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South Park (Photo by Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
You Bastards!

Did South Park mark the top for weight-loss stocks?

Once a company or product is featured on the show, things tend to go badly.

Luke Kawa

South Park doesn’t just kill Kenny. It may also kill stock market trends.

In the May 24 television special “End of Obesity,” writer Trey Parker directly name-checks Ozempic, the weight-loss drug made by Novo Nordisk, as well as Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro. 

Brent Donnelly, president of Spectra Markets, did the leg work and found that once a company or its product is featured prominently on an episode of the animated comedy series, its stock tends to underperform the S&P 500 by 7 percent over the following 12 months.

The rationale behind South Park as a contrarian indicator: if the subject matter is accessible enough that we can laugh at the absurdity of its high place in society, well, it probably can’t command much more mind-share or wallet-share going forward.

“South Park has a 20+-year history of capturing the cultural zeitgeist and it’s impossible to argue that anything that is lampooned on South Park is not priced in,” he wrote in a note to clients.

Or, as James van Geelen, CEO of Citrini Research, puts it:


Here are the stats:

South Park Market Track Record
Source: Brent Donnelly, Spectra Markets

Granted, there’s extremely large variance: Netflix went on to beat the S&P 500 by more than 100% over the following 12 months; cannabis company MedMen, which filed for bankruptcy in late April, underperformed by almost 100%.

Separately, Donnelly noted that new themed exchange-traded fund launches can also serve as a contrarian indicator that strength in a popular pocket of the market is getting long in the tooth. To that end, two firms, Roundhill Investments and Amplify ETFs, recently launched two new products (OZEM and THNR, respectively) that provide exposure to companies offering GLP-1 treatments.

Donnelly’s conclusion: “Not a bad time to lighten up on the GLP-1 basket. It’s all priced in.”

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Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan is surrounded by NBA Championship trophies after his team defeated the Utah Jazz 90-86 to win the 1997 NBA Finals at the United Center in Chicago, IL.

Stock climb on US-Iran peace deal; semiconductors rally

This morning, President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war.

markets

Intel surges after Trump announces US chip deal with Apple

Intel is soaring in early trading after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Apple has agreed to work with the semiconductor giant to design and manufacture its chips domestically.

President Trump positioned the agreement as the latest victory for his administration’s industrial policy after the federal government acquired a 9.9% equity stake in Intel last year.

"Stupid Presidents took our Economy for granted, and let Taiwan and others steal our Semiconductor Factories," Trump wrote in the post. "We design everything, but we need to BUILD it here, NOW! So I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America... and, finally, Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its Chips in America."

Intel reportedly reached a preliminary agreement back in May to manufacture chips for the Apple, which has been facing supply constraints for its iPhone as well other products. The deal could help Apple reduce its reliance on longtime partner TSMC by bringing more of its chip manufacturing stateside.

"This partnership helps Apple with chip development and manufacturing on US soil with greater focus on reducing dependence on Asian manufacturing facilities." Wedbush's Dan Ives commented in a company report. He has a $400 price target for Apple this year.

The timing aligns with Intel's technical roadmap. Earlier this week, Intel confirmed that its advanced, performance-boosted 18A-P process node officially entered its risk production phase. This move serves as a blueprint for both Intel chips and processors the company plans to build for foundry customers.

“The current capacity crunch is probably emboldening customers to give Intel a harder look at this stage than perhaps they might ordinarily be inclined to do as the prospect of more advanced capacity will take on higher value in a constrained environment,” wrote Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon. “We are sure that Trump’s encouragement is at least not going to hurt though.”

Momentum was built around Intel Foundry services as surging global AI demand continuously outpaced capacity. Earlier this month, Google reportedly placed an order with Intel to manufacture more than 3 million of its increasingly popular tensor processing unit chips in 2028. According to the report, Nvidia is also testing to see if Intel could manufacture its next-gen Feynman chips.

markets

Stocks rise after US, Iran sign peace plan

Stocks rose Thursday morning after President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war, in another sign that a months-long war that caused energy prices to spike could be coming to an end.

Trump signed the MOU before a dinner in Versailles, France on Wednesday evening. The president previously announced that a deal had been reached on Sunday evening, saying that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would resume and that the US naval blockade would be lifted.

The deal comes after both sides exchanged attacks last week, escalating tensions to some of the highest levels since the US and Israel struck Iran in late February.

The price of Brent Crude ticked even lower after dropping on Sunday, sitting at about $76 a barrel. Oil giants like Shell, Chevron and Exxon fell on the news, as average gas prices in the US dropped below $4 for the first time in months.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9% and 1.5%, respectively. Last week, inflation readings for May showed both wholesale inflation and consumer prices rose in large part because of higher energy costs.

Signs of the peace deal have also lead to buying of momentum stocks this week. iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETFrose another 1.46% in premarket trading.

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