Happy UConn vs. Stetson Day to those of you who celebrate. Here’s what we’re getting into…

Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 14 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

+ US stocks “rose to build on a record-setting rally as relieved investors continued to celebrate the Federal Reserve's signals it will delay but not slow rate cuts.” (Yahoo! Finance)

+ The 10-year Treasury yield was flat Thursday. (CNBC)

+ Oil “settled slightly lower on Thursday, pressured by weaker U.S. gasoline demand data and reports of a United Nations draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin hovered around $65k for most of the day.

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) Reddit +48.3% 2) Nvidia +1.1% 3) Digital World Acquisition Corp. -0.2%

The market moves you need to know about…

+ Trigger warning for all the farm-to-table Camelina purists out there. Shares of agricultural biotech Yield10 jumped 78.8% on news that the USDA gave the green light for genetically modified Camelina to be grown and bred in the US.

– Annnd it’s gone. On Wednesday, there were reports that Apollo could be looking to buy Paramount’s film and TV studio. By yesterday, it started to sound like the deal was dead. Paramount fell 5.5% on the report.

+ Rush Street Interactive rose 4.4% after Bloomberg said it was shopping itself to other sportsbooks, including DraftKings.

“First time?” - Google and Microsoft to Apple

The US Department of Justice is doing its best EU impression. Spoiler: it’s coming down hard on an American big tech player.

The DOJ sued Apple, claiming it’s created a monopoly via its iPhone ecosystem. To which literally everyone responded… “duh.”

The suit claims that Apple has built one of the largest companies in the world by way of the massive moat it built with the iPhone ecosystem.

The lawsuit is pretty wide-ranging

There are the obvious accusations. Think: iMessage not playing nice with Androids. And the Apple Watch not connecting to your Samsung Galaxy.

The fun police also have a bone to pick with Apple’s stance on cloud gaming and the Apple Wallet. The Justice Department contends that “Apple inserts itself into the process that would otherwise occur directly between the user and the card issuer.” It’s not wrong…

AAPL shares tumbled on the news that it could be broken up, or, more likely, face massive fines…

What’s next?

Well, for starters, Apple will spend millions on a hearts and minds campaign. It already started on Thursday afternoon, saying the suit could “set a dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology.”

And in all likelihood, this will drag out for years. How can I be so sure? Well, Google has two DOJ antitrust suits pending against it that were filed back in 2020…

The government said that seeking a breakup of Apple is on the table. And I, for one, cannot wait to get my hands on shares of AirPods…

+ United starts letting friends and family pool frequent flyer miles (Read)

+ Hands Down Some of the Best Credit Cards for Balance Transfers (Read)

+ Auto prices are cooling, but ‘we’re never going back to the old normal,’ expert says. Here’s what car shoppers can expect (Read)

+ 3 stories to tell in a job interview, according to a former Google recruiter: ‘I want people that improve over time’ (Read)

BTW, some of these links contain affiliate offers.

+ “What, like it’s hard?” - Reddit

Reddit just put on a clinic on how not to f*ck up an IPO. Not only did the company price shares at the top of its range ($34), the stock opened at $47.

The stock climbed to $50.44 by the end of trading. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s a 48% gain.

In addition to the financial windfall (~$520M raised by the company), RDDT’s big day is a major f*ck you to the haters (myself included) who doubted the unprofitable social media company.

Tyler’s take… Here’s my entirely too-early take: IPOs are so f*cking back. Reddit’s huge move up and to the right comes just a day after a 70%+ first-day bump by Astera Labs in its debut.

Don’t be surprised if we see a whole bunch of companies rushing to make those “confidential filings” official. We saw this last fall until a couple of big flops put the IPO market back on ice.

+ This is almost as bad as that time Lululemon’s founder said that its pants just don’t work for some women…

The good news is that Lululemon remained resilient during the holiday quarter, beating on the top and bottom lines. The bad news is that it expects growth in North America to stagnate.

The outlook for the current quarter and the full year were pretty bleak (read: below the Street’s expectations). Time to partner with more cold plunge and mindfulness influencers…

Tyler’s take… This is not great, you guys. When people who use “winter” as a verb stop buying stuff, there’s no hope for the rest of us. Lululemon has been pretty insulated from consumers cutting back… until now.

+ Do you think Nike and Lululemon planned to report on the same day?

The shoe giant beat the Street’s expectations for the most recent quarter. Unfortunately, it hinted at needing to reinvest in its pipeline of innovation and reported it was losing ground in the running category to the likes of Hoka and On. You hate to see it.

+ There are two major proxy advisory firms that, well, advise investors on board votes. One is Glass-Lewis and the other is Institutional Shareholder Services.

Last week Glass-Lewis recommended shareholders side with Disney in the Disney vs. Nelson Peltz/Trian Management sh*tshow. Yesterday, ISS gave Nelson their vote. This is getting good, folks.

Here's what I'm keeping an eye on today...

+ DWAC shareholders vote on merging with Trump Media & Technology (read: Truth Social’s parent company). What a time to be alive, ladies and gentlemen…

Yesterday, I asked, “You have to own one social media stock for the next 10 years, which one is it?”

Google won by a large margin (not really fair, tbh), followed by Meta. I think you guys are sleeping on Pinterest.

Here’s today’s question…

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