Hey there weekday warriors,
Here’s what’s on tap today… Papa John’s is the greasiest girl at the ball, February CPI is stuck in the (more stable) past, and Meta has been cooking up new chips.
Enjoy the next 3 minutes and 40 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.
Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,
Better offers, better share price, Papa John's
Italians: *invent pizza*
Papa John’s: “Anybody want a warm plastic cup of garlic grease with that?”
Americans: “Shut up and take my money.”
Papa John's $PZZA ( ▲ 1.86% ) (gonna be a huge L if that ticker comes off the board) just received a Hot-N-Ready® (sup, Lil’ Caesars) new offer from Irth Capital Management to take the pizza parlor private.
Valuation? $1.5B. (mamma mia…)
That’s right, Irth is willing to drop $47/share on Temu Domino's $DPZ ( ▲ 1.94% ). That’s a premium of 44% to Papa’s last close.
Note to self: don’t play hard to get…
Friendly reminder that Apollo Global offered to buy John's father's pizzeria at $64 per share before withdrawing the bid in November.
Friendlier reminder that even earlier in 2025, Apollo and Irth submitted a joint offer at just over $60.
Papa J’s shares jumped 19.4% on news of the offer.
Anyway, today feels like the perfect time to revisit this unhinged, crust-first masterpiece…
The Rewards Credit Card Made Just for Pet Parents
With vet costs rising 60% over the past decade, pets and pet parents both deserve a little relief.
Nibbles is the first credit card that comes with complimentary pet insurance and 3x rewards at pet stores, pet services, and the vet. Plus, use the card anywhere else Mastercard is accepted for 1x rewards. Protect your pet and your wallet in one move. All those rewards mean more treats, too.
Disclaimer: Nibbles is not a bank. The Nibbles Card is issued by Lead Bank. Fees and T&C apply.
+ “No, no, no, I'm… I'm not done, Nadia. I've, uh… I've got reserves.” - Jim Levenstein President Trump
POTUS is tapping the US’ rainy day fossil fuel fund. He’ll release 172M barrels from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The land of the free and the home of the gas-guzzling SUVs will pony up nearly half of the 400M barrels expected to flood the market from the IEA’s reserves globally.
In theory, this should help lower the cost of oil… and gasoline, because, you know, supply and demand.
+ “This doesn’t represent me.” - February CPI
February CPI (think: pre-war) just dropped. And it’s completely in line with expectations, which feels… irrelevant. CPI increased 0.3% for the month, with the 12-month rate at 2.4%. Oh, and the core variant reflected a 0.2% increase at a 2.5% annual rate.
Something tells me March CPI will not be nearly as kind to us…
+ Custom chips are an LLM’s best friend…
Turns out the Zuckbot isn’t just busy buying up useless AI social networks. Meta $META ( ▼ 3.83% ) has been plotting to build four new, custom chips tailored for AI tasks as part of Zuck’s data center plans.
Facebook’s Meta’s in-house chips, the MTIA 300, 400, 450, and 500 (because, why name things?), are being manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor $TSM ( ▲ 0.48% ) for Meta’s yuge new data centers in Louisiana, Ohio, and Indiana.
+ Are you in good hands?
The government has a new sucker insurance underwriter for ships working their way through the Strait of Hormuz. Chubb $CB ( ▲ 0.12% ) (not to be confused with BlueChew) is biting the bullet as lead underwriter in a $20B plan to get oil tankers and commercial traffic moving through the Strait.
But for real, how has AI not solved this yet?
Your next vacation is already paid for. You just haven’t claimed it yet.
There’s a travel rewards card right now handing out a $250 travel credit + 75,000 bonus miles (worth about $1,000 toward flights and hotels). No points gymnastics. No “one weird trick.” Just real travel value.
This is the card travel nerds won’t shut the f*ck up about. See the card everyone’s using to travel for less…
Spoiler: TWC might be compensated if you click on the links above. Hint, hint.
> Three Ships Hit Near Strait of Hormuz as Iran Tries to Choke Off Oil Traffic (WSJ) // In things that are not great: this.
> Tilman Fertitta in Talks to Buy Caesars for $7 Billion After Topping Bid From Icahn (WSJ) // Few things get the people going quite like a billionaire d*ck measuring contest.
> Musk unveils joint Tesla-xAI project ‘Macrohard,’ eyes software disruption (CNBC) // Please tell me this (🫃) is the logo…
> Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz ditches Seattle for Miami as Dems move to impose ‘millionaires’ tax’ (NY Post) // Many such cases.
> Netflix to Pay as Much as $600 Million for Ben Affleck’s AI Firm (Bloomberg) // J. Lo fumbled the bag bigly.
> “Not a bank.”
Yesterday I asked, “Do you download, install, and use the desktop version of your software stack, or are you a browser software user? (think: Teams, Slack, AI, etc)”
47% of you said, “Desktop apps all the way. I download and install everything.” Color me shocked.
Here’s what some of you guys had to say (and my response in italics)…
Some apps get desktop status, others stay in the browser: “Work? Teams/Outlook app. Slack? Browser because it’s not work related.” Wait, who uses Slack for non-work stuff?
Desktop apps all the way: “Stick with what you’re used to. Before the days of browser software we had to install.” Ok, boomer.
Some apps get desktop status, others stay in the browser: “For no particular reason, some things just feel better from a Desktop app (Teams, Zoom) and some things seem crazy to bring out of a tab (AI)” Truer words have never been spoken.
Desktop apps all the way: “And I still connect a large keyboard and bluetooth mouse to my laptop. I also use my bluetooth mouse when I am on a plane. I will mouse-mog you.” Mouse on an airplane?
Browser version. I don’t download software: “Download and install? Enjoy the Malware, buddy. This isn't 2004. I don't install anything anymore unless I absolutely have to.” Who hurt you?
Here’s today’s question(s)…
What's the unbeatable guilty pleasure pizza? I'm not talking about the kind of pizza you get on a date. I'm talking about the pizza you get on a Friday night to eat in your underwear in lieu of a mental breakdown after a helluva week...
+ US stocks “remained calm Wednesday, even as the price of oil got back to rising.” (Yahoo! Finance)
+ The 10-year yield “moved higher on Wednesday as investors weighed a sticky February inflation report and monitored moves in oil prices in the midst of the latest developments in the U.S.-Iran war.” (CNBC)
+ Oil “prices moved higher on Wednesday, erasing earlier losses, as the conflict in Iran showed no signs of stopping. The largest ever emergency oil reserve release by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to combat spiking prices did little to lift spirits.” (Investing.com)
+ The “smart” money (prediction markets) thinks that One Battle After Another is in the top spot for a Best Picture Oscar. (Polymarket)
⏪ Yesterday…
+ Serve Robotics, TSS, Campbell's, and OppFi reported before the bell
+ UiPath and Bumble reported after the bell
+ OPEC released its monthly oil market report
+ The Consumer Price Index report for February dropped
⏩ Today we’re keeping an eye on…
+ Dollar General, Dick's, Li Auto, and Futu Holdings report before the opening bell
+ Adobe, Rubrik, SentinelOne, Ulta Beauty, Lennar, Surf Air Mobility, and Wheaton Precious Metals report after hours
+ Lucid Group will host an Investor Day… and I’m just glad to hear they still exist
+ The SXSW Conference gets underway in Austin, Texas
+ The February Producer Price Index report will be released
Oh, and one more thing…
What did you think about today's newsletter?
Sent from my Amazon Fire Phone. Please excuse any mistakes and typos.
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