Viral Stories of the Week: July 24

Vonetta Logan's recap of business, markets, political, cultural and viral 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, you could catch up on them here. 

The truth is out there … the government is gonna replace us all with aliens. 

Let’s get to the recap! 

Monday

• The great M&A slump: Global transaction volume for mergers and acquisitions in 2023 is one-third of what it was in 2019. Higher finance costs, volatility spurred by geopolitical tensions and threats of a global recession have sent deal volumes down about 40% to roughly $1 trillion this year through July 20 from the same period in 2022. The record $3.83 trillion reached in 2021 is all but a distant memory now. Won’t someone think of the high-end strip clubs, steakhouses and luxury car dealerships that are also suffering during this difficult time? 
• See ya later Twitter!  Elon Musk decided to flip the bird to all Twitter users as he started tweeting late Sunday night that he was rebranding Twitter immediately as X. Musk aims to turn Twitter into the “everything app,” even though his biggest tech competitors already own the rights to his new favorite obsession. Some befuddled Twitter users say the new X branding reminds them of an adult site. We’ll check back next week to see if X is, indeed, gonna give it to ya. 
• Barbenheimer dominates weekend box office: Barbie tallied around $155 million during its first three days in theaters, the highest opening of 2023, while “Oppenheimer” snagged $82.4 million during its debut. It was the highest-grossing weekend of the year for the U.S. box office. Shares of AMC (AMC) surged on Monday, and trading had to be halted on resulting news about a proposed stock split. 

Tuesday 

• Sam Altman launches the Worldcoin crypto project: When a rich genius tells you to stare into a metallic orb so that it may scan your iris, you listen. World ID is a digital passport that proves its holder is human and not an AI bot. The project has 2 million users from its beta period, and Worldcoin is scaling up "orbing" operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. As an enticement, those who sign up in certain countries will receive Worldcoin's cryptocurrency token WLD. Lemme just head on down to the local Aldi and get my orb on. 
• Microsoft brings Bing Chat to Chrome: Microsoft’s (MSFT) AI chatbot, Bing Chat, is coming to non-Microsoft browsers. The ChatGPT-like AI bot will now be available on Google's (GOOGL) Chrome and Apple’s (AAPL) Safari, bringing it to a broader set of users and saving millions of users from the indignity of having to use Microsoft Bing. 
• Nike adds more Nike to golf shirts: Nike (NKE), the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel, has finally figured out we like to look at golfer’s butts. Nike has added its iconic ‘swoosh’ to the backs of its golf shirts. The location is perfect for televised events where you don’t always see the players head on. Also, butts. 

Wednesday 

• Microsoft reports earnings: Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) dipped as much as 4% after the software maker issued quarterly revenue guidance that fell short of analysts’ expectations. For Q2, Microsoft generated $56.19 billion in revenue, but its finance chief called for a paltry $53.8 billion for Q3 and everyone agreed that was absolutely unacceptable. Can you imagine? Ugh, you only made $53 billion, like, are you even trying? 
• Google reports earnings: Google (GOOGL) shares rose about 7% in extended trading on Tuesday after the company reported better-than-expected revenue and profit, driven by growth in its cloud-computing unit. Google—I’m never calling it Alphabet—generated $74.6 billion in revenue. YouTube ads alone brought in over $7 billion in revenue. Okay, yeah, now I can see how Microsoft is slacking. 
• UPS, Teamsters reach labor deal: United Parcel Service (UPS) and the Teamsters union representing about 340,000 workers said they reached a preliminary labor deal that includes raises for both full- and part-time workers and narrowly avoids a potential strike that could have started next week. I for one was hurriedly trying to order packages before the possible strike date, so I’m relieved that a strike was averted. Now, let’s talk about making those uniform shorts a bit shorter. 

