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Hey there weekday warrior,
McDonald’s just went all “Bird flu? Never heard of her.”
Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 21 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.
Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,
McFlex
McDonald’s (+1.0%) just flexed on every US breakfast chain (sup, Denny’s). The home of the broken McFlurry machine (and the employer of former NFT millionaires) announced that it would not impose any surcharges on egg sales in the US. For now…
With chains like Denny’s (-3.8%) and Waffle House baking in extra fees to compensate for soaring egg prices, Mickey D’s is pulling a legendary marketing stunt that is giving major Costco (+1.9%) hot dog combo/Arizona Iced Tea vibez.
The restaurant that gave us the Grimace Shake (and E. Coli) is doubling down on siphoning as much market share from its AM fast food competitors as possible…
Mark your calendars now for National Egg McMuffin Day on March 2. Gluttons can enjoy $1 Egg McMuffins… but only til 10:30 AM (or 11 AM in some locations). And while supplies last. At participating franchises. And don’t even think this is valid with any other offer.
The Golden Arches have been on a breakfast PR tear lately. Yesterday marked the NYC-area launch of the collab between two diabetes breakfast titans. Krispy Kreme (-21.9%) premiered donut sales at McDonald’s locations in NYC. Customers can pick up their discount egg McMuffins with a side of fried, glazed goodness (Novo Nordisk investors just went from six to midnight). KK has already launched McDonuts in several Midwest metros (checks out…).
Speaking of Krispy Kreme…
The purveyors of Happiness Through Donuts™ offered up some Sadness Through Guidance™ yesterday. Shares got hard-boiled on weak sales and profit guidance that missed expectations. The donut shop that lives rent-free in Tim Horton’s brain blamed an IT glitch that impacted online ordering in December. It has since turned its computer off and back on again.
Zillow's Co-Founder Wishes They Did This Before The IPO
Spencer Rascoff co-founded Zillow, scaling it into a $16b real estate giant.
But everyday investors couldn’t invest until after the IPO, missing early gains.
"I wish we had done a round accessible to retail investors prior to Zillow's IPO," Spencer said.
Now he’s doing just that. Spencer has teamed up with another Zillow exec to launch Pacaso. Pacaso’s co-ownership marketplace is disrupting the $1.3t vacation home market. And unlike Zillow, you can invest in Pacaso as a private company.
With $100m+ in gross profits and rapid international expansion, Pacaso is scaling fast. Investors like SoftBank, Maveron, and more are already on board. Join them as a Pacaso shareholder.
Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. There’s no guarantee that Pacaso will file for an IPO.
The Consumer Confidence Index just posted its biggest drop since August of 2021. And it’s probably time to start freaking out (if you weren’t already).
To put in perspective just how bad it was, CCI came in at 98.3. Expectations were 102.3. Turns out, Americans don’t love the idea of having to turn tricks behind a dumpster at Krispy Kreme to afford a Grand Slam at Denny’s.
Elsewhere in the report, 12-month inflation expectations jumped to 6% (from 5.2% last month), and the survey saw a sharp increase in mentions of “trade” and “tariff” (spoiler: the negative kind of mentions).
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse… the Expectations Index dropped 9.3 points to 72.9, a level that signals ‘recession’ even to economists who don’t like the R-word.
+ Do something, @jack.
Bitcoin got demolished Tuesday, dropping below $90k for the first time since November. Satoshi’s gift to the world is 20% off its ATH (right around Donny Crypto’s inauguration day). The most recent slump is being chalked up to a broader selloff in riskier assets. And the fact that there’s been zero progress on that Bitcoin strategic reserve we were promised.
Meanwhile, professional orange pill influencer Michael Saylor is down bad (and probably BTFD). The company formerly known as MicroStrategy (-11.4%) has seen its shares drop 50% since the November bubble run-up. Strategy still trades at a premium to the value of its BTC holdings, but the gap is shrinking faster than the SEC’s pending crypto caseload.
+ Make Tesla’s market cap great again.
Tesla (-8.3%) shareholders wept Tuesday as the EV carmaker’s market cap dropped below the $1T mark. That erases all gains since the November election pump. TSLA is down 20% on the year so far, and Elon’s net worth has dropped ~$100B in that time.
