🐂Mugged

Markets

The initial momentum of a rally triggered by Nvidia's impressive earnings gradually faded as the day progressed. Concurrently, the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced its most significant decline since March. Although Nvidia enjoyed a notable surge of 4.5%, setting a new intraday record, the company eventually relinquished a substantial portion of those advances. Nonetheless, Nvidia's year-to-date performance remains impressive, with its value having surged by nearly 230%.

This Hollywood Star Can Make a Stock-Market Comeback

Instead of motivating audiences to switch from their couches, the ongoing Hollywood strike might once again encourage viewers to binge-watch Korean soap operas over American ones. However, for investors in Zoo Digital, this might not be a significant concern.

Shares in Zoo Digital, a technology company based in the UK that specializes in subtitling and dubbing services for movies and TV shows, have experienced a decline of over 50% in value over the past three months. This decline can be attributed to the Hollywood writers' and actors' strike, which has disrupted the production of television shows and films.

In 2021, Zoo Digital was an attractive high-growth venture, valued at 80 times the expected operating earnings. Currently, its valuation sits at a multiple of 15, just slightly above the average of the British stock market.

The Hollywood strike isn't the sole reason for the erosion of investor confidence. The emergence of text-generating artificial intelligence has the potential to reduce the demand for manual translation and captioning of dialogues. Additionally, major streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video are aiming to cut expenses in order to achieve profitability after years of substantial investments in original content. The disruptions in labor due to the strike could serve as a justification for further cost reductions. Expensive flagship shows such as Netflix's "The Witcher" or Disney's Marvel spin-offs could be particularly vulnerable to these cuts.

Economy

Powell Says Fed Will ‘Proceed Carefully’ on Further Rate Rises

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell argued for holding interest rates steady for now, but kept the door open to raising them later this year if the economy doesn’t slow enough to keep inflation declining.

Powell’s heavily anticipated address at the Kansas City Fed’s annual symposium underscored how he is trying to thread the needle between restraining the economy enough to reduce price pressures without throwing it into a needlessly severe slowdown.

Powell twice said the Fed would “proceed carefully” in any further move, signaling he saw little urgency to raise rates at the central bank’s next policy meeting in September.

“Given how far we have come, at coming meetings we are in a position to proceed carefully,” as officials “decide whether to tighten further or, instead, to hold the policy rate constant and await further data,” he said in delicately scripted remarks. 

Politics

You’re going to be seeing this photo a lot

Former President Donald Trump, who is listed at 6'3" and 215 lbs. in the booking record, was photographed at Atlanta's Fulton County Jail last night. He turned himself in over allegations of conspiring with 18 others to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. After his mug shot was taken and he made bail, he departed.

However, he left behind a significant visual impact on history.

Trump's mug shot swiftly claimed the spotlight among notable arrest photos, circulating across the internet moments after its release. In an unexpected move, Trump himself shared the image on X/Twitter, marking his first post on the platform since a ban that lasted nearly two years.

The mug shot has a unique potential to bring together individuals from various political viewpoints with a common objective: profit. Online vendors on platforms like Etsy anticipated this moment, preparing designs in advance to capitalize on people's interest in showcasing their political affiliations through merchandise like T-shirts. Even prior to the actual mug shot, individuals with basic design skills had been selling imitation mug shot products to both supporters and critics of the MAGA movement.

Additionally, Trump's presidential campaign is highly likely to utilize his mug shot for marketing purposes. In April, the campaign promoted "NOT GUILTY" shirts and mugs featuring a fictitious mug shot, which generated over $10 million in fundraising since his initial appearance in criminal court.

Why is this Trump's first authentic mug shot?

This marks the fourth instance of criminal charges against Trump within a span of five months, setting him apart as the sole former president to face indictments. Interestingly, rather than diminishing his chances of reelection, these legal challenges have bolstered his prominence in polls for the Republican primary.

While Trump evaded a mug shot in previous instances involving New York, Miami, and Washington, D.C., where he faced charges related to hush-money payments, mishandling classified documents, and attempting to overturn the 2020 election respectively, he was now photographed in Atlanta. Authorities deemed mug shots unnecessary for Trump due to his high level of recognition, yet the Fulton County sheriff intended to treat him like any other individual under arrest.

