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Hey Snackers,
America’s largest fast-food chain has a brilliant new strategy: make its stores “easier to run” and “more enjoyable to visit.” Also, work on “improving quality.” Genius-level stuff, really. The larger aim behind McDonald’s new global growth strategy, “McDonald’s > NEXT,” is to put the experience of franchisees at the center, which account for over 95% of the chain’s global footprint.
The S&P 500 gained on Thursday while chip stocks dragged down the Nasdaq 100. Information technology was the worst-performing sector, while healthcare was the best.Â
🧠Trivia time… Test yourself on music, movies, and more with our Snacks Seven Quiz. Here’s the first question:Â
Which male solo artist has the most No. 1 hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart?
Broadcom’s underwhelming results are dragging the AI complex and the wider market lower
Not a sentence we’ve been used to writing these last few weeks: artificial intelligence stocks dropped yesterday, dragging major indexes down with them, as Broadcom failed to move up its goalpost for AI chip revenue. The stock was down more than 12% on the day.Â
The semiconductor company reported earnings results and gave full-year guidance that were just a smidge above Wall Street expectations.Â
Perhaps more concerning to investors: on a call with analysts, CEO Hock Tan said the company is keeping its AI semiconductor revenue guidance for its fiscal 2027 at “in excess of $100 billion.”
That seems to have disappointed investors. However, it’s worth noting that Broadcom came into the print absolutely red-hot; the stock popped earlier this week after one of its biggest customers, Alphabet, announced a more than $80 billion equity raise.Â
The results, along with some additional pressure from SK Hynix, especially weighed on retail favorites Micron and Sandisk, with the former dropping over 7%.Â
Broadcom gave back about a month’s worth of gains in early trading before regaining that a bit over the day.
The Takeaway
When you arrive at a record six consecutive closes by way of AI-powered gains, it stands to reason that when AI falters, the wider market does too. The wider AI complex is under some pressure this week. CrowdStrike — which also came into earnings on a tear — has been given the same treatment by traders overnight, despite beating estimates and boosting its guidance.
How Victoria’s Secret finally managed to get its sexy back
The brand — which was spun off from Bath & Body Works (then L Brands) in 2021 and made the shocking decision to ditch its iconic angels the same year — saw comparable-store sales slump for nine straight quarters starting in Q1 2022, but when Hilary Super took the helm as CEO, she changed more than the company’s stock ticker to pull off a remarkable turnaround.
Snacks Shots
🏀 NBA: New York’s win on the road has reset expectations about an NBA Finals that forecasters had thought was San Antonio’s to lose. Markets* price New York as a 53% favorite. The good news for basketball fans is that markets think this series is going to go long, rating a 33% chance it goes to Game 7, with another 37% chance it goes to Game 6.Â
🎵 Spotify: It’s been nearly three weeks since Drake dropped his three surprise albums — “Iceman,” “Habibti,” and “Maid of Honour.” Heading into the month, prediction markets were rating it a near certainty, a 98% chance, that Drake’s sonic onslaught was enough to snag the No. 1 slot on Spotify at least once in June. That’s down to 25% after the top spot has evaded the artist.Â
*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.
What else we're Snackin'
Meta has repeatedly delayed developer access to its new AI model, Muse Spark
“Sentiment for crypto is firmly in the gutter” as the sector sinks, with tokens like solana and dogecoin hitting multiyear lows
GM has reportedly rehired more than 100 former Cruise employees, 18 months after shuttering the robotaxi unit
Snack Fact of the Day
ChatGPT hit 1 billion users nearly twice as fast as TikTok did.
Friday
May jobs report