The economy vs. the stock market
Hey Snackers,
In case live oral arguments aren't enough to make you ditch Netflix for the Supreme Court's buzzy new streaming service, maybe the drama will: mystery abounds after a spicy debate on the constitutionality of robocalls was interrupted by a loud toilet flush. Doo diligence on a whole new level.
Stocks soared last week, and the Nasdaq recovered all its 2020 losses despite the worst unemployment report in almost 90 years. More on that below.
On the pod: Tinder's user growth slipped for the 1st time ever. Now it's got to DTR with the corona-conomy — more in our 15-minute Snacks Daily podcast.
Honestly horrifying... The April Jobs Report. A jaw-dropping 20.5M Americans lost their jobs last month, bringing the unemployment rate to 14.7%. Just a year ago it was 3.6%. And we thought the 870K jobs we lost in March was bad...
But Wall Street is popping bottles... The stock market saw the unemployment numbers and barely flinched:
The stock market isn't the economy... And stock prices don't necessarily reflect economic health (as we're seeing today) — they reflect future expectations.
You don't look like your voice.... Even with podcast listening down, Spotify grew its paid subscribers by 31% in the 1st quarter. Now the Swedish audio streamer is coming for your eyes: Spotify is testing video podcasts in its app, starting with two major YouTube stars. Reportedly, the plan is to expand video to many more podcasts — with its 286M paying subscribers, Spotify could snag viewers away from Google-owned YouTube.
Spinning away the "quarantine 15"... Peloton shares hit a record high since the at-home-spin company reported explosive demand. Sales of Peloton's $2.2K spin bikes and $4.3K treadmills were up 66% for the quarter, and paid subscribers nearly 2X'd to 886K. Oh, and 176K people who don't own any Peloton hardware are also paying $19/month for fitness classes on the app. All that extra sweat led to a record-breaking 44M Peloton workouts over just 3 months.
February 2020 seems like forever ago... Back then, Uber expected to be profitable by year's end. Reality: Uber lost $2.9B last quarter, a massive L (even for Uber's famous cash-burns). Even though gross bookings for Uber Eats soared 54%, Uber's ride-hail biz plummeted 80% in April. But around two-thirds of Uber's quarterly loss was caused by its tanking investments in Asian ride services Didi and Grab.
Baby Yoda eating Mickey Mouse churros (alone)... Disney's profit fell 91% this quarter — Its Parks division suffered an un-magical 10% sales dip (parks have been shut since March 16). Disney's cable networks (like ESPN) are suffering on zero live sports, depressed ad sales, and accelerated cord-cutting. As a sour cherry on top of the corona-loss sundae, the release of studio blockbusters like Mulan had to be put on hold.
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Uber, Sony, Disney, and one Bitcoin
ID: 1181603