Hey Snackers,
Better to have loved and lost, especially if you can afford the breakup fees. There’s a whole business catering to the recently dumped with heartbreak advice and strategies to woo back lost loves. How $weet.Â
Stocks ticked down yesterday, cooling after an otherwise red-hot week that saw record highs and bitcoin pass $100K. Today investors have eyes on the November jobs report.Â
🎧 Quiz wrapped: No judgment on your music taste, but the Snacks Seven quiz will judge your business-news knowledge. The first q:
What was the most-visited English article on Wikipedia this year? (Check your answer.)
Kay Jewelers parent Signet fails to ring up growth as lab-grown rocks sparkle
He didn’t go to Jared… Signet Jewelers reported lackluster earnings yesterday. The parent company of Kay and Jared said its quarterly sales fell on the year. It also cut its guidance for its fiscal year. FYI: in the US, nearly 40% of engagements happen between November and February, with December being the most popular month for popping the question. But Signet says engagements are “less predictable,” and as of last year the number of knee-droppers had yet to return to pre-Covid levels. Just 2.1M couples got engaged last year, far below the prepandemic average of 2.8M.
Dinged: As Signet struggles to sell rings to fewer couples, its natural-diamonds biz has faced competition from lab-grown rocks, which it said have disrupted the industry.
The fifth C… might be “cultivated.” Lab-grown diamonds were virtually nonexistent before 2015, experts say. Now it’s estimated that nearly half the diamonds sold in US jewelry stores are made in a lab. As the average-sale price of natural diamonds rises, couples are increasingly opting for more affordable lab-grown stones that get them more carats for their coin. Signet hasn’t totally sat out the trend: in 2022 it acquired Blue Nile, which has an entire web section dedicated to lab-grown bling. But yesterday Signet said it’s struggled to integrate the company.
Costly carats: The average natural diamond sold for $6.6K this year, more than double the price of its lab-cultivated counterpart.
Diamonds may not be forever… at least not mined ones. Signet and luxury jeweler De Beers teamed up on an ad campaign this year to sell natural diamonds to a generation that didn’t grow up with “a diamond is forever” commercials. But natural diamonds are getting dinged as more folks opt for lab-grown options and alt rocks like morganite.
The drone tech company that aims to grow more food at lower costs
Cream of the crop…. Traditional crop treatment methods can be slow, imprecise, and expensive. To sustainably produce more food on fewer acres to support a growing world population, Hylio has developed innovative drone technology.
Groundbreaking… An industry pioneer, Hylio secured the first-ever US FAA approval for swarm operations with a single pilot, transforming the possibilities for agriculture.
Made in the USA… Hylio prides itself on employing hard-working Americans to design, engineer and manufacture technology that supports America’s drone and food supply chains.
Make hay… With big-name clients like the US Department of Agriculture, Hylio is well-positioned to tap into a total addressable market across multiple industries of $556B by 2030.
Learn more about the opportunity to invest in Hylio, the new frontier of farming.1
Chrysler’s only product is a dying minivan, and Stellantis could send it to the junkyard
Seven seats and still struggling… American auto icon Chrysler could be at the end of its road. The century-old car brand (owned by Stellantis) was once an industry titan, but its fate now rests on the success of the only vehicle it still makes: the Pacifica minivan. Once a booming category, the serially uncool minivan hasn’t been thriving in its middle age. Sales of the Pacifica were down 44% in the most recent quarter, and things might get worse.
Empty bucket (seats): The Pacifica is built in Ontario and its sales could be slammed by President-elect Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on Canadian imports. Still, Chrysler says it’s bringing back a lower-cost Canadian-built minivan, the Voyager, to the retail market next year.
Suburban sabbatical: US minivan sales peaked in 2000 with 1.4M sold, but just 306K were driven off US lots last year. Only three models are still being made, one each from Chrysler, Honda, and Toyota. Kia rebranded its minivan to a “multi-purpose vehicle” in 2021.
Flop era: Over the past quarter century, Chrysler has changed hands three times and declared bankruptcy.Â
It starts with the parents… Stellantis, which also owns Jeep, Dodge, and Ram, hasn’t set a great example for Chrysler. The company’s share price is down more than 40% this year. In its most recent quarter, Stellantis said its US sales plunged 20% from last year. Rocky relationships with dealers, suppliers, and unions led its board to force out its CEO this week. Pricing remains a core issue: Stellantis’ average-vehicle price was the industry’s second highest in Q3.
Name recognition only goes so far… Faced with putting out fires across much of its business, Stellantis may not be willing to keep Chrysler around if it doesn’t make financial sense (especially since it only makes a minivan). Analysts expect a brand audit to be one of the next Stellantis CEO’s first moves.
.jpg)
Discover How to Save 10+ Hours Per Week Using AI as Your Personal Assistant
Drowning in tasks at work? Your AI productivity breakthrough has arrived.
Get the exact templates used by top performers to delegate 80% of their routine work to AI
Master AI delegation in under 60 minutes with our step-by-step implementation guide
Imagine completing a full day's work by lunch, knowing your AI assistant handles the rest. Download Your Free AI Assistant Kit Now.
The Crypto Catch-Up…
đź“ś Policy… Trump tapped Paul Atkins, a pro-crypto lawyer, to serve as the next SEC chair. Atkins would represent a seismic shift from the regulator’s current leader, Gary Gensler, who led a crackdown on crypto.Â
🤹‍♀️ Quirky… Hawk tuah, a meme coin inspired by a viral video, hit a nearly $500M market cap this week before quickly losing 90% of its value. Irate hawk hodlers accused the token’s creators of running a pump-and-dump scheme (the team denied it).
What else we’re Snackin’
Lululemon shares stretched up after the legging legend reported better-than-expected growth, though sales in North America fell again.
Dollar General said it’s testing same-day delivery as the discount retailer tries to fend off e-competition from Walmart and Amazon.Â
Alphabet’s Waymo plans to expand its fleet of driverless robotaxis to Miami after racking up 150K paid trips/week in cities including LA and SF.Â
Burrito baller Chipotle announced it’ll raise prices for the fifth time in two years, citing extra costs (#guacflation).
OpenAI said it’d team up with weapons maker Anduril to add its AI tech to drone-defense systems, despite a one-time pledge to avoid military applications.
Ripe for the picking: Hylio’s pioneering drone technology aims to make farming cheaper, safer, and more efficient. Learn more about the opportunity to invest in a company that hopes to revolutionize agriculture.¹
Snack Fact of the Day
Taylor Swift’s new book became the second-best-selling nonfiction title
Friday
Employment data
Consumer sentiment and credit
Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares of: Alphabet, Amazon, and Walmart
Advertiser's disclosures:
¹ This is a paid advertisement for Hylio’s Regulation CF Offering. This Reg CF offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC. Please read the offering circular and related risks at https://www.startengine.com/offering/hylio.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Start-up investments are speculative and involve a high degree of risk. Those investors who cannot afford to lose their entire investment should not invest in start-ups. Companies seeking startup investment tend to be in earlier stages of development and their business model, products and services may not yet be fully developed, operational or tested in the public marketplace. There is no guarantee that the stated valuation and other terms are accurate or in agreement with the market or industry valuations. Further, investors may receive illiquid and/or restricted stock that may be subject to holding period requirements and/or liquidity concerns.
This was a paid for ad. Sherwood Media has been compensated for this ad by the Hylio Reg CF Campaign hosted on StartEngine.