Hey Snackers,
"Our products satisfy a very critical human need, and those needs aren’t going anywhere" — Match Group's CEO on why sales jumped 12% during the pandemic quarter. Apparently in-app video chat on Tinder and Hinge was a hit in the Clorox Swipes dating era.
Stocks jumped on coronavirus vaccine hopes. The techy Nasdaq index briefly broke 11K for the first time ever (and notched a six-day win streak).
Moderna's quarterly sales soar over 400% on COVID vaccine developments
Surprise quintuplets... Moderna smashed sales expectations for its 2nd quarter, bringing in 5X more than it did during last year's Q2. Moderna is the biotech startup that wants to hack COVID with mRNA. Unlike OG vaccines (which use a weakened virus), mRNA ones teach cells to destroy the virus. No mRNA vax has ever been approved for human use, but that hasn't stopped funding from pouring in:
- $955M: What Moderna has received from the US government to support its vaccine development (and secure doses for Americans).
- $66M: Moderna's sales for the quarter, up 407%. Those extra sales came from collaborations and grants related to COVID vaccine development.
- $29B: Moderna's market value, despite never having sold a product. Its COVID vaccine is already in the final phase of testing, making it a vax race leader.
It's the COVID vax premium... The US government has handed out over $6B to companies working on vaccines, while the stocks of these companies have soared. This outpouring of cash and interest isn't surprising, given that: a vaccine would solve the worst global crisis since WWII.
- Novavax stock soared 16% yesterday on promising results from its early-stage vax trial.
- Johnson & Johnson just announced a $1B+ deal to make 100M vaccine doses for the US gov.
Preparation is key... because 8B people can't be vaccinated overnight. Vaccines usually take 6+ years to greenlight. But given the severity of this situation, we could have one approved this year. The surging stock market seems prepared, but it's not clear if governments are. Lawmakers and companies need to work out the thorny issue of how the vaccine is distributed. Organized planning is key to avoiding the resource allocation mess we had at the beginning of the pandemic.
Square sales jump as virus fears accelerate "the death of cash"
When Twitter is the side hustle... Not too shabby. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's (much more valuable) baby Square had a blowout quarter. The mobile payments company's sales soared 64% as people ditched cash. Square makes most of its money from you swiping your card through one of its white tablets (or iPhone plug-in readers) at a craft coffee shop. But...
- Since small businesses shuttered last quarter, Square’s sales from core sellers fell 9%. Square wasn't getting a cut of your carne asada card swipe at the local taco joint.
- The real star of the show was Cash App, Square's peer-to-peer payment app — the amount of money customers stored in the app jumped 86% from the previous quarter.
- Square stock surged 15% on the news and has more than doubled for the year.
Haven't touched a $20 since 2019... Turns out that contactless payment options thrive during a pandemic. Last week, Venmo-owner Paypal reported its strongest quarterly earnings ever. Profit surged 86% on lockdowns and germ-avoidance.
- 70% of people "fear for their health" at the cash register, according to Paypal. That helped it add more users in 3 months than in all of 2016.
- "The death of cash" is accelerating thanks to the rise of digital payments. Credit cards hurt cash, but QR codes and digital transfers could kill it.
The "Death of Cash" has a dark side... There are no truly cashless societies (yet), but some are close — Only 2% of Sweden's transactions are cash and QR code payments are prevalent in China through apps like WeChat Pay. While a more cashless America could lower crime, it could also infringe on privacy and hurt lower-income segments. Going cashless increases the digital divide when 6% of American adults have no bank account and 16% are underbanked.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Electric: Nikola shares plunged after the e-truck startup posted a disappointingly wide loss in its 1st earnings as a public company.
- Lizzo: Investment firm Blackstone just took a (pricey) DNA test — it's buying family tree-tracing service Ancestry.com for $4.7B.
- ZuckTok: Facebook launched its TikTok competitor "Reels" on Instagram US yesterday — it's paying TikTok stars to Reel it in.
- Cloudy: Global spending on cloud services hit a record $35B in the 2nd quarter, surging 30% as companies shifted biz apps online for WFH.
- E-Doc: Digital healthcare companies Teladoc and Livongo are merging in an $18.5B deal — both stocks plunged on the marriage.
- Android: Samsung unveils its 5G Galaxy Note 20 phone at a lowered price tag of $1K (compared to the $1.3K Note 10).
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Thursday
- Weekly jobless claims report
- Earnings expected from Uber, T-Mobile, Royal Caribbean, Penn National Gaming, Plug Power, Diageo, Hilton, and Restaurant Brands
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Square and Match Group
ID: 1294761