Hey Snackers,
Frustrated with Taco Bell’s glitchy AI-powered drive-thru and its quick but wrong performance, customers have started trolling the AI with ridiculous orders, like this request for 18,000 water cups. Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum! Brands, is now reconsidering the tech’s rollout, but we’re not expecting too big of a pullback: earlier this year, the fast-food giant partnered with Nvidia to upgrade and expand its voice AI.
The S&P 500 posted another record close on Thursday, rising 0.3%. That’s despite the biggest stock in the world, Nvidia, falling a little less than 1% after reporting solid but unspectacular Q2 results. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed with a 0.6% advance, while the Russell 2000 rose 0.2%.
Markets are closed on Monday in observance of Labor Day, but we’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday.
🧠 Pop quiz: Enagements, musicians, brand collabs… Take our Snacks Seven Quiz to see how well you kept up with this week’s stories. Here’s a sample question:
Gap’s “Better in Denim” campaign, its most viral ad ever, featured which music group?
Lyft’s CEO spills on robotaxis and how to end surge pricing
Lyft has long had a reputation on Wall Street for living in the shadow of Uber, its larger and more profitable competitor.
But if you ask CEO David Risher, the company is in the middle of a major turnaround, even if it’s taking the Street a while to get up to speed. The ride-share company recently reported its third consecutive profitable quarter and is dipping into new markets.
Sherwood News sat down for a frank discussion with Risher, and the avuncular exec did not hold back.
When asked what the biggest differences were between the company he walked into in 2023 and the one he leads now — which, for one thing, is profitable after a long, long ride, as this chart shows — Risher emphasized Lyft’s “relentless focus on service, which is not what I found a couple of years ago. The second thing we have now is ambition.”
That ambition includes opening service in Puerto Rico and the firm’s first international expansion. He’s also not scared of autonomous vehicles, but sees a way the tech can fit into Lyft’s fleet and still provide income for owners.
Then we moved on to a spicy word in the company’s annual shareholder letter, used to signify hurting the customer experience to serve the gods of profit. Risher added that surge pricing is the perfect example of this: “It’s an economist’s dream; it’s supply/demand management. In the world of econometrics, it’s perfect. In the real world, people hate it with a fiery passion. But it’s hard to get rid of it.” Still, he found a way to wean Lyft off “this drug.”
The Takeaway
People take 161 billion rides in their private cars every year in North America, and Risher isn’t aiming for all of them to be done in a Lyft. But his relentless focus on customer and driver satisfaction and innovation seems to be paying off. As he told us, “I don’t meet a lot of people who love our competitor. In fact, I can’t think of any. On the other hand… people say, ‘I want you to succeed. I like you as an underdog, I like your values’” — not to mention those sweet credit card rewards points.
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Long a stronghold for Tesla, Europe is now preferring BYD for its EV needs
BYD sold nearly 50% more vehicles in the European Union than Tesla did last month, according to new data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. The Chinese automaker moved about 9,700 units versus Tesla’s 6,600.
Earlier country-specific data hadn’t been looking good for Tesla. Those 6,600 units moved in July are down 42% year over year, while BYD’s numbers are up 206% over the same period.
BYD, which sells both EVs and plug-in hybrids, outsold Tesla in Europe for the first time in April, though Tesla’s January through July sales have outpaced BYD’s by nearly 20,000.
BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li credited her company’s success to its wide variety of offerings relative to Tesla. Tesla, on the other hand, recently halted new orders of two of its four models available in the EU.
Europeans like electric cars, and in many countries have more readily adopted the new technology than American consumers. Tesla has, historically, done pretty well at selling cars to the European market, but ever since CEO Elon Musk’s debut, shall we say, in American politics, the continent has gotten shakier for the carmaker.
The Takeaway
In Tesla’s defense, Elon Musk said on the company’s last earnings call, “It’s worth noting that we do not actually yet have approval for supervised FSD [full self-driving] in Europe. So our sales in Europe, we think, will improve significantly once we are able to give customers the same experience that they have in the US.”
YouTube could be the answer to the Oscars viewership problem
In recent years, the Oscars’ viewership has declined to less than half its peak, and major moments aren’t so buzzy anymore: the most watched clip on the Oscars’ YouTube channel is this actor’s win for the portrayal of Hugh Glass back in 2016, and only one video from the last five years is in the channel’s top 15 most viewed clips.
Yesterday’s Big Daily Movers
CoreWeave surged as a supply-constrained Nvidia may be more good news than bad
Burlington jumped after a huge Q2 beat and raised its outlook as shoppers keep bargain hunting
Build-A-Bear soared after the toy maker delivered record second-quarter earnings and revenue and raised its outlook
Dick’s Sporting Goods fumbled after its disappointing revenue guidance outweighed its earnings beat
Bath & Body Works fell after the lotion and soap maker posted mixed Q2 results
Major Investors Are Buying This Unlisted Stock
When the real estate star behind a $120M exit starts a new company, people notice. No wonder five major VC firms invested in Pacaso.
They sell fractions of premier properties, revamping a $1.3T vacation home market.2 And it works, earning Pacaso $100M+ in gross profits since 2021.3 They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.4 Invest for $2.90/share before the opportunity ends on September 18.5
What Else We're Snackin'
Traders might not have been too impressed by Nvidia’s earnings report, but Wall Street analysts sure were
With earnings season over, we know what companies are thinking
American Bitcoin, backed by President Trump’s eldest sons and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, will start trading soon
Ethereum ETFs are flipping the script on bitcoin this month
What was the song of the summer? One writer thinks it’s not even a whole song but just a hook from a 2015 tune made popular again by Jet2
Snack Fact Of The Day
Over half of Nvidia’s AI direct hardware sales revenue comes from just three customers.
Today's Events
July PCE (the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge)
Earnings expected from Alibaba
1 Before investing, consider the funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. To obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus, which contains this and other information, call 1-866-787-2257 or visit www.ssga.com. Read it carefully. Investing involves risk. ALPS Distributors, Inc. (fund distributor); State Street Investment Management Funds Distributors, LLC (marketing agent).
2 Pacaso estimates the U.S. market at $1.3 trillion and the European market as $500 billion. See website for further details.
3 The $100M gross profit is calculated from 2021-2024. For more details on the gross profit for 2021- 2023, please see management discussion of the financial condition section of the offering circular. For more details on the 2024 gross profit, please see the 1-K Financial Statements section. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
4 Pacaso recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($PCSO). Reserving the ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the Nasdaq is subject to approvals.
5 The minimum investment is $1,035.52 when including the 3.5% investor fee. This is a paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.pacaso.com.
Investing in private company securities is not suitable for all investors because it is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. It should only be considered a long-term investment. You must be prepared to withstand a total loss of your investment. Private company securities are also highly illiquid, and there is no guarantee that a market will develop for such securities.