Hey Snackers,
Because our backs arenât messed up enough from hunching over computers, Apple is reportedly working on adding touch screens to Macs. Steve Jobs once called the idea âergonomically terrible.â
Stocks surged and the techy Nasdaq had its best week since November. Investors were heartened by news that inflation cooled for the sixth straight month in December, with prices notching their largest month-over-month decrease since April 2020.
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The dreaded checkout page⌠Say you find a new online shop for neon sneakers. You might abandon the cool kicks in your cart if youâre too lazy to fill in your credit-card info (or if you donât trust the retailer with delivery). Enter Amazon: itâll widely roll out its âBuy with Primeâ feature to third-party merchants this month.
No longer in its prime⌠The new revenue from Buy with Prime is a welcome addition as Amazon deals with slowing sales growth in its core retail and cloud businesses. The pandemic boom has died down, and it recently made its largest round of layoffs. The companyâs also faced growing regulatory backlash over how it uses customer data to compete with third-party sellers (think: making a cheaper Amazon Basics version of a popular product). Psst: Amazon will still collect data from those who use Buy with Prime.
This could be Amazonâs octopus moment⌠BWP could make Amazon even more ubiquitous than it already is, allowing it to widely spread its retail tentacles beyond its platform. Itâs also a major threat to ecomm payment titans like Shopify and PayPal. Shopify has reportedly told merchants that are trying to install the BWP button that it violates its terms of service. Amazon has the household edge: a recent survey found it to be the most trusted retailer in America.
Like a coming-of-age flick... Netflix is going through changes. Last year, the streamer lost 1.2M subscribers over two quarters and saw its stock drop by half. Now itâs trying to drum up fresh revenue and subs with its cheaper ad-supported tier, which launched in November. Investors hope a turnaround is coming: the stock is up ~90% over the past six months as Netflix bolsters its ad biz and cracks down on password mooching. Efforts might be paying off: analysts expect the streamer to announce strong subscriber growth when it reports on Thursday.
Aisle all-stars⌠The company behind household staples like Tide, Charmin, Crest, and Head & Shoulders shampoo was in the money last year, with price hikes helping Procter & Gamble beat sales and profit expectations. But now higher transportation and materials costs may be taking their toll on P&G's bottom line. What's more, execs expect lofty costs will continue into this year. The Ohio-based company is expected to reveal declines in sales and profits this week.
Non-compete clauses⌠could become non-existent. The Federal Trade Commission proposed a rule that would end legal agreements that keep workers from switching to rival companies after leaving their jobs. From C-suite execs to security guards, nearly 30M US workers are under non-compete agreements, and breaches can lead to pricey fines and lawsuits. Meanwhile, workers who do comply can miss out on higher pay and better working conditions. A ban could boost US wages by nearly $300B/year and help close the racial and gender pay gaps.
Adding insult to injury⌠thereâs more trouble for crypto lenders. Last week the SEC charged Gemini and Genesis with selling unregistered securities through their lending program. The crypto cos had offered returns (aka yield) as high as 8% via Gemini Earn â then it went south. Before it went bankrupt, BlockFi paid $100M after the SEC said its interest-bearing accounts were unregistered securities. Going forward, crypto lenders may be forced to register their products as securities or face the costly consequences.
GPT: Microsoftâs reportedly in talks to invest $10B into OpenAI, the company behind viral genAI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E. It could incorporate the AI tech into its search engine, Bing, or its Office software.
Augment: Apple could (finally) launch its mixed-reality headset this year, which would position it against rivals like Metaâs Quest VR. But the reality of success for pricey face gadgets looks iffy.
CEO: As the USâs fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs, Black women are increasingly leaving corporate roles to launch their own companies â but funding challenges are hampering growth.
Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares: of Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Shopify
ID: 2680611