Krispy Kreme stock soars: Krispy Kreme’s share price skyrocketed this week following its announcement of a new partnership with McDonald’s. The stock (ticker: DNUT) ended Tuesday trading up over 39% to $17.35 per share, levels not seen since December 2021. DNUT shares rose while McDonald’s shares have stayed relatively flat, demonstrating to investors that Krispy Kreme might need McDonald’s more than McDonald’s needs Krispy Kreme. Full Story.
Visa and Mastercard’s $30 billion settlement: Visa and Mastercard ended a long-standing lawsuit with merchants over swipe fees, announcing a settlement Tuesday that will lower fees for merchants by $30 billion over five years. While this news is a win for merchants, experts do not estimate that the settlement will have a huge impact on consumers. According to Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate, the settlement only lowers swipe fees by a fraction of a percent for a few years and caps the rates for five years. Full story.
Trump’s Nasdaq debut versus Reddit, WeWork IPOs: Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the company that runs Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, had its IPO on Tuesday, trading above $70 most of the day, soaring by as much as 50%. Despite earning only $3.3 million in revenue between January and September 2023, TMTG currently sits at an $8 billion valuation, which is nearly 2,000 times the annual revenue disclosed in its own SEC filings. On Nasdaq, a price-to-sales ratio in the thousands is almost unheard of. For context, Reddit debuted with a price-to-sales ratio of about eight, and when WeWork went public it landed at around three. Full story.
Apple antitrust lawsuit analysis: The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple last week, arguing that the company has preserved its dominant position by “making it harder or more expensive for its users and developers to leave.” But do the DOJ’s concerns overstate Apple’s ability to force customers to use iPhones against their will? Full Story.
Baltimore’s bridge accident and DEI: Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed this week after a container ship collided with it. Within minutes of the overnight collapse, the internet began surmising potential reasons for the crash. Among the numerous theories included a now-familiar one: DEI, marking yet another instance of using diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong in America. Full story.
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