Thursday 

• Fed staff drops U.S. recession forecast: Jerome Powell, U.S. Federal Reserve chair, said on Wednesday the central bank's staff no longer forecasts a U.S. recession, and "we do have a shot" for inflation to return to target without high levels of job losses. The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee raised its funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a target range of 5.25%-5.5%. The midpoint of that target range would be the highest level for the benchmark rate since early 2001. I love how economists and meteorologists just get to be wrong all the time in their jobs. For me, this is the only forecast that actually matters. 
• SEC wants to protect investors from meme stocks: Securities and Exchange Commission regulators are concerned financial firms like Robinhood (HOOD) could exploit “the application of applied analytics” to unduly prompt customers to trade, a situation prompted by the meme-stock mania of 2021.  Yes, big brokers are using crazy advanced tech to slide into your DMs and ask “u up?” and then entice you into nefarious acts of … investing. 
• Meta reports earnings: Meta (META) reported earnings and revenue for the second quarter that topped analysts’ estimates and issued a better-than-expected forecast for the current period, reflecting a rebound in the digital advertising market. Meta also revealed it has three billion monthly active users. Its once vaunted VR division has lost over $21 billion since the start of the year. Looks like the metaverse needs to hold a bake sale. 
• Automakers unite to form new charging network: Seven major automakers are coming together to create a joint venture that will build out a large electric vehicle fast-charging network in North America, to make electric vehicles more attractive to consumers. The companies – General Motors (GM), BMW Group (BMWYY), Honda (HMC), Hyundai (HYMTF), Kia (KIMTF), Mercedes-Benz (MBGYY) and Stellantis (STLA)—plan to install at least 30,000 chargers in the United States and Canada. It seems like it was just yesterday that automakers were declaring Tesla (TSLA) the gold charging standard, and OEMs were all signing on the dotted line to hook up to Musk’s go-go juice. But perhaps some missteps by the mercurial leader of SpaceX, Tesla and now X have shifted the charging landscape. I have high hopes this will actually work, but car manufacturers can’t even agree what side of the car your gas cap should be on. 

Friday 

• Sweeping changes to capital rules for banks: U.S. regulators unveiled a sweeping set of regulatory changes to banks’ capital requirements to address evolving international standards and the recent regional banking crisis.
  
  The changes, designed to boost the accuracy and consistency of regulation, will revise rules tied to risky activities including lending, trading, valuing derivatives and operational risk, according to a notice from the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The banks are still allowed to charge you crazy fees if you’re even one second late on a payment. 
• Senators want new agency to regulate Big Tech: Two U.S. senators are calling for the creation of a new federal agency to regulate tech companies such as Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOGL) and Meta (META), in the latest push by members of Congress to clamp down on Big Tech. 
  
  Under the proposal, Congress would establish a new regulatory body with the power to sue platforms — or even force them to stop operating — in response to various potential harms to customers, rivals and the public, including anticompetitive practices, violations of consumer privacy and the spread of harmful online content. The senators would also like an agency that could remember their password login info for them and show them how to make a TikTok. 
• Taco Bell creates “new” menu item with their same five ingredients:  Taco Bell has done it again! The fast-food chain has created a new menu item out of the same five ingredients it uses for every other menu item. The restaurant chain's newest limited edition menu item has slow-braised, shredded beef topped with a creamy jalapeño sauce and a three-cheese blend (cheddar, mozzarella and pepper jack), packed in a fried taco shell with the same cheese blend grilled on the outside of the corn shell. The taco comes with two dipping sauces, a zesty red sauce and nacho cheese. It’s inspired by birria tacos. Seriously, you should just go to the birria spot in your town if there is one, because birria tacos are amazing. Or make some at home. 

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

For live daily programming, market news and commentary, visit tastylive or the YouTube channels tastylive (for options traders), and tastyliveTrending for stocks, futures, forex & macro.

Trade with a better broker, open a tastytrade account today. tastylive, Inc. and tastytrade, Inc. are separate but affiliated companies.