Viral Stories of the Week: October 16

Vonetta Logan's recap of the big business, news, markets, political, cultural and viral trending stories featured this week on Daily Dose

What’s up tastynation! Welcome to this week’s edition of Weekly Dose! Each week, I recap the top stories I covered on Daily Dose. If you missed any eps of Daily Dose, you can catch up on them here. 

Meanwhile, I'm wondering if I should seek counseling because I want to watch the Eras Tour movie every weekend.

Anyway, let’s get to this week’s recap. 

Monday 

• U.S. oil is back, baby! Last week, domestic oil production hit an all-time high, marking a full recovery from the pandemic after drilling had dropped more than 25%. The comeback is being driven by the Permian Basin in Texas, where ExxonMobil (XOM) is now consolidating its position with the $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD). Luckily, gas prices have remained relatively stable or have trended even lower despite the uncertainty in the Middle East. I guess it's because refiners are switching to their pumpkin spice blend.
• Biden admin moves to close China chip loophole: The Biden administration is considering closing a loophole that gives Chinese companies access to American artificial intelligence (AI) chips through units located overseas. Last year, the United States shook relations with Beijing when it imposed new restrictions on shipments of AI chips and chip making tools to China, seeking to thwart its military advances. Those rules are set to be tightened in the coming days. Chip stocks got rocked this week with Nvidia (NVDA) down from highs of $466 last Friday to a low of around $417 this Friday.
• Tesla now sells CyberBeer: Tesla (TSLA) has something new for sale on its website and it’s not a car. CyberBeer, as it's called, is available only as a $150 "limited edition" set, which includes two bottles of beer, as well as two matte black ceramic beer steins. Both the mugs and the beer bottles are designed to "celebrate the angular exoskeleton" of Cybertruck, Tesla's seemingly-never-coming electric SUV. The beer itself is a "helles lager with European noble hops saaz and hallertau mittlefruh," and Tesla says it's "accentuated by notes of herb and spice and more notable aromas of tea and citrus." I think all beer tastes like cat pee, so this isn't the launch for me. However, this isn’t Tesla’s first foray into adult beverages. It also launched a tequila called Teslaquila in November 2020. In surprising news, the tequila is actually appreciating in value. 
• Best Buy to stop selling DVDs: If you want to get your hands on the director’s cut of The Princess Bride your time could soon be running out. Netflix (NFLX) mailed out its last red envelope for its DVD program last month, and by the end of year, Best Buy (BBY) will follow suit. Best Buy says streaming made DVDs obsolete, and it can use physical space in its stores and warehouses for tech products in higher demand. Best Buy will stop selling DVDs and Blu-Ray discs at the end of the holiday season. 

Tuesday 

• Gary Gensler says hide yo kids, hide yo wife from AI: Running up Wall Street clutching his pearls, Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), says there’s trouble ahead. America’s top Wall Street watchdog issued a dire warning about artificial intelligence. If regulators don’t act now, Gensler said, it’s “nearly unavoidable” that AI will trigger a financial meltdown in the next 10 years. His main concern is that if all financial institutions are using the same AI models, instead of a “wisdom of the herd” situation we’re going to be mass lemmings all falling off a financial cliff.  
• Bitcoin surges on fake news: Bitcoin rose suddenly on Monday, before giving up nearly all its gains, after crypto news outlet Coin Telegraph reported the SEC approved an application by major asset manager BlackRock (BLK) for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, before later retracting the story. BlackRock is still waiting for its high-profile application for a crypto investment product to be approved.
• LinkedIn employees will soon need to use LinkedIn to find new jobs: LinkedIn, which is part of Microsoft (MSFT), cut almost 700 employees, with most coming from the engineering organization. The reductions come as the business-oriented social network has seen year-over-year revenue growth slow for eight consecutive quarters. It grew just 5% in the second quarter, even as membership growth has accelerated each quarter for the past two years, Microsoft said in July. 
• iPhone sales slow in China: Chinese cellular manufacturer Huawei is now the top choice for Chinese smartphone consumers. Sales of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone 15 are down 4.5% in China compared with iPhone 14 sales in the first two weeks after its launch, according to Counterpoint Research. Separately, Bloomberg reported financial firm Jefferies said iPhone 15 sales dropped by a double-digit percentage following strong customer demand for Huawei’s new Mate 60 smartphone line. Apple’s stock has been relatively flat for the week. 
• Pepper X sets Guinness record as world's hottest pepper: Ed Currie, a man with more time on his hands than common sense, has invented a new super pepper. Currie, the inventor of the already blisteringly hot Carolina Reaper pepper, crossbred that pepper with the tears of Satan to create the new Pepper X. The record-breaking pepper that is “immediately, brutally hot” weighs in at a whopping 2.29 million Scoville units. By comparison, pepper spray commonly holstered by police is around 1.6 million units. Bear spray comes in at 2.2 million units. So, if you want to nuke your taste buds and your anus have at it, I guess. First, you might want to watch these videos of people eating hot peppers and then immediately regretting it.

