Hey there weekday warriors,

Today we’re talking inflation. And reliving Nike’s worst day ever (just in case they forgot).

Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 27 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

+ US stocks “closed down slightly Friday to end the week, the month and the first half. But the year-to-date gains tell a story of optimism, with analysts calling for more records later in the year.” (Yahoo! Finance)

+ The 10-year Treasury yield “was higher Friday as investors digested a key inflation measure that came in line with expectations." (CNBC)

+ Oil “fell on Friday as investors weighed weak U.S. fuel demand and took some money off the table at quarter-end, while key inflation data for May boosted the chances the Federal Reserve will start to cut interest rates this year.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin rose over the weekend.

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) Nvidia -0.3% 2) C3.ai +1.4% 3) Tesla +0.2%

The market moves you need to know about…

– Nike just had its worst day ever. The stock fell 19.9% after a brutal earnings report. Oh, and management warned FY25 will be a “transition year” (translation: a terrible year).

+ Shares of Live Nation rose 3.2% on news that its antitrust trial might not get underway until the year of our lord 2026.

– Kura Sushi got rekt on Friday. Shares cratered 23.4% after sharing piss-poor preliminary earnings. The gas station sushi of quarterly results, if you will.

– There was only one stock down worse than President Biden’s following Thursday night’s debate. Shares of Trump Media fell 10.4% despite what many considered a disastrous performance from DJT’s opponent.

The price is right

Bah gawd, that’s Rate Cut’s music…

On Friday, the Fed’s preferred inflation report dropped. The core personal consumption expenditures price index jumped just 0.1% month over month. That was in line with expectations.

You know what else was in line with expectations? Year over year PCE, which rose just 2.6%. That’s the lowest annual rate since May 2021… when inflation topped 2% for the first time in this cycle.

The inflation figure including food and energy (think: the headline variety, which J-Poww dgaf about) was also in line with expectations.

Elsewhere in the report, we found out that personal income came in higher than expected… but personal spending came in lower than economists expected.

What does it all mean?

It isn’t time to pop the ‘rate cut’ champagne bottles yet, but it’s probably time to start chilling them.

A series of in-line or better-than-expected reports is exactly what the Fed will be looking for before it pulls the trigger on rate cuts later this year.

Friendly reminder: the Fed is penciling in just one rate cut, while markets are pricing in two.

+ DEI is cancelled…

At least at Tractor Supply (+0.9%), which kinda checks outs. The company came out and said and said it will no longer sponsor “pride festivals and voting campaigns,” will slash its DEI roles, and retire current DEI initiatives “while still ensuring a respectful environment.”

So why is Tractor Supply transitioning away from what it calls ‘non-business activities’?

Turns out its overwhelmingly conservative customer base wasn’t about that life and wouldn’t stop leaving nasty Yelp reviews.

As you might have guessed, activists in the DEI camp were butthurt about the decision.

+ Look, if Nokia makes networking gear even half as durable as its brick cellphone, it’s going to make the competition its b*tch…

Nokia (+1.3%) bought “optical networking solutions” company Infinera for $2.3B. Why? To capitalize on the AI boom, of course. Infinera makes equipment for AI data centers.

And Nokia has big ambitions. Infinera is currently the second-biggest player in the space and controls ~20% of the market.

+ It’s that time of year again… big banks pass their stress tests and immediately make it rain on shareholders. Four of the biggest banks shared their payouts on Friday…

• JPMorgan (+1.5%) hiked its quarterly dividend 8.7% to $1.25 per share and signed off on a new $30B share buyback

• Morgan Stanley (+1.4%) boosted its dividend by 8.8% to 92.5 cents per share and authorized a $20 billion repurchase

• Citigroup (+3.1%) raised its dividend 5.7% to 56 cents per share (and will “continue to assess share repurchases”)

• Bank of America (+1.3%) hiked its dividend 8% to 26 cents per share (also no buybacks)

No real surprise that Citi went all “you’ll get nothing and like it.” Protestors not letting Citigroup employees into its Manhattan HQ is the least of its worries as of late. The bank has been struggling with regulatory and profitability issues, and Jane Fraser’s turnaround has gone about as well as David Solomon’s DJ career...

+ Probably just a coincidence that Nike (-19.9%) announced a new, more affordable line of shoes on what ended up being the worst day the company’s stock had in its entire history. The Swoosh announced a $100 an under line of sneakers, presumably in hopes of luring back more cost-conscious consumers.

+ Crypto to See Tighter Tax Rules Starting in 2026 (Read)

+ An analyst ordered 75 Chipotle burrito bowls to test portion sizes (Read)

+ The most visionary, successful people always do 3 things when talking to others: It’s ‘make or break’ for effective communication (Read)

⏪ On Friday we got core PCE (inflation) data and that was all that really mattered. Check out all the details above.

⏩ Today we’re keeping an eye on…

+ We’ll start getting quarterly updates on EV deliveries from Tesla (TSLA), Nio (NIO), XPeng (XPEV), Rivian Automotive (RIVN), Li Auto (LI), and Lucid Group (LCID)

+ A whole bunch of manufacturing data drops (S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI, ISM Manufacturing PMI & Prices)

Friday, I asked, “What's the better use of $5? ($5 worth of fractional McDonald’s shares OR that first cold beer at Friday happy hour)”

83.9% of you went with the cold one… which feels a little low to me, tbh.

Here’s today’s question…

Looks like DEI initiatives are starting to be sunset…

Before you go…

Not what I usually post here, but thought this had some interesting nuggets…

Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled memes (Check it out on Twitter)

Does this look like the face of a guy you should take financial advice from?

No, it’s the face of an individual who is financially irresponsible/dumb enough to be talked into spending money on a family photo shoot that he could have just done with his iPhone. So, act accordingly...

This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter is an investment recommendation. All content is created for entertainment, educational, or informational purposes only. Do your own research, or do yourself a favor and hire a professional.