Hey Snackers,
Trick-or-treaters looking to sweeten their jackpots went home empty-handed Monday after no one won the Halloween Powerball drawing. But the lotto isn't dead and buried: the estimated prize for today's drawing is $1.2B.
Sometimes good news is bad news: stocks ticked down yesterday after fresh labor data suggested the US job market was still piping hot despite aggro rate hikes. Speaking of: investors have eyes on today’s Fed hike decision (expected to be another 75 basis points).
Old money, new digs… Ralph Lauren’s iconic horsey jockey is now riding a cartoon llama. Ralph Lauren and Epic Games’ Fortnite are teaming up on a physical and digital (#phygital) fashion line. The physical Polo Stadium Collection launches today on RL’s site (think: ’90s-themed polos and $70 hoodies). On Saturday, the digital collection is expected to hit Fortnite with avatar outfits priced about $6. Both collections feature Polo’s first redesigned logo (feat. Fortnite llama).
Pop the collar (in the metaverse)… Ralph Lauren is the latest fashion house to partner with popular online platforms as brands look to capitalize on digi-fashion. Last year Balenciaga became the first major fashion brand to launch a phygital collection with Fortnite (see: $725 hoodies). Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren made its digital fashion debut with “Polo Shops” in Roblox, which let players purchase digi-clothing for their avatars.
Retailers are bridging the “phygital” gap… Virtual-apparel collabs with brands like Disney's Marvel, the NFL, and Nike have already earned tens of millions of dollars for Fortnite. The metaverse allows traditional retailers like Ralph Lauren to reinvent their brands for a fresh audience. The times they are a-changin’: online transactions now make up a quarter of RL’s sales and could reach 33% in the next few years thanks to younger shoppers.
Not everyone’s pumped… Oil profits are booming and President Biden isn’t pleased. This week oil giants Chevron, BP, Saudi Aramco, Marathon Petroleum, and Phillips 66 posted jaw-dropping profits thanks to rising prices. Exxon tripled its quarterly profit to a record. Though gas prices have fallen from summer peaks, they’re still much higher than when Biden took office.
You don’t need a meteorologist… to know which way the windfall blows. Biden’s not the only one monitoring oil profits: lawmakers in Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Spain, and the UK have implemented windfall taxes. But some investors are seeing the glass as half full:
You can’t fill a Camry with stock buybacks… but oil execs insist they’re returning their profits to Americans through stock dividends and share buybacks — and say taxes could cut into investors’ returns. Oil giants Chevron, BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies spent $20B+ on buybacks in the first half of this year and are expected to splurge more in the second half. Their shares have risen an average of 37% this year, while the S&P 500 has fallen 20%.
Authors of this Snacks own: shares of Amazon, CVS, Disney, Exxon, Twitter, Spotify, and Uber
ID: 2569966