Wednesday 

• Consumers keep shopping, putting pressure on Fed: Look, who among us doesn’t have an emotional support cart at an online retailer? Bad day at the office? Add to cart. Your romantic partner acting a fool? Add to cart. Can’t sleep? Add to cart. Or maybe it's just me. Hi, I’m the problem, it's me. Retail sales rose 0.7% in September from the previous month, more than double Wall Street's estimates for 0.3% growth, according to new data from the Commerce Department. Retail sales have now grown from the month prior for six straight months, marking a consistent trend of consumer spending. I’m going to celebrate finishing this blog by adding items to my cart. Don’t @ me, Fed. 
• FTX hopes to return some customer funds: If you’re not following the epic FTX trial you are missing out on some bonkers revelations about how corrupt the company was, but there is good news on the horizon. Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX floated an amended proposal to return up to 90% of creditor holdings held at the exchange before it went bust last November. The debtors' group, which is currently overseeing the bankruptcy process, will formally file the plan by Dec. 16 to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court for perusal. FTX collapsed last year after CoinDesk published revelations concerning the state of its balance sheet. New CEO John J. Ray III has berated financial controls at the company, while founder Sam Bankman-Fried is undergoing trial on criminal charges.
• Microsoft in talks to sign Amazon as cloud customer: Microsoft (MSFT) is preparing to sign up Amazon (AMZN) as a customer for its 365 cloud productivity tools in a deal worth over $1 billion, news site Insider reported. Amazon has committed to a five-yea deal and will secure more than one million Microsoft 365 license seats, according to the report. Amazon’s AWS cloud service generated $80 billion in revenue in 2022. AWS accounts for around 16% of Amazon’s total revenue. 
• Goldman chief to unplug from DJ side hustle: Sad news for the fan of Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon aka DJ D-Sol. He’s hanging up the headphones and calling it quits. DJ D-Sol will no longer perform at high-profile events, picking Wall Street over South Beach, a representative from the second-largest investment bank confirmed to CNN. Solomon, who performed under the alias DJ D-Sol, began spinning tracks at festivals and in night clubs a few years ago. “[I] kind of stumbled into it as a hobby, and now I just do it for fun,” Solomon, 61, said on a Goldman Sachs podcast in 2017. You can listen to his beats on YouTube for posterity. This is the weirdest juxtaposition but compared to other CEO shenanigans this is relatively tame.  

