Hey Snackers,
Lidl has finally solved the age-old problem of grocery shopping sober.
After failing to get a license to sell alcohol at a new Northern Ireland store, the German supermarket found a workaround: open a pub inside the store, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Middle Ale (named after Lidl’s famously bargain-packed middle aisle) has proven so popular that the supermarket now employs bouncers to keep the crowds in check. Police were even called to break up a fight on opening night.
Stocks were mixed on Tuesday as long-term Treasury yields rose to their highest level since 2002.
Micron needs to keep the good times rolling
Expectations are high as Micron Technology, the American chipmaker that’s become central to the artificial intelligence memory boom, prepares to report Q4 earnings results on today after the bell.
Micron and its semiconductor peers have benefited from surging demand from AI hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta combined with industry-wide supply shortages. This tight market environment has given chipmakers strong pricing power, driving sharp sequential price increases.
“We see the setup as constructive with multiple beat-and-raise levers still in play against a memory backdrop that remains structurally tight across both DRAM and NAND,” JP Morgan analysts wrote in a Monday note.
Per analysts polled by FactSet, Micron is expected to report:
$51.3 billion in revenue, including $39.8 billion from DRAM and $12.2 billion from NAND, the two kinds of memory chips Micron sells. That’s above the company’s guidance for revenue, which is between $49 billion to $51 billion.
Adjusted earnings per share of $31.72. The company’s guidance for that metric as of its last report is between $30 and $32.
To put the AI memory boom into perspective: Micron reported $11.3 billion in revenue and $3.03 in adjusted earnings per share in the same quarter last year.
Beyond the quarterly numbers, JPMorgan noted, investors will also be looking for updates on Micron’s push to lock more customers into longer-term supply deals, as well as whether the company could soon put more cash toward buying back its own stock.
The Takeaway:
With 95% of analysts having a “buy” rating on the stock, it's not exactly a hot take to predict that the earnings results will be bullish for the stock. The bigger question is whether Micron can convince investors that the conditions fueling its boom have staying power.
“The debate has very clearly shifted from ‘how good can it get?’ to ‘how long can it stay this good,’” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a Monday note. “That's a debate that can take longer to win, but we do have conviction in durability.”
That’s how much The Monopoly Americana Edition costs. The bespoke version is made 100% in the United States to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence. It was a “colossal headache,” the company told the Wall Street Journal, not to mention it was not profitable and lower quality than it would’ve been to make it in China.
What else we’re Snackin’
Arthur Mensch, the CEO of French artificial intelligence firm Mistrial, told CNBC the debate about AI safety in the US is being used to cover up “negligence” by companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
Asia has been able to secure enough oil amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz because it brought in oil through other sources and routes, and because China has relied on its reserves, the New York Times reports.
The state of Utah bought “active-assailant insurance” two months after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on one of its campuses, the Financial Times reports, and its becoming an increasingly popular product for schools, political campaigns and companies.
Snack Fact of the Day
The shopping cart was invented in 1937 by Oklahoma grocery-store owner Sylvan Goldman, who wanted customers to be able to carry more groceries—and therefore buy more.