Hey Snackers,
As Shakespeare (probably) thought: what’s in a name? That which we call a meme stock, by any other name, would sell as sweet. That’s the root of the question Sherwood News’ senior markets correspondent, Matt Phillips, asks in his piece, “Are Palantir and CoreWeave meme stocks?” It’s a good place to start today’s special trader edition of Snacks, which will also return to one to look at what’s happened to the OG meme stock, GameStop. We dive more into that below as we weigh whether we agree with Bloomberg’s definition of what makes a meme stock.Â
US stocks closed lower Wednesday, ending the S&P 500’s three-day win streak as Wall Street sifted through a number of headlines. On the trade front, US-China negotiations resulted in a preliminary agreement to revive last month’s Geneva tariff truce and ease rare-earth export limits. Meanwhile, May inflation came in cooler than expected, with minimal impact so far from recent tariffs. The S&P 500 slipped 0.27%, the Nasdaq shed 0.50%, and the Russell 2000 dropped 0.38%.
Superintelligent design
Meta’s Llama 4 AI model has sort of stumbled out of the gate. It suffered from delays and accusations of rigged benchmarks, and the company has yet to release the large, flagship version of the model dubbed “Behemoth.” Yes, Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly unhappy with where his company stands in the race for AGI (artificial general intelligence), and if he wants to win, he’s got to cut some deals.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, in Zuckerberg’s eyes. It’s time to do what’s ultimately necessary: find a comically large cannon (perhaps from a circus), load it up with hundreds of millions of dollars, point the cannon at the finest minds of rival AI firms, and fire at will...Â
The plan is to build a “superintelligence” team of about 50 people. The team’s mission: to reach AGI before leading competitors, which Zuckerberg thinks will give Meta the edge.
Zuckerberg plans to sit near them in the office, a sign of the importance of the effort. We are unclear if this is, in fact, a perk.Â
A key member of the team will be Alexandr Wang, the founder and CEO of Scale AI, which just received an investment from Meta that could exceed $10 billion, the largest external investment Meta has made.Â
The New York Times reports that Zuckerberg is offering candidates “seven- to nine-figure compensation packages” and is trying to poach OpenAI and Google employees.
The Takeaway
Just to be clear about a “nine-figure compensation package,” that would mean deals where the paycheck (or stock, for what it’s worth) would exceed $100 million. It seems like the real superintelligence was getting really into AI a few years ago so that advertisers will launch you into a stratospheric tax bracket because their boss got jealous of Microsoft.Â
Father-Son Duo Reinvents Home Construction
Henry Ford didn’t invent the car. He built them quickly and affordably with assembly lines. Now, Paolo and Galiano Tiramani aim to do the same for home construction with BOXABL.
Building a new home today can take almost a year. But a new home can roll off BOXABL’s assembly lines in hours.
Even more impressive? They fold up and deliver worldwide. Then, they’re set up on-site in a day (plumbing and electricity included). No wonder one of America’s top homebuilders already invested.
Now, BOXABL’s prepping for Phase 2, where homes will combine into larger single-family houses and apartments. And you can share in this growth as a shareholder. But not for long.
Game Stopped
GameStop whiffed on earnings, a troubling sign for a company that’s a major retailer in an industry that, by all accounts, seems to be doing pretty well. If anything, it’s a sign that yet again, GameStop’s actual business isn’t even the most interesting thing about its business anymore.Â
The company posted sales of $732.4 million for the quarter ended May 3, down 17% from the same quarter last year. For many companies, that would be a devastating decline, though the stock dropped only a few points in after-hours trading.Â
The main thing, though, is that sales weren’t really the number that onlookers were actually interested in. GameStop took on the, shall we say, unique pivot-to-bitcoin strategy pioneered by the likes of Strategy. When the company first announced it, the move was received with a meh.Â
GameStop didn’t announce any new bitcoin purchases beyond its previous buy, so there was nothing much to go on other than a declining retailer not challenging market expectations.Â
The pivot-to-bitcoin playbook has been huge for Strategy, but other would-be adoptees of the approach have faced difficult terrain in getting investors to actually care.Â
The Takeaway
GameStop in particular has had a bad time copying the strategy. Buying bitcoin is an arbitrage play for Strategy that lets management take advantage of the elevated valuation of its shares. For GameStop, it’s something that puts the source of its premium valuation at risk.
The Best Thing We Read Today
Is that a… robotaxi? On the road?Â
Tesla surged toward the end of Tuesday as CEO Elon Musk boasted about a video appearing to show a driverless robotaxi in Austin. We admit we were doubters, but yesterday’s posts from Tesla and Musk suggest its long-awaited robotaxi launch is imminent — and even on time.
Yesterday’s Big Daily Movers
Casey’s soared as gas station food continued to fuel sales in the fourth quarter
Plug Power surged for a second day after a new electrolyzer deal and insider buy
Uncrustables maker J.M. Smucker fell after disappointing sales and guidance
Energy stocks had a great day as trade talks sparked optimism around demand
What Else We're Snackin'
Analysts “were not expecting much... but were still slightly disappointed” by Apple’s developer conference
Paramount laid off 3% of its workforce as the media cost-cutting wave grows
Telehealth companies have to stop compounding GLP-1s if they want access to Zepbound, Lilly’s CFO warns
DeFi tokens are rallying after favorable remarks from SEC Chairman Paul Atkins at a crypto roundtable
FanDuel just added a $0.50 surcharge on all wagers in one US state
The big market move from Nasdaq
From rowdy trading floors to handy apps, the stock market is no stranger to change.
No one knows that better than Nasdaq — the home of some of the world’s most influential tech companies — which recently announced it plans to enable overnight trading by late 2026, pending regulatory approval.
Discover more on Nasdaq’s move to 24-hour trading at sherwood.news.
Snack Fact of the Day
Spot bitcoin ETFs hit $1 trillion in trading volume yesterday, with one fund leading the pack.
Thursday's Events
May Consumer Price IndexÂ
Earnings expected from Chewy, Victoria’s Secret, and Oracle
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