40M Venmo-ers vs. Everybody

Scroll-worthy... Facebook stashed aside $3B to prep for a big government penalty, but shares still hit 9-month highs — 500M people use Facebook Stories daily (aka Facebook's copy of Instagram Stories, which was copied from Snap). And Twitter enjoyed its 6th straight profitable quarter in a row — Its user base isn't growing, but more people are using it every day.

Loyalty programs get VIP treatment... Starbucks rose on word membership in its Rewards topped 17M, and it powers 40% of all transactions. Domino's sales rose 4% as its caloric commitment club passed 20M members. And Chipotle boasted that its 1-month-old loyalty program already has 3M burrito faithful (but then the chain was subpoenaed over 2018 food illness issues).

The cloud is making it rain... Amazon's profits doubled even though its old school ecommerce sales slowed (so it's working to cut free Prime delivery down to one day). It's thanks to Amazon Web Services, which now powers 2/3 of total company profits. Microsoft joined the $1T valuation club as cloud services now make up 1/3 of its revenues (plus, Windows software sales shockingly rose 9%).

Set an intention... Like Lululemon's new 5-year plan to evolve into a full-on lifestyle brand. It's releasing sneakers, more deodorant, and fresh shampoo this year, and expanding travel/work khaki pants to double its men's biz. Then it goes experiential, with a 25K-square-foot Chicago store featuring meditation rooms, juice bars, and karma.

Barbie carries the team... Her sales jumped 7% and Hot Wheels rose 4%. Mattel has survived 2018's play-pocalypse (driven by the Toys 'R' Us bankruptcy), but it's also recalling Fisher-Price sleepers linked to 30 infant deaths.

Classic Tesla combo... First, Elon's Autonomy Investor Day revealed his (aggressive) plan for 1 million robotaxis by 2020. Two days later, Tesla announced last quarter's loss was four times what analysts expected and it's down to just $2.2B in cash.

Worst week of the year of the pig... for Chinese stocks. The Shanghai stock index dropped 6% even though the country's GDP growth beat economists' expectations. One big worry: That economic growth is increasingly driven by government-supported real estate development. It can't go on forever.

Two big thermometers... Construction equipment can be a hefty measurement of the world's economic health — And Caterpillar sales slowed in every region on Earth except North America. Meanwhile, Harley-Davidson's weaknesses reflect trade war drama — Profits fell 27% last quarter for the bike victim of retaliatory tariffs.

Venmo etiquette is debatable... Now Venmo's numbers aren't. PayPal bought Venmo's parent company in 2013 for $800M. Last week, PayPal (finally) revealed Venmo's key info: Payments on the peer-to-peer payment platform jumped 73% to $21B in just the 1st quarter. But the big surprise was that total active digital users is right up there with big banks:

• JPMorgan: 51M
• Venmo: 40M
• Bank of America: 37M
• Wells Fargo: 30M

🍳🚕☕ = $$$... We also learned Venmo is expected to deliver PayPal $300M in revenues this year. So far, it has 4 main fees to make money off your endless friend-payback loop:

1. Instant Transfers: 1% fee if you don't want to wait 48 hours to move that Venmo balance to your bank account.
2. Credit vs Debit: A 3% fee to pay using your credit card instead of debit.
3. Merchant fee: Venmo earns a small piece of the action when you pay Chipotle directly for a burrito bowl using the Venmo app.
4. Interchange fee: It also takes a slice when you swipe its prepaid physical debit card, just like credit card companies do.

• Work: First impressions — The 12 things people decide within 2 minutes of meeting you
• Life: An Out-Of-Office generator for your email (move the toggle around to make it more/less professional)
• Money: How much $$ should actually be in your 401k
• Venture: Entrepreneurs need mentors — Here's what the best mentors do
• Crypto: The "Bitcoin couple" living on the lawless, tax-free island off Thailand
• Do: Spring clean your inbox in 10 ways

• Monday: Japan's markets closed for Golden Week. Earnings from Alphabet, Spotify.
• Tuesday: The Fed's 2-day policy meeting kicks off. Earnings from Apple, General Electric, McDonald's, Mastercard, Pfizer
• Wednesday: Earnings from Molson Coors, Fitbit, Zynga, Square, Estée Lauder
• Thursday: China's manufacturing report card. Earnings from Monster Beverage, Expedia, PG&E, Under Armour, Sotheby's, Shake Shack
• Friday: The big US jobs report for April

Disclosure: An author of this Snacks owns shares of Amazon, Lululemon, and Tesla.