Today, it feels like we’re breaking down a headline from 2021… AMC is capitalizing on the latest meme stock movement. Plus, a huge shakeup at OpenAI.

Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 21 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

PS, I finally got through all your suggestions for improving TWC. You’ll start to see some tweaks and new stuff rolling out in the coming weeks, starting with some changes to the markets section. If you have anything else, reply directly to this email.

+ US stocks “rose Tuesday following the release of fresh U.S. economic data, while investors waited for another key inflation report.” (CNBC)

+ The 10-year Treasury yield “ticked lower on Tuesday as traders weighed a wholesale inflation report that came in above expectations." (CNBC)

+ Oil “settled lower Tuesday, as signs that inflation remains stubbornly high put a damper on rate cut expectations just as focus shifts to fresh U.S. supply data.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin “fell slightly on Tuesday, staying squarely within a trading range established over the past two months as focus remained squarely on U.S. inflation data for more cues on interest rates.” (Investing.com)

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) AMC +30.9% 2) GameStop +59.8% 3) BlackBerry +11.9%

The market moves you need to know about…

+ Oracle jumped 3.8% following a report that the company has inked a $10B cloud computing deal with Elon’s xAI.

– Paramount tumbled 5.2% after rumors began swirling that Sony is rethinking its $26B bid. Sony is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.

+ SunPower got the meme stock treatment too. Shares leveled up 59.6% yesterday along with a bunch of other highly shorted stonks.

Start building the statue now.

It’s only May and the search for the TIME Person of the Year is already over. Adam Aron put on a clinic on Monday, capitalizing on the renewed meme stock fervor sparked by Roaring Kitty’s return to the internet.

Adam and AMC (+30.9%) sold $250M of AMC stock on Monday. Not the weird APE shares, either. The sale had been announced as a $250M at-the-market offering back in March. But like a maestro of meme stocks, Adam pulled the trigger when it was a whole lot more palatable to current shareholders and prospective buyers.

And unlike most things at AMC over the past three years, it received rave reviews from investors. Shares proceeded to jump 31% a day after mooning 78%. Keep in mind, that’s despite current shareholders being diluted.

Now what?

Well, hopefully, the board can stop Adam from investing the proceeds of the equity sale in something completely reckless, like, say, a gold mine…

In all likelihood, AMC will look to pay down its crippling debt load, which stands at $4.6B. And maybe, just maybe, AMC will live to fight another day…

Meanwhile, at GameStop…

GameStop had another yuge day thanks to Roaring Kitty’s tweet storm, adding a 60% gain to Monday’s parabolic rise.

But Ryan Cohen-led company has yet to take advantage of all the dumb-money crayon eaters gobbling up shares. Read: it hasn’t sold any new stock (yet).

GameStop famously failed to take advantage of its stock run-up in 2021. And I cannot imagine investors will be happy to see history repeat itself.

Perhaps they decided not to because Jim Cramer said it makes too much sense not to.

+ Probably the only thing surprising about Ilya Sutskever leaving OpenAI is that it took this long. The Fredo Corleone to Sam Altman’s Michael was one of the ringleaders of the November OpenAI coup.

Ilya, OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist, was a member of the board that voted to oust Sam Altman. You might recall that Sam was indeed fired… but reclaimed his rightful place on the throne after pretty much the entire company threatened to resign.

Ilya and Sam have reportedly butted heads about AI ethics. Ilya was more cautious, whereas Sam reportedly liked to move fast and break things.

+ We are officially in the worst part of the AI wars…

Just a bunch of nerds trying to one-up each other with what are probably pretty profound leaps… that seem pretty missionary to the untrained eye.

A day after OpenAI launched ChatGPT-4o, Google (+0.6%) announced Gemini 1.5 Flash. Google claims it’s the lightest and most efficient intelligence model ever… which I’m pretty sure is exactly what OpenAI said on Monday.

Google said it plans to “reimagine” search with AI overviews, that will provide summary answers. This is really cool… until you realize Perplexity has been doing this for years.

Google also “unveiled” some use cases for Gmail, like “summarize this email”… and I swear to god if I find out any of you are doing this with The Water Coolest…

Arguably the most interesting thing to come out of the I/O conference was the AI-powered “AI” mention counter. Congratulations if you have over 119.5.

+ Imagine walking away from the role that is a feeder program for CEO of Amazon to “spend more time with your family”…

Something smells fishy about the departure of AWS Head Adam Selipsky. Especially when you consider his predecessor, Andy Jassy, is currently Amazon’s (+0.2%) CEO.

There was some succession drama when Andy ascended the throne. Speculation was that Matt Garman would get the nod. Instead, Selipsky was called up. Fun fact: Garman will take over from Selipsky.

Amazon Web Services is still a cash cow. But during Selpisky’s tenure, its breakneck revenue growth has slowed as Microsoft’s Azure gobbles up market share.

+ Only fitting that J-Poww went to Amsterdam to talk about inflation being a little too high for his liking.

During a meeting of the Foreign Banker’s Association, the Fed Chair said “We did not expect this to be a smooth road. But these [inflation readings] were higher than I think anybody expected.” To which everyone replied… duh.

On the bright side, Jay said there are no plans to hike rates. But holding rates steady for a while is certainly on the table.

+ Thanks, I hate it. Comcast (UNCH) is launching a new streaming bundle for its internet providers that will include access to Peacock (obviously), Netflix, and Apple TV+. And the best name they could come up with is StreamSaver…

+ How To Survive a Toxic Workplace (Read)

+ Here’s how much housing prices have skyrocketed over the last 50 years (Read)

+ BTW, if you want more real estate news & insights, check out The Pocket List. It’s a brand-new newsletter I’ve been working on. It’ll keep you up to date on the industry and help you make more money. Check out last week’s newsletter and subscribe for free with one click (Read & subscribe)

Yesterday, we were keeping an eye on earnings reports from Home Depot and Alibaba. J-Poww’s talk, producer price index data, and Google’s I/O conference were also on the docket.

+ Home Depot (-0.1%) missed on the top line thanks to fewer people channeling their inner Chip and Joanna. Still, it kept its full-year guidance intact.

+ The slowdown in China is taking a toll on Alibaba (-6.0%). BABA got rekt after the company reported an 86% drop in profit in its most recent quarter.

+ The core Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.5%… well above the estimated 0.2% in another sign that inflation just won’t quit.

Here's what we’re keeping an eye on today...

+ Monday.com reports before the bell

+ Cisco and Grab earnings drop after the close

+ Consumer Price Index data drops at 8:30 AM EST

+ Monthly retail sales data drops at 8:30 as well

+ Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari takes part in a fireside chat

Yesterday, I asked, “Are you as excited as I am about another meme stonk mania?”

51.3% of you are NOT excited about meme stocks making a comeback.

Here’s today’s question…

You hate to see it: more than 100 Red Lobsters are closing across the country as bankruptcy looms. So…

Before you go…

New alternative data just dropped (Meme)

Oh, and…

Does this look like the face of a guy you should take financial advice from?

No, it’s the face of an individual who is financially irresponsible/dumb enough to be talked into spending money on a family photo shoot that he could have just done with his iPhone. So, act accordingly...

This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter is an investment recommendation. All content is created for entertainment, educational, or informational purposes only. Do your own research, or do yourself a favor and hire a professional