June 12, 2024

The Appetizer

“She is the closest to perfection that has been attained so far. She’s a complete cow … ”

• The veterinarian of the world’s most expensive cow, which was sold for $4 million at an auction in Brazil.

Now, on to the numbers. Drum roll, please …

• 99%: The decline in Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price displayed erroneously due to a technical glitch on the New York Stock Exchange recently.
• 59%: The reduction in Coldplay’s touring carbon footprint compared to their previous world tour thanks to measures such as using solar panels, kinetic flooring, and exercise bikes to help power venues.
• 32%: The increase in morning commutes of 75 miles or more between a four-month period in 2023-24 and 2019-20 as many workers are now hybrid.
• $108 million: The minimum sign-on bonus Kylian Mbappe is expected to receive over the next five years to sign with Real Madrid, based on multiple media reports.
• $3.7 trillion: The amount Americans earned in investment income in the first quarter of 2024, up roughly $770 billion from four years earlier.

Dig In
Tech Titans

A trillion dollars is almost an unimaginable sum of money. Six publicly traded U.S. companies have a market capitalization of $1 trillion or more. All of them are technology companies: Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms.

Just last week, Nvidia cruised past the $3 trillion market cap mark, becoming the third company (after Microsoft and Apple) ever to reach the milestone. And get this: The last trillion dollars in valuation was achieved in just about three months. To put this in perspective, this is more than the GDP of almost every country in the world besides the U.S., China, Japan, Germany, and India.

This trio commands over 20% of the S&P 500’s $44.4 trillion market value. It’s a first in market history where just one sector dominated the top spots. Flashback to 2008, and it was oil company Exxon Mobil, retail titan Walmart, and the consumer products giant Procter & Gamble making up 10% of the index’s value.

It’s a sign of how the world has become more digital, and these companies offer the products and services that we all use every day.

Weekly Specials

Live sporting events are the only thing people still want to watch live. The NBA is capitalizing on this and nearing a TV deal worth $76 billion – yes, billion with a B! The real winners? The players. Get ready for the first $100 million per year athlete.

You no longer have to carry salt with you. A new battery-powered spoon that makes food taste saltier, without any salt, is now on sale in Japan. There’s four different levels of saltiness to choose from.

“Go big or go home” has always been the Texas way of doing things, so it’s not much of a surprise that a group of individuals and large investment firms has raised $120 million and plans to file registration for the Texas Stock Exchange. They are aiming to facilitate trades in 2025 and host a listing by 2026! Will Lone Star Lane become the new Wall Street?

A New York City couple went magnet fishing in a pond in Queens, a hobby of theirs, but their last outing was very special as they pulled out a safe containing a whopping $100,000! The couple brought it to the police, who deemed it a “finders keepers” situation. Jackpot!

Corporate Lunch

Dog Watch: Costco management reiterated guidance on the $1.50 price of the hot dog combo meal to be maintained indefinitely.

Meta is testing “unskippable” ads on its closable app, Instagram. These ads will force users to watch an advertisement before continuing to consume content, like cable television.

Lego released a 4,383-piece set of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Quasimodo not included.

Spotify is hiking its prices after previously raising prices less than a year ago. First, they discontinue the Car Thing, now this!

~ It’s the sweet one ~ Dr. Pepper is America’s No. 2 soda, beating out Pepsi. It’s easy to do that when you have 23 flavors in one can.

Ticketmaster was hacked, and user data was held ransom for $500,000. That’s like four Taylor Swift tickets! Live Nation confirmed that the data breach could have affected 560 million Ticketmaster customers.

Bath & Body Works expects profit to fall as consumers are spending less on non-essential products. It also could be all of those buy 10, get 10 free deals.

Amazon recently received FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) approval to expand drone delivery for online orders “beyond visual line of sight.” “It’s a bird, no it’s a plane, no, it’s Superman, no, it’s MY PAPER TOWELS!”

Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss.

Indices are unmanaged and are not available for direct investment.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is a capitalization-weighted index that is generally considered representative of the U.S. large capitalization market.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.