Say cheese: Georgia courtrooms generally allow cameras, a departure from federal and New York state courtrooms. Consequently, this initial image of Trump could be the first of numerous pictures (and potentially even broadcasts) from his legal proceedings.

Finance

A private Equity firm bough Subway

The founding families of the sandwich chain have agreed to its acquisition by the private equity firm Roark Capital, following their search for a buyer. While the exact details of the deal remain undisclosed, previous reports from the Wall Street Journal suggest that Roark put forth an offer of approximately $9.6 billion. As Subway has been experiencing a decline in market share relative to other sandwich chains, it will join a culinary-oriented collection of brands at Roark, which also boasts ownership of establishments such as Dunkin', Jimmy John's, Baskin-Robbins, Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Cinnabon, and several other eateries.

Tech

The DOJ accuses SpaceX of hiring discrimination

Taking a pause from its Mars-related endeavors, SpaceX is shifting its attention to more immediate terrestrial challenges. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against SpaceX, alleging the aerospace manufacturer of engaging in discrimination against asylum seekers and refugees during their recruitment process.

The lawsuit asserts that between 2018 and 2022, SpaceX actively discouraged individuals seeking asylum and refugees from applying for positions by providing false information that the company's employment opportunities were exclusively available to US citizens and permanent residents. This misleading information was purportedly based on the notion that SpaceX's work involved sensitive technology governed by US export regulations.

The complaint specifically pointed out instances where CEO Elon Musk had made statements, such as a tweet stating that "US law requires at least a green card to be hired at SpaceX, as rockets are considered advanced weapons technology." Video interviews featuring similar statements were also highlighted in the lawsuit.

According to the DOJ, despite numerous asylum seekers and refugees who possessed strong qualifications applying for positions, SpaceX allegedly rejected them based on their lack of US citizenship or green cards. The company's hiring platform even reportedly had specific rejection codes for these particular candidates.

In a broader context, companies collaborating with organizations like NASA or the Pentagon usually adopt cautious hiring policies to adhere to export regulations. This is crucial because any breach of these rules could jeopardize their contracts with the government. However, the Department of Justice asserts that SpaceX went beyond permissible bounds in their practices.

International

Leader in Russian Coup attempt presumed dead in plane crash

Approximately two months after spearheading an uprising against the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the entrepreneurial warlord who had turned from being Russian President Vladimir Putin's mercenary muscle to his adversary, seems to have perished in a plane crash to the north of Moscow.

The flight manifest of the private jet listed Prigozhin along with three crew members and six other passengers, all of whom lost their lives in the crash, as reported by Russian authorities. However, US officials have not yet been able to independently confirm this, and an individual with ties to the Kremlin mentioned that Prigozhin occasionally opted for a secondary plane as a precautionary measure.

Could Putin be involved in this?

Unverified reports circulating on Telegram suggest that Russian forces might have shot down the plane, leading to its crash. An analysis by the Associated Press of videos of the incident indicated signs consistent with a mid-flight explosion. If proven true, these accounts would align with prevalent speculations that Putin might not have finished penalizing Prigozhin for his attempt to seize control of Moscow in June. Prigozhin's paramilitary group, the Wagner Group, played a significant role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, Prigozhin later accepted an exile deal that swiftly halted the rebellion he initiated.

Christo Grozev, a journalist who specializes in investigating alleged Russian plots and accurately predicted Prigozhin's earlier coup attempt, recently told the Financial Times, "In six months, Prigozhin will either be deceased or there will be a second coup." Grozev's team played a role in uncovering the attempted poisoning of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny through nerve agents.

Just last month, President Biden alluded to the possibility of a similar fate for Prigozhin, stating, "If I were him, I would be cautious about my diet."

Suspicious circumstances surround Prigozhin's demise. Numerous high-profile critics of the Russian government have met their end in recent years under circumstances that appear to involve poisonings, falls from windows (defenestrations), or shootings. Russian authorities have often treated these cases as suicides during their investigations.