Hey Snackers,
Has America finally hit “peak truck”? A new report suggests customer tastes are changing after decades of booming truck sales: the number of people who believe their next vehicle will be a truck or SUV fell 3% compared to last year. See our chart of US vehicle production trends.
The S&P 500 closed at a record high after a late-day surge, and small caps outperformed. Energy and materials were the top-performing sector ETFs on the day, with tech, utilities, industrials, and financials also booking strong gains while communication services lagged.
Wall Street loves the Nike deal with Kim K. Will consumers?
The shoemaker Nike has made its first big move of the CEO Elliott Hill era, cutting a deal with Kim Kardashian’s brand of shapeware Skims in a move that immediately got Wall Street excited at the possibilities, sending Nike stock up 6% yesterday.
Hill took the helm at Nike in October after his predecessor departed amid investor concerns over Nike’s stagnant design and R&D. Nike was dealing with disappointment in the brand from consumers about how it managed inventory, and was staring down a situation where the sneakerheads that constituted its core customers and biggest fans were looking to the likes of Adidas. The horror.
The task, therefore, is to get Nike’s appeal up and get its cool back. In times of crisis, Nike cuts deals. When it wants to break into new markets, it signs winners. The most famous such signing was with Michael Jordan, but Nike’s built its excellent reputation by teaming up with people who are known by their own reputation for excellence. This has mostly been athletes. Now it’s Kim Kardashian.
It makes sense:
Kardashian has built her shapewear brand into a $4 billion empire.
Nike wants to grow its appeal in the very markets where Skims is crushing it.
Investors don’t have to love the brand themselves to love the deal for Nike; turning Skims buyers into Nike buyers provoked a lot of excitement off the bat.
The Takeaway
Initial reaction to this deal is straightforwardly positive. It’s not all that different from what Nike’s done a hundred times: find a successful person admired by lots of consumers and make an alliance with them.
The Investing Platform Providing Exposure to Perplexity, Databricks, Epic Games
Ever wish you could invest in some of today’s well-known private companies like Perplexity, Databricks, and Epic Games?2
Enter StartEngine, a leading alternative investment platform that has enabled 1.8 million users3 to invest $1.3 billion into startups (when combined with a competitor acquisition of SeedInvest).4
How’s it going? StartEngine doubled its revenue YoY in the first half of 2024.5
That’s thanks to StartEngine Private, an investing portal offering accredited investors exposure to popular venture-backed private companies like Perplexity, Databricks, Epic Games, and more.2
Launched in November 2023, StartEngine Private jumped from $0 to $14.2 million in new revenue in approximately seven months.6
The even more exciting news? You can become a shareholder in StartEngine itself by joining their current round — with $5+ million raised so far and $80+ million in lifetime funding.7
Argentine president’s meme coin drama is getting weirder
Argentina’s President Javier Milei has been unexpectedly plunged into scandal, as a simple post about a meme coin has kicked off the latest public relations fiasco related to the erratic asset class. Yes, it’s not just Hawk Tuah burning a mountain of goodwill for the sake of a crypto venture — we’ve got economies getting into the mix.
Here’s what went down:
On Friday, Milei posted on X about the $LIBRA crypto project, which he said would “be dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy” and which subsequently shot to a $4.5 billion market cap.
Later that day, the post was deleted, which swiftly kneecapped the asset’s value by 89% just three hours after the initial tweet.
At the close of trading yesterday, the market cap was down to $70 million, leaving many who bought into the coin pretty much bust.
All of that sounds pretty bad, but then it got worse, as an interview on Monday went off the rails as Milei tried to play down his role in what experts describe as a textbook rug pull. Leaked unaired footage from the interview featured the president getting cut off by the interviewer because of potential legal peril.
The Takeaway
It’s kind of tough to draw a lesson from all this, but let’s give it a shot: meme coins are all fun and games until a dashed-off post on X kicks off a firestorm that leads to calls for your impeachment and threatens the stability of your entire government.
Yesterday’s Big Daily Movers
Intel rose on reports that TSMC and Broadcom are looking at acquiring separate parts of the American chipmaker.
Super Micro surges on progress hitching its wagon to Nvidia’s rocket ship.
As the Nvidia-fueled surge continues, WeRide is now worth one-sixteenth of Uber.
Should You Cancel Your Car Insurance?
You could be wasting hundreds every year on overpriced insurance. Check out this new tool from FinanceBuzz to see if you’re overpaying in just a few clicks!
Some drivers are reporting saving up to hundreds per year! Answer a few easy questions to see how much you could be saving.
What Else We're Snackin'
Sacrebleu: Gamestop is weighing selling off its French and Canadian business in favor of more dry powder
Warren Buffett treated himself to a beer
Kentucky Fried Chicken flees Kentucky in favor of Texas
“Nezha 2” just became the highest-grossing animated movie ever
Snack Fact of the Day
Saudi Arabia drew in a record-high 30 million international visitors last year.
Wednesday
January Fed Minutes
January housing starts and building permits
Earnings expected from Carvana, Wingstop, Cinemark, and Etsy
1. Kevin O’Leary is a paid spokesperson for StartEngine. See his 17(b) disclosure, here.
2. The underlying companies held by StartEngine Private Funds LLC, and StartEngine Private LLC (together, “StartEngine Private”) are not participating or involved in the offering. The availability of company information does not indicate that the company has endorsed, supports or otherwise participates with StartEngine Private or any of its affiliates. StartEngine Crowdfunding LLC purchases shares from current and former employees, early investors, and advisors of the companies and sells the shares to StartEngine Private for each offering. When you make an investment in a company on StartEngine Private, you are purchasing an interest in a series of StartEngine Private Funds LLC or StartEngine Private LLC, each a Delaware limited liability company (together the “Series LLCs”), which were created to hold shares of privately held companies. An investor will not directly own or hold shares of the private company but instead will own member interests in a series of the Series LLCs, which either directly or indirectly, will hold shares in the company. There may not be a one-to-one economic parity on the value of the Series LLCs interests and the underlying shares.
3. Count determined by the number of unique email addresses in StartEngine’s database as of 08-27-2024. One individual may have more than one email address.
4. In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest’s users, investors and founders. Go here for more details.
5. This revenue growth has been driven by StartEngine Private, a new product line that offers funds in late stage companies. This product line has driven over $11.5M of the $21.6M of the revenue in the first 6 months of 2024. To understand the impact on margins, see financials.
6. StartEngine Private is a new company launched in November 2023. The new revenues are for approximately 7 months of operations from 11/17/23 to 6/30/24.
7. Lifetime funding is across all previous and current offerings.
8. This is a paid advertisement for StartEngine’s Reg. A+ offering. Please read the most recent offering circular and related risks at invest.startengine.com.
The offering is made available through StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc. No broker-dealer or intermediary was involved in offering.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing in private company securities is not suitable for all investors. This investment is highly speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. There is no guarantee that a market will develop for such securities.