Shares got dragged this week after Tesla’s highly anticipated autopilot software update in China turned out to be a dud. Self-driving tech has been a struggle to roll out in the People’s Republic, and Elon is rapidly losing Asian market share to Chinese brands like BYD and Xiaomi (+7.5%).
It’s been a brutal week for the entire Magnificent 7. Amazon (+0.04%), Microsoft (-1.5%), and Alphabet (-2.1%) are staring down the barrel of correction territory. Jesus take the wheel.
+ PayPal (-1.5%) wants Venmo to hit $2B in revenue in 2027 as the “go-to money movement app.” 2 words: drug dealers.
+ Chegg (-31.4%) filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google (-2.1%), claiming its AI-generated summaries have killed website traffic.
+ Home Depot (+2.8%) got more done in Q4, reporting a slight earnings beat. Cue the Home Depot theme song (rap remix).
+ Better late than never, I guess. Super Micro Computer (-11.7% // AH: +21.7%) finally filed its overdue financial statements thanks to an accounting sh*tshow… and the market is pleased.
+ Fiverr CEO: I always look for these 3 traits in job candidates—people who have them ‘don’t fail’. Today I learned Fiverr has FTEs…
+ I’ve studied the science of happiness for 10 years—7 traps people always fall into and how to avoid them. I’ll just leave this right here.
🔥 40-year-old early retiree with $3.6 million in savings shares 3 books that helped him get there. Wow, I was not expecting them to say the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ trilogy…
FYI, TWC might be compensated if you click on the links above. So, what are you waiting for? Start clicking.
+ US stocks “closed mixed on Tuesday as President Donald Trump's revived tariff threats and potential toughening of China curbs weighed on market optimism while new data signaled fears over future economic growth.” (Yahoo! Finance)
+ The 10-year yield “fell to its lowest level since December as more signs emerged that the economy may be slowing, leading traders to bid up fixed income prices.” (CNBC)
+ Oil “prices fell about 2% to a two-month low on Tuesday on weak economic news from the U.S. and Germany that fed fears of slower energy demand, along with signs from several countries that oil output was on track to increase.” (Reuters)
+ Bitcoin “plummeted under $90,000, falling to its lowest level since it rocketed higher in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s November U.S. election victory.” (Forbes)
+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) Visa +0.6% 2) Nvidia -2.8% 3) Hims & Hers Health -22.3%
⏪ Yesterday…
+ Home Depot, DigitalOcean, and American Tower reported before the bell
+ Intuit, CAVA, Workday, Lucid, Axon, First Solar, Lemonade, Zeta, Maplebear, Coupang, AMC Entertainment, and ZoomInfo reported after the bell
⏩ Today we’re keeping an eye on…
+ Lowe's and TJX report before the bell
+ Nvidia, Salesforce, Snowflake, IonQ, MARA, C3.ai, Synopsys, eBay, Pure Storage, Teladoc Health, Joby Aviation, Paramount, Kratos, The Honest Company, Sweetgreen, Nutanix, and Petrobras report after the bell
+ Amazon is hosting a product event… and maybe it’s time to give the Fire Phone another shot?
Yesterday, I asked, “What's the best non-pizza item on Domino's menu (don't pretend like you haven't cheated on pizza and/or are too good for Domino's)?”
Cheesy Bread won with 47.5% of the vote.
Here’s what some of you guys had to say…
Cheesy bread: “The perfect accompaniment to a ten dollar pizza is an eight dollar sauceless pizza bread”
Wings: “Wings are good for a pizza place. Cheesy bread is also just pizza with the sauce on the side so it shouldn’t be counted!”
Sandwich: “Chicken Parm, enough said”
Lava cake: “Never had anything else at Domino’s besides very average pizza. Loves me some chocolate, tho.”
Garlic sauce: “I dont care if my breath is an absolute dumpster fire. Stuff is liquid gold.”
Other: “How is the cookie brownie not on this? After a long afternoon drinking at Hooters they slap”
And here’s today’s question…
Forget about the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI). Let’s run the WWCI (Weekday Warrior Confidence Index), shall we?
If you think about your current financial situation and the overall economy, do you feel more confident, less confident, or about the same as you did six months ago?
Tech investors seeing the NASDAQ sell off 1.5% the day before NVIDIA earnings
— #Boring_Business (#@BoringBiz_)
4:00 PM • Feb 25, 2025
Oh, and one more thing…
What did you think about today's newsletter?
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.