Hey there weekday warriors,

Today we’ll get into Robinhood vs. the SEC, Howard Schultz’s LinkedIn post (yes, you read that right), and a whole lot more. Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 1 second of blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

+ US stocks “closed near session highs Monday, as the S&P 500 notched its best three-day run in a rip-roaring 2024. Wall Street continued to build on an end-of-week surge precipitated by a softer-than-expected jobs report that helped spur bets toward an earlier rate cut from the Federal Reserve.” (Yahoo! Finance)

+ The 10-year Treasury yield “were little changed Monday as traders pored through fresh commentary that could lead to clues on when the Federal Reserve may start cutting rates." (CNBC)

+ Oil “ended largely unchanged on Monday as a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel continued to elude negotiators.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin “surged to $65,400 during Asia trading hours Monday, its highest price in almost two weeks, and now is up almost 15% from last week's corrective bottom.” (Coindesk)

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) Palantir +8.0% // -8.3% after hours 2) Nvidia +3.7% 3) ALTC Acquisition Corp. +0.8%

The market moves you need to know about…

– 2021 called and it wants its headlines back. GameStop fell more than 20% from its peak of the day before closing down just 1.1%. Friendly reminder: last week the stonk was up more than 50%.

– Donny, you’re out of your element. Bowlero slumped 10.3% after sharing disappointing quarterly results and worse guidance.

– Tyson shares just had their worst daily decline in a year. The stock fell 5.6% on news that it missed sales expectations and that management has a funny feeling the rest of the year might be tough too.

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Hoodrat

Karma’s a b*tch, ain’t it Vlad?

It appears that someone at the SEC got burned by Robinhood (-0.9%) CEO Vlad Tenev’s decision to pause buying of GameStop and other stocks at the height of meme stonk mania back in 2021…

The Shortseller Enrichment Commission issued HOOD a Wells Notice related to its crypto business. A Wells Notice is kinda like the foreplay of charges that are about to be brought by the SEC. The brokerage app will have time to reply to the list of enforcement actions.

The claims are related to whether assets listed on Robinhood’s crypto platform are securities. If this sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve seen this movie before. The SEC has levied similar charges against pretty much every other crypto brokerage…

Robinhood was understandably butthurt…

The app reminded the US government about “years of good faith attempts to work with the SEC for regulatory clarity including our well-known attempt to ‘come in and register’…

There are a handful of potential outcomes should the SEC move forward with charges. Like a cease and desist order, fat fines… and (hopefully) Vlad being sent to the gulag.

Shares tumbled initially on the news but gained steam throughout the day. HOOD closed down slightly.

+ Tell me you’re about to be replaced as CEO without telling me…

It’s been a bad few days for Starbucks’ (-0.2%) CEO Laxman Narasimhan. Last week, the coffee chain reported that sales had fallen off a cliff, and slashed guidance for 2024. Plus, Lax was put on the hot seat by Jim Cramer. Jimmy Chill grilled him about the company’s abysmal performance. Shares dropped to a 2-year low.

Then on Sunday, Starbucks founder, and Lax’s predecessor Howard Schultz, dropped a scathing LinkedIn post addressing the situation. Friendly reminder: Howard has already bailed out the company twice by returning as CEO.

In the post, Howie Two Pumps offered some advice, like… “reinvent the mobile ordering and payment platform — which Starbucks pioneered — to once again make it the uplifting experience it was designed to be.” And by “Starbucks pioneered” he really means “I pioneered.”

He demanded “a maniacal focus on the customer experience, through the eyes of a merchant” and reminded everyone “The answer does not lie in data, but in the stores.”

+ Good news, fans of COPS… we’re about to get Skycam footage…

You see, the maker of Taser, Axon (+2.8%) said it’s acquiring Dedrone for an undisclosed sum. The security drone maker that works with the military, governments, and commercial customers (think: sports stadiums) has raised $127M to date.

The company will be folded into Axon which provides local, state, and federal officials with body cams, Tasers, dash cameras, and even an evidence management platform.

+ Spirit Airlines is like one analyst downgrade from getting the Spirit Halloween treatment (read: the costume store taking over the abandoned airlines HQ)…

Spirit (-9.7%) has had a rough go of it since the DOJ blocked its $3.8B merger with JetBlue. It’s been plagued by Pratt & Whitney engine delays. And it’s dealing with excess capacity in certain markets. That means it’s been forced to lower prices (friendly reminder: it’s already an ultra-low-priced carrier).

The airline reported its 10th consecutive quarterly loss on Monday… and said it’ll very likely make it 11 come August.

+ Palantir (+8.0% // -8.3% after hours) CEO Alex Karp is the kinda guy who tells clients that his team is in the trenches with them… and means it.

He said this during the company’s earnings call yesterday: “Warfare in this century will continue to be transformed by software. The platforms in use by our defense and intelligence partners present a very real threat to the survival of our enemies.”

Despite the Herb Brooks monologue during PLTR’s earnings call, shares were taking heavy fire after hours. The company beat on the top line and met the Street’s expectations on the bottom line. But its full-year outlook came up short.

+ Americans can’t stop ‘spaving’ — here’s how to avoid this financial trap (Read)

+ Equinox launches $40,000 membership to help you live longer (Read)

Yesterday, we were keeping an eye on earnings reports from Tyson Foods and Palantir. You can check out all the details above.

Here's what we’re keeping an eye on today...

+ Disney, BP, UBS, Datadog, Celsius, and Crocs report this AM

+ Occidental, EA, Coupang, Toast, Rivian, Lyft, Joby, and Dutch Bros. report after the close

+ Apple holds its iPad event

+ Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari speaks

Here’s today’s question…

[LAST CHANCE] What’s your favorite thing (could be a section, schtick, data point etc.) about any non-TWC newsletter you read?

You can reply directly to this email or shoot me a note at [email protected].

Oh, and…

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