Today we’re (finally) breaking down GameStop’s shareholder call and another reason to be bullish on Nvidia.

Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 9 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

+ US stocks “jumped to fresh all-time highs on Monday with the S&P 500 notching its 30th record close of the year as Wall Street wondered if the bull rally that has roared through 2024 has more room to run.” (Yahoo! Finance)

+ The 10-year Treasury yield “rose Monday, following comments by Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari indicating the central bank may not cut rates until December." (CNBC)

+ Oil “surged nearly $2 a barrel on Monday to their highest settlement levels in over a month, adding to last week's gains as investors grew more optimistic on the demand outlook.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin was flat on the day.

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) Nvidia +0.6% 2) Tesla +5.3% 3) Apple +1.9%

The market moves you need to know about…

+ Shares of Chegg mooned 19.1% on news that the company was doing something it should have done a year ago. The company is laying off nearly 25% of its global workforce as part of a corporate restructuring. You might recall that Chegg got absolutely bodied when students decided to just use ChatGPT for test prep and homework help.

+ DraftKings jumped 7.8% on some positive news out of DC. The US Supreme Court refused to hear a case that challenged an agreement that grants the Seminole Tribe exclusive rights to sports gambling in the state. The hope is that the decision clears the way for the tribe to expand, which presumably would include DK.

+ Not gonna lie, I still don’t understand the “rent-to-buy” business model. But I do know one of the biggest players is worth about $500M. Shares of The Aaron’s Company jumped 33.4% on news that it had agreed to be taken private.

GameStop (-12.1%) finally held its annual meeting yesterday… and maybe it shouldn’t have.

You might recall that it tried to host the meeting last week, but the volume of attendees crashed the servers at GameStop’s investor services provider.

And perhaps that should have been taken a sign to just cancel it. Because the call was an unmitigated disaster.

Per usual, GameStop management didn’t offer any actual turnaround plans or real strategy updates. Oh, and it didn’t let any shareholders ask questions. Just an all-time whiff, not letting Roaring Kitty take the mic…

So what did we find out?

CEO Ryan Cohen said he wants to cut costs and boost profits (duh). One of the ways he plans to do that? Closing stores.

So, to recap… RC didn’t draw up a robust e-comm strategy. And plans to close brick and mortar stores (the places where they make money).

On the bright side, GME is sitting on a ton of dry powder. As of its most recent earnings report, it was sitting on $1B in cash… but has since raised more than $2B via share sales.

As you might have guessed, investors didn’t love the news (or lack thereof). Shares fell 12% on the day.

+ “We, uh, we fixed the glitch.” - State Street Global Investors

Huge W for Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF holders. State Street is about to make things right by letting you get in on some of those sweet, sweet Nvidia gainz.

When the $71B fund rebalances at the end of the month, Nvidia will replace Apple as the second-biggest holding. And that comes with a huge jump in fund weighting. Currently, NVDA represents ~6% of XLK’s assets. That will grow to more than 20%. And, yes, that means AAPL will fall from ~20% to below 6%.

The move means State Street will need to buy up ~$11B of Nvidia… and sell off ~$12B of Apple stock. To put things in perspective, that’s roughly Apple’s daily average trading volume over the past 30 days.

Keep in mind, the fund’s investment committee reserves the right to do whatever it damn well pleases (read: NOT buy a ton of Nvidia, and blow up the trade everyone is piling into).

+ “I don't want to play with you anymore.” - McDonald’s to IBM

Good news, high school dropouts… your job is secure (for now). McDonald’s (-0.02%) is ending a test partnership with IBM (+0.1%). IBM’s AI-powered drive-through tech called Automated Order Taker ended up being a bigger liability than McFlurry machines.

The tech reportedly struggled with accents and dialects, which led to some comical orders… like $200 worth of additional nuggets and bacon on an ice cream cone… neither of which sound like terrible outcomes, if we’re being totally honest.

This is just the most recent example of McDonald’s going all ‘old man yells at cloud.’ It sold McD Labs to IBM in 2021 and Dynamic Yield, a predictive ordering tech platform, to Mastercard later that year.

+ Adobe (-1.2%) just caught a case. The Photoshop maker is being sued by the FTC for getting its Ticketmaster on (think: hiding fees). Uncle Sam alleges that ADBE makes it damn near impossible to cancel subscriptions. And even when you do figure it out, they bury hidden fees in the fine print.

+ GE CEO Larry Culp was reportedly offered the Boeing (+0.6%) CEO job. He turned it down… obviously. Probably because he didn’t want two ‘once-great’ US manufacturers on his resume.

+ Listen, I always knew Warren Buffett was a real one, but this cements his status as a legend. The Oracle decreased his stake in EV maker BYD from 7% to… wait for it… 6.9%.

To be fair, the move was probably made for tax purposes or because of how Hong Kong’s filing requirements work (filings only need to be made when a stake crosses a whole number).

BYD has been one of Berkshire’s biggest wins. Charlie Munger pushed Warren to invest in the Chinese EV maker that recently surpassed Tesla as the largest in the world. Berkshire unloaded nearly half of its stake after it had soared more than 600% in 2022.

+ Wells Fargo Bet on a Flashy Rent Credit Card. It Is Costing the Bank Dearly. (Read)

+ So you want to buy a house: Here’s the kind of good credit score that you’ll need (Read)

+ Want more real estate news & insights? Check out The Pocket List. It’ll keep you up to date on the industry with one goal: helping 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 Lennar’s earnings (and all those deals at Walmart+ Days)…

+ Lennar (+0.9% // -2.1%) fell after hours after sharing some light guidance for the current quarter.

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

+ Retail sales data drops

+ Home builder KB Home reports after the close

Yesterday, I asked, “Do you subscribe to Walmart+ and/or Target Circle 360?”

84.1% of you said neither.

Walmart+ beat Target’s Prime knockoff by a wide margin, mostly because it’s free with an Amex Platinum, apparently.

Here’s today’s question…

Before you go…

What a time to be alive…

And, the US roasting Europe for their “heat wave” will never get old (Twitter)

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.