🤖 Back to the meta-future

Smokin' meats with Zuck's avatar... Meta (fka Facebook) has been positioning its "Horizon Worlds" as a building block in the metaverse since 2019. The metaverse = a vision for an internet you can be inside of — from VR learning to meditating under (virtual) Mount Everest. Last week, Meta finally opened its virtual world to every adult in the US. You no longer need an invitation to enter, but you do need a $300 Oculus headset.

• In Horizon Worlds, customizable (but legless) avatars play games and socialize in VR. Meta said users have built thousands of worlds in the app since its beta launch last year.
• Not-quite-metaverse: Still, Horizon Worlds’ launch represents a giant step that Meta’s taken to expand VR, which is key to the meta-future.

Back to the future... Instead of an ’80s sports car, you're traveling in a virtual yacht. While the fully fledged metaverse hasn’t arrived, here's how consumers are most likely to engage with it — and how they already are:

• Gaming: The most common meta use case right now. Gaming leaders like Roblox and Fortnite creator Epic see their 2D and 3D digital worlds as constantly evolving meta hubs.
• Working: From Meta's "Horizon Workrooms" to Nvidia's "Omniverse Enterprise" and Microsoft's "Mesh," tech giants are trying to let you work at the office from home (#AvatarColleague).
• Socializing: Apps like AltspaceVR let you hang in VR locales, from comedy clubs to bars. A Marshmello concert in Fortnite attracted 10M people.
• Shopping: From e-Jordans for your avatar to $650K digital yachts and NFT art for your meta-mansion. Some developers have already built meta-malls where you could shop in VR stores.

Crypto goes to Washington… Last week, execs from crypto juggernauts like Coinbase and Circle defended the industry to Congress. Lawmakers — and SEC Chair Gary Gensler — have called for stricter rules in the booming $2T+ crypto market, saying investors and markets are at risk. But the execs highlighted their belief that crypto improves markets by making transactions faster, cheaper, and more accessible. They also said crypto should be governed by crypto-specific regulations, not existing ones used for stocks or other securities. Because lawmakers increasingly disagree over crypto’s future along partisan lines, experts don’t expect big changes soon.

“Financial uncoupling”... This month, the White House announced the US would stage a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing over China’s human-rights abuses. But US-China tension is rising in the financial arena too. DiDi (the “Uber of China”) began delisting from the NYSE two weeks ago under pressure from Chinese regulators. Meanwhile, US regulators finalized rules to forcibly delist foreign companies that don't follow auditing rules. We could see a wave of Chinese companies leaving US markets — which could hurt both American and Chinese investors.

Christmas gifts on New Year's… This holiday season is poised to be another record year of gift-giving, but it hasn’t been so merry for FedEx, which reports Thursday. Last quarter, FedEx’s profits cooled as wage hikes (see: labor shortage) and higher transportation costs added $450M in expenses. Plus, competition is hot: Amazon’s on pace to become the largest US delivery service by early next year. FedEx has already cut its earnings outlook for the year, and it's still TBD how Omicron could affect the rest of the holiday shopping season.

Unlimited breadsticks are back… Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants has majorly rebounded from its pandemic plunge, as hangry Eggplant Parm-pounders hit dining rooms. Carbo-loaded quarterly sales jumped 51% from last year, even topping pre-pandemic levels. Darden’s profit more than 6X’d, as it cut back on marketing and kept its menu simple (no 146-ingredient linguini). Despite a national labor shortage, Darden added 34 new restaurants and is almost back to its pre-Covid staffing levels. Next, Darden serves up earnings on Friday.

• Venti: Starbucks workers in New York voted to form the company’s first-ever union as a national labor movement continues to pick up steam.
• Probe: The SPAC merging with former President Donald Trump's media company is being investigated by federal regulators, as scrutiny over IPO alternatives intensifies.
• Juicy: Over 50 electric power companies plan to build a coast-to-coast network of fast-charging EV stations, which could be the magic pill to cure "range anxiety."

• Rebound: The stock market tends to fall on news of new Covid variants, but rebounds are happening quicker. The S&P 500 climbed back from Delta in seven weeks, and it took less than three to recover from Omicron.
• Billions: Just 12% of billionaires are women, but founders like Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd, 23andMe’s Anne Wojcicki, and Spanx’s Sara Blakely are diversifying the ranks of the billionaires’ club.
• Backup: How one ship delayed the arrival of inventory for more than 100 companies — from tiny shops to Amazon — after getting stuck outside the port of Los Angeles for 54 days.

• Monday: Earnings expected from: Backblaze
• Tuesday: Earnings expected from: BHP Group
• Wednesday: Jerome Powell press conference. November retail sales. Earnings expected from: Toro
• Thursday: Weekly jobless claims. Earnings expected from: Adobe, Accenture, FedEx, General Mills, BlackBerry, and Rite Aid
• Friday: Earnings expected from: Darden Restaurants and Winnebago

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Starbucks, Amazon, Pfizer, Uber, and Microsoft

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