Thursday 

• Mortgage rates and Treasury yields hit new highs: Interest rates are great for savers right now but not for those shopping for new homes. The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 8% Wednesday morning, according to Mortgage News Daily. That is the highest level since mid 2000. The milestone came as bond yields soar to levels not seen since 2007. Mortgage rates follow loosely the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury. 
• Tesla earnings disappoint: Tesla (TSLA) reported a drop in third-quarter earnings as the electric vehicle maker fell short of Wall Street expectations. Tesla reported adjusted earnings of $2.3 billion in the quarter, or 66 cents a share, down 37% from a year earlier and the smallest profits it reported in two years. The company also missed on third-quarter revenue of $23.4 billion, up 9% from a year earlier but short of the $24.1 billion forecast by analysts. Tesla has been repeatedly cutting the prices of its vehicles to boost sales demand in the face of growing electric vehicle competition from established automakers. Tesla did announce a delivery date for the much maligned CyberTruck which Musk says helped Tesla “dig its own grave.” Delightful. 
• Netflix beats on earnings, announces price increase: Netflix (NFLX) increased subscription prices for some streaming plans in the United States, Britain and France as it shattered expectations for new customers, sending its shares surging 13%. Almost 9 million subscribers joined Netflix around the globe in the third quarter, surpassing Wall Street analysts' forecast for 6 million. Netflix was fighting dual labor strikes from both the writers and actors’ unions the previous quarter, with the SAG strike still ongoing.  Netflix’s password sharing crackdown was successful for getting scofflaws like me to finally cough up some cash to pay for our trashy TV habits. I’m not thrilled about facing a price hike so soon though. Netflix also announced this week it will host a live-streamed golf tournament featuring F1 race car drivers paired with PGA golfers called the Netflix Cup. 
• United Airlines revamps the boarding process: Just like Fred Flintstone, United Airlines (UAL) is looking to WILMA to be his savior. WILMA is a catchy acronym for window, middle, and aisle, which is the new order in which passengers will board United flights starting October 26th. United will let economy-class passengers who have selected window seats to board before those with middle and aisle seats. The company said the change could shave two minutes off the boarding process. I purposely have a United branded credit card, so I automatically get Boarding Group 2 or higher on all my flights, but this is nice for the commoners. 

Friday 

• Fed Chair hints that bond yields could slow rate hikes: According to Taylor Swift “band-aids don’t fix holes” but according to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, bond yields might fix rate hikes. Powell said Thursday that soaring bond yields could help the Fed slow the economy, further cooling inflation and possibly signaling the end of rate hikes. But he stopped short of declaring victory, citing the economy’s resilience. “Tight policy is putting downward pressure on economic activity and inflation,” Powell said during a discussion at the Economic Club of New York. It’s been a no good, very bad, terrible week for Treasuries. The market’s largest bond ETF TLT (TLT) hit a 16 year low this week. 
• NY AG accuses crypto firms of fraud: The negative effects of the now defunct FTX on the digital economy continues to expand. New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against three digital asset firms that were caught up in the collapse of Bankman-Fried’s empire last fall — Gemini Trust, Genesis Global Capital and Digital Currency Group, parent company of Genesis. The lawsuit accused the companies of lying to investors and covering up more than $1 billion in losses. The lawsuit is the latest effort among US officials to crack down on the trillion-dollar crypto industry, which for years has operated in the shadows of traditional financial regulation. Crypto advocates argue that regulators have dragged their feet in establishing guidelines for digital assets, which they believe are distinct from traditional securities like stocks or bonds. Bitcoin (BTC) did rally at the end of the week, getting very close to that 30k barrier. 
• Jon Stewart and Apple part ways over "creative differences:" Ahead of production kicking off on The Problem with Jon Stewart’s third season, Stewart and Apple (AAPL) have reportedly parted ways over “creative differences,” and The Problem is ending. The New York Times reports that along with concerns about some of the guests booked to be on the podcast, Stewart’s intended discussions of artificial intelligence and China were a major concern for Apple. Though new episodes of the show were scheduled to begin shooting in just a few weeks, staffers learned today that production had been halted. The news comes literally simultaneously as Apple chief Tim Cook is currently on his China apology tour. Cook is courting officials promising investment in the country where iPhones have slipped to the #2 choice for Chinese consumers. Apple has also been threatened with a government-wide ban in China. China makes up about 19% of Apple’s revenue. 

Will Tom Eat it? Sandwich road trip 

Tom is headed to LA this weekend, and I found this gem on Instagram. Which of these sandwiches would you choose? 

What I’m watching this week: Even though I’m supremely upset that Netflix (NFLX) is raising my rates, I did really enjoy watching the documentary Big Vape about the stunning rise and shocking demise of e-cigarette company Juul. It thereby confirms my belief that dudes in marketing are the worst. 

That’s it for this week! See ya next week!

Vonetta Logan has more than a decade of markets experience and has been a trader for five years. She is an on-air personality, creative writer and news correspondent at tastylive. Vonetta appears Monday-Friday on Daily Dose and contributes to Luckbox Magazine. @vonettalogan

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