📊 Google vs. the United States

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Some key data bites from this week that you should know:

• OpenAI will lose an estimated $44B between 2023 and 2028.

• Berkshire Hathaway has now cut its Bank of America stake to under 10%.

• Disney increased the price of most park tickets by 6%.

• Boeing will layoff 17,000 workers, or 10% of its global workforce.

• TikTok’s parent ByteDance is scraping the internet 25x faster than OpenAI.

• AMD’s CEO sees the AI data center GPU market reaching $500B by 2028.

• TSMC saw quarterly sales climb 39%, thanks to strong AI chip demand.

• Bitcoin’s creator holds more than $60B of the cryptocurrency.

• September CPI increased 2.4% YoY, ahead of the 2.3% expected.

• Gold bars are sold out in 77% of surveyed Costco locations.

• CrowdStrike’s outage shaved $380M from Delta’s Q3 revenue.

• Super Micro is shipping more than 100K graphics processors per quarter.

• Activist Starboard Value has taken a $1B stake in Pfizer.

• TD Bank will pay a $3B fine over drug cartel money laundering.

• In July, only 15.7% of U.S. companies made net share purchases, the lowest level in 10 years.

• FTX Creditors will receive 119% of their claim in bankruptcy settlement.

In today’s newsletter:

• 📈 $10,000 Invested In Meta

• 🥊 Google vs. the United States

• 🟢 The S&P 500 Closes Above 5,800

• 🪫 Tesla’s Robotaxi Event

• 🏦 Blackrock’s Financial Empire Grows

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Is there anything stopping Mark Zuckerberg?

Meta’s shares crossed $600 for the first time ever this past Monday, hitting new highs before dipping below that level for the remainder of the week.

• The stock is up 70% this year and has soared 550% since bottoming in November 2022.

• Zuckerberg's aggressive cost-cutting and flawless execution in 2023, which he dubbed the "year of efficiency," have clearly paid off. 

The company’s rally briefly pushed him past Jeff Bezos as the world’s second-richest, but Bezos reclaimed the spot later in the week, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Google had a whirlwind with the courts this week.

• On Monday, a U.S. judge ordered Google to allow third-party app stores on its platform, following a successful lawsuit by Epic Games accusing Google of monopolizing the Android app store.

• Then on Tuesday evening, the Justice Department announced it’s considering breaking up the company over antitrust concerns.

A final ruling is expected by August 2025, but with Google likely to appeal, the process could drag on for quite some time.

Adding to its challenges, Google’s share of the U.S. search ad market is now projected to fall below 50% next year for the first time in over a decade, according to The Wall Street Journal and eMarketer.

The bulls are having a great year.

• The S&P 500 closed above 5,800 for the first time ever on Friday, pushing the index up 23% YTD. 

• The equal-weight index has also gained, climbing 14% this year, reflecting broader participation in the rally.

• A few names though, continue to be large players in the index’s ascent, such as Nvidia and Meta, who make up nearly 10% of the index combined.

Meanwhile, Palantir, a recent addition to the S&P 500, continues to hit new all-time highs. 

• The stock has surged 162% YTD, though it trades at one of the richest valuations—256x earnings and 39x sales.

Banks added to overall positive sentiment of the S&P 500’s rally this week as well.

• Goldman Sachs trimmed the odds of a US recession in the next year from 20% to 15%.

• Additionally, JPMorgan’s CFO noted during the company’s earnings call that their strong quarter aligns with the Fed’s efforts to achieve a soft landing.

Outside of this, I did find an interesting data point regarding the S&P 500.

• Companies making up roughly 43% of the S&P 500's overall market cap are currently under antitrust scrutiny.

Tesla’s stock just hit a speed bump.

Shares of Tesla fell nearly 9% on Friday after investors were left unimpressed by the company’s highly anticipated Robotaxi event. 

• The event showcased the Cybercab, a fully driverless, two-seat EV set to be priced under $30,000, with production slated for 2027.

• Tesla also introduced the Robovan, an autonomous shuttle for up to 20 people.

• Optimus robots were also demonstrated, envisioned as AI-driven assistants for humans.

Tesla’s near $700B market cap remains steep, relying heavily on the future success of its robotaxi ambitions.

Interestingly, concerns that Tesla’s robotaxis would disrupt Uber and Lyft faded, as both stocks surged roughly 10% on Friday.

While Tesla bulls often say that the automaker is an AI tech company, it is still important to note that 82.3% of Tesla’s revenue still comes from car sales.

BlackRock’s financial empire continues to grow as seen by the company’s strong results for Q3 FY24.

Here were some of the key figures:

• 🟢 Adj. EPS: $11.46 vs. $10.38 Est.

• 🟢 Revenue: $5.197B vs. $5.007B Est.

• Quarterly Total Net Inflows: +$221B

• YTD Total Net Inflows: +$360B

Revenue and adjusted EPS rose 15% and 5%, respectively, while adjusted operating income surged 26%.

• Organic base fee growth hit a multi-year high of 5%.

• The most impressive figure of the report: AUM increased 26% YoY, from $9.1T to $11.5T.

CEO Larry Fink highlighted the company’s success: “Our relentless focus on clients, growth mindset and willingness to evolve has generated a compounded annual total return of over 20% for our shareholders since our IPO 25 years ago, well in excess of broader markets.”

• Looking ahead, he remains confident: “The opportunities ahead of us have never been greater, and we look forward to driving growth for our clients, shareholders and employees in the years to come.”

Notable Companies Reporting Earnings This Week:

• Tuesday: Johnson & Johnson $JNJ, Bank of America $BAC, Goldman Sachs $GS

• Wednesday: Abbott Laboratories $ABT

• Thursday: Blackstone $BX, Netflix $NFLX

• Friday: Procter & Gamble $PG, American Express $AXP

I use EarningsHub to track earnings, estimates, and receive AI summaries of investor calls.

• If you’d like an all-in-one earnings tool and see all other companies reporting, I definitely recommend you check it out!

Buys

• Ro Khanna (D)

  • Company: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ($CM)

    • Amount Purchased: $200K - $450K

  • Company: Barclay’s Bank ($BCS)

    • Amount Purchased: $200K - $450K

Sells

• Mark Green (R)

  • Company: NGL Energy Partners ($NGL)

    • Amount Sold: $101K - $265K

• Ro Khanna (D)

  • Company: Starbucks ($SBUX)

    • Amount Sold: $34K - $160K

Buys

• Dave & Buster’s Entertainment ($PLAY)

  • Insider: Chris Morris (CEO)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 14,912

    • $ Amount: $502,162

    • SEC Forms: [1]

Sells

• Robinhood ($HOOD)

  • Insider: Meyer Malka (Director)

    • # of Shares Sold: 3,225,806

    • $ Amount: $80,878,698

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• AutoZone ($AZO)

  • Insider: William C. Rhodes III (Executive Chairman)

    • # of Shares Sold: 13,000

    • $ Amount: $40,392,888

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• Nvidia ($NVDA)

  • Insider: Mark Stevens ($NVDA)

    • # of Shares Sold: 155,000

    • $ Amount: $20,502,578

    • SEC Forms: [1]

🤝 Review of the Week