Viral Stories of the Week: August 7

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 that I covered on Daily Dose. If you missed any eps of Daily Dose you can catch up on them here. 

This week has everything! Barbie, Banks, Billionaire cage match!

Let’s get to the recap! 

Monday

• Bitcoin trades like "digital gold:" Unlike my dating life, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is as stable as it's been in five years. Bitcoin is finally behaving like gold ... because no one wants it anymore. Actually, maybe this is like my dating life. A gauge that measures BTC’s 30-day volatility is trading close to a five-year low, according to a recent report by Bloomberg.  
• Musk says fight with Zuckerberg will be livestreamed on X: Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said in a social media post that his proposed cage fight with Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg would be live streamed on social media platform X, the artist formerly known as Twitter. Zuckerberg then cheekily replied that the fight should be streamed on a more stable platform **shots fired.** Later in the week, Musk issued a statement saying that he will probably need a backiotomy and will be getting an MRI before he can be cleared to fight. Oh, and also this week, one of Musk’s baby mamas said that dating him was “the best internship ever.” Being constantly harassed for little to no pay then padding your resume with it? Yeah, that tracks. Update: Musk tweeted on Friday that he has reached out to Italy's cultural minister to secure a location for the fight that apparently has cultural significance. 
• Barbie turns pink into green, hits $1B at box office:  Just two weeks after its sparkly pink release, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is part of the billion-dollar club. The film, based on Mattel’s (MAT) iconic doll, stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. It is the first female-helmed film to reach this landmark status. It’s also the only movie this summer to cross the $1billion mark. Suck it, Cruise! Barbie is taking over the world and I’m totally okay with that. 

Tuesday 

• Another bank whiffs on recession call: According to JPMorgan (JPM), the American economy is just too fast, too furious, so the bank has no choice but to punt its recession call to 2024. JPM became the latest bank to push its recession forecast into next year. Following a call from Bank of America (BAC) that also pushed their forecast into next year. I love how analysts can just straight up be wrong, like all the time. Sorry the country didn’t implode! Better luck next year, kids. 
• PayPal launches its first stablecoin  PayPal: (PYPL) launched a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin to help facilitate payments as its latest addition to its suite of crypto services. It’s the first such move from a major U.S. financial institution. The new asset will be called PayPalUSD (PYUSD). Oooh boy, that ticker is getting awfully close to NSFW territory. PayPal hopes its coin could be used transactionally in video game applications where alternate currencies are often used in-game by players. 
• AI will be the center of the next financial crisis:  Exhausted from not getting enough attention by alerting the American public that the crypto sky is falling, financial Chicken Little, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler took to the interwebs this week to alert citizens of a new existential threat: AI. In an interview this week (someone please stop pointing a microphone at this man) Gensler said AI increases the risk of future financial crashes. He was basically regurgitating talking points from a paper he wrote in 2020. Gensler is 100% that dude who pauses when he’s speaking to wait for non-existent applause. To be fair, Gensler wasn’t alone this week in sounding the AI alarm. After going viral in a "photo" wearing a swagged out puffy coat and bling that the public later learned was AI generated, Pope Francis also called for a global reflection about the potential dangers of AI. 

Wednesday 

• Moody’s downgrades banks: Moody's cut credit ratings of several small- to mid-sized U.S. banks this week and said it may downgrade some of the nation's biggest lenders, warning that the sector's credit strength will likely be tested by funding risks and weaker profitability. Looks like Moody’s was jealous of Fitch being the “it girl” last week after cutting the U.S.’s credit rating. 
• Banks fined for WhatsApp usage: Like a teen caught with a clandestine cell phone after they’ve already been grounded, America’s banks have been caught (again) failing to maintain electronic records of employee communications. This is a combined penalty spread across 11 financial institutions. I'm pretty sure it won’t be a deterrent for future actions. I think for this to really stick, for each business violation a bank incurs, the government should get to release a personal text exchange. “Wow, it says here, Chad, in your text to your wife that you can’t wait for her to tell you who’s a big boy when you get home.” Now that’s a punitive measure. 
• Credit Card balances hit $1 trillion: Man, some of y’all went too hard during Amazon (AMZN) Prime Day. Total credit card indebtedness increased by $45 billion in the last quarter, a rise of more than 4% to just above $1 trillion. As card use grew, so did the delinquency rate. The Fed’s measure of credit card debt 30+ days late climbed 7.2% in Q2. It’s the highest delinquency rate since the first quarter of 2012. 
• WeWork has substantial doubts about its ability to stay in business:  “Substantial doubt exists” about WeWork’s (WE) ability to continue to stay in business, due to the company’s losses, projected cash needs, and increased member turnover, according to the company’s second quarter earnings release. The once hot startup that reached an eye-watering valuation of $47 billion is now fodder for podcasts and AppleTV (AAPL) docu-dramas cataloging their epic fall from grace. Not gonna lie, it’s not too shabby if Jared Leto gets to play you in the made-for-tv-movie about how your god-complex screwed your company and employees. 
• Nvidia reveals new AI chip: Nvidia (NVDA) announced a new chip designed to run artificial intelligence models. The company has 80% market share in the AI chip space, and its GPUs are highly coveted. Nvidia looks to fend off competitors like AMD (AMD), Google (GOOGL), and Amazon (AMZN). Nvidia’s earnings report is set for Aug 23.
• Penn sells Barstool back to founder: Penn Entertainment (PENN) sold Barstool Sports back to its founder, Dave Portnoy, for a very reasonable price of $1. Barstool was valued at $606 million in February, when Penn bought the rest of the company. Penn became a minority owner of Barstool in 2020. You can check out this piece for why Portnoy and regulated businesses may not have been a good mix. Also, Nick Battista wrote about the deal here. Penn reported their earnings this week and also announced that 1t would be partnering with Disney’s (DIS) ESPN network to form a new sportsbook. 

