood Senior Markets Correspondent Matt Phillips. It shows stocks — including retail favorites like Spotify and Palantir — that analysts characterize as "companies with potential to monetize AI by generating incremental revenues."
See the list.
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The Company Bringing Bitcoin to the Masses™ |
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- Monday: March US services and manufacturing PMI
- Tuesday: March Consumer Confidence, February new home sales. Earnings expected from GameStop
- Wednesday: February durable goods. Earnings expected from Chewy, Petco, and Dollar Tree
- Thursday: Final Q4 gross domestic product. Earnings expected from Walgreens and Lululemon
- Friday: February personal consumption expenditures (the Fed's preferred inflation gauge)
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Advertiser's disclosures:
1 Reservations do not require purchase of a Casita and there is no assurance of how many will result in actual purchases. 2 Boxabl recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($BXBL). A ticker reservation does not guarantee a future NASDAQ listing or indicate that BOXABL meets any of NASDAQ's listing criteria. 3 The minimum investment is $1,000. This is a paid advertisement for the Boxabl Inc. Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular and related risks at www.boxabl.com/invest#circular. 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.
4 Stock markets are volatile and can fluctuate significantly in response to company, industry, political, regulatory, market, or economic developments. Investing in stock involves risks, including the loss of principal. This company is operating in a highly speculative industry where the underlying value/exchanges they process can be quite volatile (value-wise). Before investing, carefully assess whether a particular stock aligns with your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and financial situation. |
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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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