Hey Snackers,
A long-lost painting by renowned Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck that was bought for $600 just sold for $3M — despite being covered in bird poop. Call it a masturd piece.
The techy Nasdaq surged 3% yesterday, led by heavyweights like Meta, which gained 23%. But after the bell, Amazon, Apple, and Google all fell after earnings confirmed the tech slowdown.
Meta shares soar despite the ad sag as investors seize on its “year of efficiency”
Zuck bucks turn up… Meta shares popped 23% on Wednesday after the social giant reported earnings , making yesterday its second-best trading day in nearly a decade. Disillusioned investors were pleasantly surprised by Meta’s quarterly revenue — and its plans to buy back $40B of its own stock. Despite a widespread ad pullback, Meta fared better than feared:
Sales were down 4% from a year earlier, declining for the third straight quarter as its average ad price fell 22%. But Meta had a surprisingly upbeat forecast for this quarter, saying that revenue has a chance of rising from last year.
Profit plunged 55% year over year as expenses ballooned, but was up from the previous quarter (snapping a three-quarter streak of declines).
Daily active users across Meta’s “family of apps” (FB, Insta, WhatsApp, and Messenger) jumped 4% to 2B. Monthly users hit 3.7B (nearly half of all humans).
Reel it in… Ad-reliant companies like Meta, Google, and Snap face many of the same headwinds: a pullback in digital-ad spending, hot competition from TikTok, and the continued fallout of Apple’s ad-targeting privacy change. Snap stock plunged after it disappointed on sales and guidance. But investors were optimistic about Meta’s cost-cutting future:
- Zuck said 2023 is “the year of efficiency” for Meta. It expects to spend less this year, after slashing 11K+ employees in November (it’s also cutting data-center spend).
Cutting down can mean leveling up… Meta used to be synonymous with “growth at all costs,” but its latest earnings call sounds more like “efficiency at all costs.” That could mean focusing less on investments in its underperforming metaverse biz, which lost nearly $14B last year, and lasering in on investments like AI recommendations and TikTok rival Reels, which fueled engagement last quarter.
Impossible Foods lays off staff as fake meat struggles to take a bite of the market
Veggie burger with a side of layoffs… Fake-meat fabricator Impossible Foods said it plans to cut 20% of its employees this year, after axing 6% in October. Publicly traded rival Beyond Meat laid off 20% of its staff last year, and its stock is down 70% over the past year. Alt meat had a juicy moment prepandemic, but demand for plant-based patties has plunged as inflation-stung consumers opt for cheaper eats.
Freezer-burned: Supermarket alt-meat sales fell 14% last year, whereas real-beef sales fell 4%.
Impossible prices: Shoppers may be turning away from plant-based patties because they're typically more expensive than animal meat.
Profits served extra rare… but there's a plant-based bright spot: while overall supermarket alt-meat sales fell, Impossible said its sales at grocery stores were up 50% last year. Plus, Impossible's CEO said 83% of the US has never heard of the company — despite patty partnerships with chains like Burger King and Starbucks — suggesting there’s room to grow. The privately held biz said that almost half its customers are repeat buyers, and 90% of purchases come from meat eaters (hello, flexitarians).
Barriers get higher when spirits get low… With food prices up nearly 10%, it may be harder for shoppers to stomach pricier mock meats — and the barrier to trying out plant-based is higher. Still, the alt-meat market is relatively new, and success may end up tasting like chicken: while overall sales of refrigerated faux meats fell in the second half of last year, sales of faux chicken jumped.
The Crypto Catch-Up…
🤖 Techy… Twitter’s working on a payments feature (think: peer-to-peer transactions). Boss Elon Musk is said to want the system to be fiat first (think: real $$) but a crypto integration could be on the agenda.
🤔 Sus… A court-appointed examiner ripped Celsius in a newly released 689-page report. Revealed: the bankrupt crypto lender self-described internally as a "sinking ship," and said the value of its CEL token should be zero.
🪙 Coins… Bitcoin had its best month since October 2021 and its best January since 2013, jumping 40%. Ethereum's followed suit, climbing almost 40% year to date, as crypto traders keep an eye on the Fed.
What else we’re Snackin’
Stormy: Amazon posted its worst-ever annual loss and its slowest year of growth since going public. The cloud and ecomm boom is cooling, but Amazon’s online ad biz saw 19% quarterly sales growth, outpacing ad giants.
Sour: Apple’s holiday quarter sales fell 5% from last year — its biggest quarterly drop since 2016 — as China’s Covid lockdowns hurt production and fewer people splurged on iPhones. iPads had a moment, though, with sales up 30%.
Pause: Google’s profit and sales fell short of expectations as cooling ad spend hurt the search leader. YouTube’s ad revenue saw a notable decline as binge-watching competition from TikTok heated up.
Vroom: Ferrari drove a record 13K in car deliveries last quarter, as the superrich kept splurging on supercars. Rolls-Royce also sold a record 6K+ cars last year, with the US making up over a quarter of sales.
BLT: Subway dished out record sales for the second year in a row as the footlong icon tries “getting its swagger back.” Thanks to its Subway Series menu revamp, Subway's same-store sales jumped both at home and abroad.
Friday
- Earnings expected from Brookfield Renewable Partners
Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and ethereum and shares: of Apple, Amazon, Google, Snap, Starbucks, and Bitcoin
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