Thursday 

• Inflation rises less than expected: Happy CPI Day! A high holiday on the economic calendar if you observe. The consumer price index rose 3.2% from a year ago in July, slightly below expectations. The core CPI ran at a 12-month rate of 4.7%, also below the estimate. Both measures were up 0.2% on the month. Food and energy prices are still more volatile than a hot chick on Tinder. Tl:dr everything is still hella expensive and they’ll still probably spin the screen around and ask you for a tip when you ring up your own groceries. What a time to be alive! 
• Biden bans certain tech investments in China: President Joe Biden signed an executive order that will prohibit some new U.S. investment in China in sensitive technologies like computer chips and require government notification in other tech sectors. The order authorizes the U.S. Treasury secretary to prohibit or restrict U.S. investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain artificial intelligence systems. Chinese tech companies like Alibaba (BABA), Baidu (BIDU), and Pinduoduo (PDD) were active on the news.
• SEC seeks to repeal Ripple decision: The SEC plans to appeal a recent court decision involving Ripple Labs (XRP) that was a setback for the agency's efforts to oversee cryptocurrency markets. The regulatory body did not enjoy the court’s decision, so it decided to ask another parent to see if they got a different answer. Companies like Ripple and Coinbase (COIN) are spending their own hard-earned money to fight a protracted legal battle against the SEC about what constitutes a security. The legal rulings will bear weight for the entire industry. 
• Disney hikes prices across platforms: Disney (DIS) is hiking prices for its streaming services after its latest earnings report showed the company is bleeding cash everywhere except for Euro Disney, and Disney Japan. The House of Mouse announced price hikes for both ad-free and ad-based tiers of Disney+ and Hulu. Disney is also taking a page out of Netflix’s (NFLX) book and will begin a password-sharing crackdown campaign. M-I-C-K-E ... Y can’t it just leave us alone? 
• NFL Team valuations for 2023: Even if you were lucky enough to win Mega Millions this past week, you still wouldn’t have enough to purchase the NFL team of your childhood dreams with the measly $1.5 billion lottery payout. The Dallas Cowboys, America’s team, tops the list as the most valuable NFL franchise with a valuation worth $9.2 billion. This represents a year-over-year value increase of 20%. My much-maligned Chicago Bears are worth a solid $6 billion, with an impressive 20% year-over-year increase. This is super impressive, given how we played last season. 

Friday 

• Robinhood defeats class action meme stock lawsuit: Robinhood (HOOD) defeated an appeal by investors over the platform’s decision to restrict the purchase of 13 “meme stocks” in 2021 during a frenzy that pitted reddit traders against massive hedge funds. Customers who owned stocks such as AMC (AMC) and GME (GME) claim in the suit that they lost money because Robinhood stopped them from buying more shares as the meme stocks went “to the moon”. 
• Supreme Court blocks Purdue Pharma opioid settlement: The Supreme Court blocked, for now, a multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy settlement by Purdue Pharma that would protect its Sackler family owners from civil lawsuits related to opioid abuse. The Sackler family agreed as part of the settlement to contribute $6 billion to it over the next two decades. States and victims must now wait until after the Supreme Court has issued a ruling for the funds to be disbursed. 
• Coach owner acquires other luxury brands: Tapestry (TPR) the fashion conglomerate behind brands like Coach and Kate Spade will acquire competitor Capri Holdings (CPRI) in an $8.5 billion deal. The merger will create a new fashion behemoth that will be better positioned to compete in the luxury market. The new fashion house will include Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman, Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors. Basically, a who’s who of Tom’s wife’s closet. 
• Subway's name-change promo is off to a great start: Subway sandwich shops is running a marketing campaign where a “lucky winner” who agrees to legally change their name to “Subway” will be blessed with free subs for life. Subway now says that close to 10,000 people have already entered. The winner will receive compensation for the legal costs associated with the name change as well as a $50,000 gift card, which economists have pointed out that at these inflation levels will not equal sandwiches “for life”, but rather for maybe only 11 years. Good luck to everyone! 

Will Tom Eat It? This week's installment is Mexican/Korean fusion out of Southern California. Yum!

That’s it for this week. I’m signing off as Subway Logan. 

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, She appears Monday-Friday on Daily Dose and contributes to Luckbox Magazine. @vonettalogan

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