Hey there weekday warriors,

Last newsletter of the week. Let’s not kid ourselves… you’re not going to read the newsletter tomorrow or Friday… and I don’t want to write it.

Happy July 4th, you beautiful sons of b*tches. Enjoy your Thursday and Friday, Canada, Europe, and the rest of the world.

See you all Monday.

Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 21 seconds of (red, white, and) blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

PS, PrimePlus+ members can still expect an email on Sunday.

+ US stocks “rallied on Tuesday as investors digested fresh commentary from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, who cheered the "disinflationary path" of recent economic data.” (Yahoo! Finance)

+ The 10-year Treasury yield “fell on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cited progress on squashing stubborn inflation." (CNBC)

+ Oil “fell on Tuesday as fears faded that Hurricane Beryl would disrupt supplies as the storm will avoid most oil fields as it barrels toward Jamaica.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin fell “on Tuesday as anticipation of token distributions from the now defunct exchange Mt Gox, along with closely-watched cues on interest rates, kept crypto markets in check.” (Investing)

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) Tesla +10.2% 2) Nvidia -1.3% 3) C3.ai -1.8%

The market moves you need to know about…

+ Another day, another FTC lawsuit. Shares of Tempur Sealy rose 2.3% on news that the Federal Trade Commish plans to block its $4B acquisition of Mattress Firm.

– Shares of Vizio fell 1.1% because… *checks notes* the FTC sued to block the Tempur Sealy-Mattress Firm deal. Why the sympathy? Walmart’s acquisition of Vizio looks and smells a lot like the mattress mega-deal (read: it could also get blocked).

+ Siemens just put the European economy on its back. The stock rose 4.0% on news that it planned to hire 10k new employees and invest $1.3B in its electricity grid biz. Thanks, AI.

Tesla delivers

Imagine Tesla (+10.2%) investors getting excited about a drop in deliveries in 2021…

Elon’s EV maker released its Q2 delivery #s on Tuesday. And it wasn’t pretty… at least at first glance. The number of cars to roll off the assembly line fell 4.8% vs. last year, to 443,956.

To be fair…

Deliveries at the carmaker that gave us the Cybertruck (even though no one asked) rose 14.8% vs. the first quarter.

Oh, and the 443,956 was above analyst estimates… so it’s got that going for it.

As you might have guessed, that’s all Tesla investors needed to send shares to the moon. TSLA closed up more than 10% yesterday.

Reason for concern

Still, Elon and Co. are dealing with some major headwinds. For starters, the demand for EVs (in general) is lower than Elon’s willingness to use birth control (I’ll save you the Google… he has 12 kids).

Speaking of Elon being problematic… the eccentric founder/genius/billionaire has alienated potential customers with his online antics (see: Twitter). And Tesla’s stale lineup of cars hasn’t done the company any favors.

+ “Daddy, chill.” - J-Poww to everyone hoping that the lower inflation print last week meant rate cuts were on the way

At a Central Bank forum (sounds riveting) yesterday the US Fed Chair said “We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward 2% before we start the process of reducing or loosening policy.”

Jay thinks inflation has come a long way but doesn’t want to risk being premature with cuts. Because God forbid a guy be a little bit premature…

+ Today in what is the least surprising news of all time, Paramount (+5.7% // +7.9% after hours) is this close to a deal with Skydance (spoiler: it was the only buyer dumb enough to buy Shari Redstone’s steaming pile of sh*t).

According to reports, Skydance will pay $1.75B for Redstone’s National Amusements, which controls the studio. Skydance’s stake will then merge with Paramount, giving the combined company an enterprise value of ~$2.4B.

The news comes just a few hours after Barry Diller’s IAC threw its hat in the ring for Paramount. There have been a number of purported suitors over the past few months, including Sony, Apollo, and Byron Allen. And Paramount has already rejected at least one Skydance bid…

+ Greece becomes first EU country to introduce a six-day working week. Sucks to suck, Greeks.

+ 28-year-old mom’s teacher salary largely goes toward child care—the real costs of quitting to stay home with your kids. I have done this math countless times in my head.

⏪ Yesterday we were keeping an eye on Tesla delivery numbers and J-Poww’s comments.

⏩ Today we’re keeping an eye on…

+ Constellation Brands reports this AM

+ ADP’s jobs report

+ FOMC Meeting Minutes drop

+ A ton of non-manufacturing data (S&P Global Services PMI, ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI)

Yesterday, I asked, “What’s the best thing you ever got from a vending machine?”

Cigarettes were by far the best answer.

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.