Hey Snackers,
A bear market for the lads? Britain is on track to shed more than one pub a day this year. The UK has lost one-quarter of the pubs it had in the year 2000 (when you were still allowed to smoke in pubs and a British politician was reminiscing about when he’d drink 14 pints in a single day).Â
On Thursday, the S&P 500 set a new closing high with a 0.8% gain, the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.9%, and the Russell 2000 outperformed with a 1.3% advance. Every S&P sector ETF outside of utilities ended positive on the session, with the cyclical sectors of consumer discretionary, industrials, and financials all up in excess of 1%.
🎵 🎞️ Pop (culture) quiz: test your knowledge of movies, music, and other miscellany:Â
What is Netflix’s most-watched film?
Cars that drive themselves had a big day
The federal government is planning to ease up on rules that are currently reining in the widespread adoption and production of autonomous vehicles. The news comes the same day that demand for robotaxis – specifically Tesla’s Robotaxi – was revealed in a major way.Â
First, the demand: Tesla launched its Robotaxi app Wednesday night and already it’s the No. 6 most downloaded app in Apple’s free App Store. It’s also currently the top travel app, ahead of perennially popular Uber and Lyft.
Next, the supply: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday it’s planning to propose three new rules that will make it easier for self-driving car companies to develop their vehicles more cheaply.Â
Those include getting rid of requirements that were mandatory for human drivers, including gear shift sticks, windshield defrosting and defogging systems, and some lighting equipment.
“Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards were written for vehicles with human drivers and need to be updated for autonomous vehicles. Removing these requirements will reduce costs and enhance safety,” NHTSA Chief Counsel Peter Simshauser said in a statement.
Earlier this year NHTSA announced it was loosening other rules around autonomous cars, including exempting them from certain federal safety rules for research and demonstration purposes.
The Takeaway
Nobody ever said this is going to be easy, though. It remains to be seen how comfortable people are riding in a vehicle that doesn’t have windshield wipers, and that seems, to both passengers and other drivers on the road, to be flying blind, even if the onboard software can pierce the fog. And we’re surely not the only ones who remember the “Looney Toons” test a Tesla failed.
Opendoor is crowdsourcing its way to a higher stock price
Shares of meme stock/online real estate company Opendoor Technologies finished the day up 16% after President Shrisha Radhakrishna outlined the launch of a community hub to “provide consistent and transparent updates about Opendoor’s business, leadership, and strategy” as well as source questions from its passionate investor base.
Opendoor has a new strategy: embrace and interact with its retail shareholders, who self-affiliate as being part of the “$OPEN Army” and often share their strong feelings on social media about how the company can do better.
Eric Jackson, head of EMJ Capital and the architect of the rally in the online real estate company, said he met with members of the company earlier this week during a trip to San Francisco at their request.
Board member Adam Bain went on to quote-tweet Jackson’s post, writing, “Grateful for what the retail community has done for @Opendoor and very thankful for @ericjackson’s efforts. The relentless hive mind of ideas and suggestions from him and the OpenArmy are focused from a place of thinking about how to win.”
If there’s a signal in how much traders seem to value the new approach compared to the old leadership, former CEO (and current adviser) Carrie Wheeler has filed notice of her intent to sell 7 million shares (or a little less than half her position) in the company, and it hasn’t even made a dent in the stock price this week.
The Takeaway
Now here’s something of an inversion of your typical corporate wisdom first coined in the late eighties when swashbuckling investors tried to seize major corporations through leveraged buyouts. When the barbarians are at the gate, maybe just let them in and hear them out?
The Best Thing We Read Today
Goldman: If Trump destroys Fed credibility, gold could hit $5,000
A romp to $5,000 would represent a roughly 40% increase from Monday’s New York spot closing price, but the bank says gold could hedge the increased inflation, currency weakness, and poor stock and bond performance typically associated with central banks run by politicians.
See how the “Trump effect” has already boosted gold’s price
Yesterday's Big Daily Movers
Crypto stocks tanked after a report said Nasdaq will require shareholder votes for some digital asset deals
Texas Instruments tumbled after CFO affirmed its loss of sales momentum after a rush of buying to beat tariffs
Gap popped after the retailer said it’s stepping into beauty and accessories
Figma plunged after its first earnings report, as news that some shareholders lockups are set to expire weighed on the stock
What Else We're Snackin'
Will Apple raise its iPhone price for the first time in seven years? Morgan Stanley says yes.
We’re not sure who asked for this, but you can have 10,000 characters in a Threads post now
Switzerland launched “Apertus,” an open-source AI model trained on public data
While Amazon is reportedly testing an agentic AI tool called “Quick Suite”
And OpenAI is working on a “jobs platform”... for people who lose their jobs to AI
Snack Fact Of The Day
Public companies now hold more than 1 million bitcoin.
Today's Events
August jobs report