Hey Snackers,
Last night was the 2026 Met Gala, where the dress code was “Fashion is Art,” and as usual, celebrities, designers, and stylists went above and beyond to showcase intricately constructed, showstopping garments. But for us, the gala raised a perennial question: how do these fabulously dressed people… handle the call of nature? Luckily for us, The Washington Post has got the answer.Â
Stocks fell from last week’s record highs while war tensions flared up as the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Defense said that it was under attack from Iran. The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all closed lower. Energy was the only sector to close higher as oil prices rose amid escalating war tensions, while materials fared the worst.
GameStop submits offer to buy the much larger eBay for $55.5 billion
Well, CEO Ryan Cohen promised a “genius or totally, totally foolish” acquisition, and now we know what he’s after:
GameStop unveiled a $55.5 billion offer for eBay on Sunday evening, a proposal in which the prospective target’s valuation is more than 4x that of the bidder.
GameStop has already built a 5% economic stake in eBay. The $125-per-share offer marks a 46% premium to the value of the e-commerce platform before the retailer started amassing its position, and about a 20% premium to where eBay closed on Friday.
Cohen told WSJ that there is no one more qualified than him to run eBay, nodding to his time leading online pet retailer Chewy, and that he’s prepared for a proxy battle to win over shareholders if eBay spurns this proposal.
The video game and collectibles retailer’s offer is a 50-50 mix of cash and shares. About one-third of the cash comes from the liquid assets on GameStop’s balance sheet; beyond that, GameStop says it “has received a highly-confident letter from TD Securities for up to $20 billion.”
In January, GameStop announced a new pay package for Cohen that would completely tie his financial interests to those of shareholders as well as the firm’s operational performance via hurdles for market cap and cumulative EBITDA. At their peak, the options Cohen could get if all milestones were achieved would have a value of nearly $35 billion.
However, there are some guardrails that may inhibit Cohen from acquiring his way into a massive windfall, though it’s worth noting that these are less formulaic and more discretionary in nature than similar language in Elon Musk’s pay agreement.
The Takeaway
GameStop finished the day down 10%, and investor Michael Burry, of “The Big Short” fame, sold all his stock.Â
Berkshire Hathaway is the ultimate anti-AI stock
Berkshire Hathaway reported that its Q1 operating profit rose 18% year on year, but that follows a quarter in which the conglomerate’s shares were hammered, its worst period of underperformance compared to the S&P 500 since at least 1985.
On the one hand, it seems like Berkshire should be one of those “heavy assets, low obsolescence” stocks that should avoid being battered by the AI boom, thanks to having such a heavy industrial footprint (including trains, energy, and aerospace manufacturing) in addition to well-known consumer brands.
No matter how powerful AI gets, we’ll still be eating Dairy Queen in our Fruit of the Loom undies. Perhaps even more so, if/when the computers take our jobs.
On the other hand, Berkshire’s bread and butter is insurance. Insurance is an industry often mentioned as being at risk of AI disruption, and Q1 2026 was noteworthy for how much investors were willing to punish perceived AI losers, not just reward its winners.Â
But a close inspection of the fundamentals probably isn’t as useful as a characterization of what this company is, at a more basic level, and how it trades.
Berkshire is a) a very large stock, and b) not an AI stock.Â
For many portfolio managers, being overweight a large-cap AI stock in the Magnificent 7 will effectively mean you have to be underweight one of its peers or another large-cap stock that doesn’t have high exposure to the theme.Â
Oh, and Berkshire’s largest public holding is Apple, a company that is sitting out the AI capex boom!
The Takeaway
Berkshire has also been negatively correlated with Goldman Sachs’ long-short high-beta momentum pair. That is, if volatile stocks that usually go up are beating risky stocks that have been trending down, it probably means that Berkshire’s a loser that day as well.
Among S&P 100 companies, the weekly change in Berkshire’s share price has been the most negatively correlated with Oracle and AMD over the past quarter. To invert the “cleanest dirty shirt” phrase, that publicly traded hyperscaler and AI chip designer are (with respect) considered to be the worst-tailored tuxedos at their respective balls.
BlackBerry surges as software reinvention spurs retail attention
This message is brought to you by the mid-2000s: BlackBerry surged on Monday. But the once iconic phone maker finds itself back in the spotlight through software, not hardware, renewing retail interest and bullish activity in options markets.
Snacks Shots
⚽️ Premier League: Will Arsenal blow it? Markets are giving the team a league-leading 82% chance* of winning the championship after Manchester City only managed to draw 3-3 against Everton. That’s down from an 89% chance exactly a month ago, but up from the 41% chance Arsenal had as recently as two weeks ago.Â
⚽️ English Football League: On the other end of the Premier League standings, a 2-1 win over Aston Villa (and a 3-0 loss for West Ham) means that Tottenham Hotspur’s chances of being relegated out of the Premier League have come down substantially after this weekend; markets appraise just a 25% chance that Tottenham finishes in the bottom three and is exiled to the EFL.Â
*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.
What Else We’re Snackin’
Take-Two scored after a Bank of America note predicted “Grand Theft Auto 6” will launch with an $80 price tagÂ
Bitcoin at last broke $80,000 as optimism over the CLARITY Act boosted the asset
Ford’s April EV sales ticked up from March, but its electric vehicles still account for less than 2% of total units sold so far this year
Norwegian Cruise Line slashed its outlook, citing rising fuel costs and softening demandÂ
Amazon is opening up its supply chain logistics network to everyone — an AWS-style move applied to the physical world
Snack Fact of the Day
The average American worker has $955 saved for retirement.Â
Tuesday
Premarket earnings: PayPal, Pfizer, Cummins, KKR & Co., Marathon Petroleum, and GlobalFoundries
Postmarket earnings: AMD, Arista Networks, Super Micro Computer, Electronic Arts, and Occidental Petroleum