Good Morning!

Today’s article is brought to you by: 95% human and 5% AI

Market Update

📊 Stocks closed mostly flat on Monday, giving back early morning gains as the 10-year inched back toward 4%.

🟢  Lumen Technologies rose 4% as it was dropped from the S&P500, an index representing the 500 largest companies in the US. Sounds… not so bullish?

🔴  Glucose Monitoring company Dexcom fell 7.8% after the FDA cleared rival Abbot Labs to pair its body-worn glucose monitors with automated insulin pumps.

Banger Tweet of the Day

“Me? No bro, I was never that into crypto.”

Tesla Cuts Prices, Again

The worlds leading EV manufacturer is back with the price cuts, slashing prices on its luxury Model X and Model Y.

• The Model S is dropping from $94,990 to $89,990, roughly 5%.

• The Model Y is dropping from $109,990 to $99,990, roughly 9%.

• The two vehicles represented ~5% of Tesla’s total production in 2022

Back at it: The cuts mark the second of the year for Tesla, after previously dropping prices for its Model 3 and Model Y by as much as 20%.

Bullish or Bearish: Some investors are saying the price cuts are an intentional strategy to squeeze its competition and take a further lead in the EV market.

Less bullish analysts claim the price cuts are a sign of weakening demand and increasing competition.

Tesla stock finished Monday down 2%.

Business Bytes

🤳TikTok Rolls Out Effort to Assure Europeans on Data (WSJ)

• “Project Clover” references Ireland where the company intends to build two data centers to host EU user data.

• The name is similar to “Project Texas”, TikTok’s $1.5 billion US proposal to protect user data.

✂️ Atlassian, Owner of Jira, cuts 5% of its workforce (Techcrunch)

• The move, which will impact about 500 Atlassians (I’m sure their CEO calls them that), said the move is a rebalancing of priorities rather than a reflection of company performance.

📺️ Paramount considers selling majority stake of BET Media Group (CNBC)

• Per CNBC, “Paramount executives believe BET may be particularly valued by a consortium of wealthy Black individuals and institutions, which could unlock value for the media asset in ways that are more difficult under its current corporate ownership.”

🚗 Rivian plans to sell $1.3 billion in bonds to shore up capital, shares fall (Reuters)

• The company, who reported $11.6 billion of cash at the end of December, intends to use the offering to facilitate the smaller R2 fleet.

• Shares fell almost 7% after hours.

Altria Exhales Juul, Inhales NJOY

Altria, owner of Marlboro, announced they will divest their stake in Juul Labs and purchase vaping company NJOY.

What’s the Deal: Altria agreed to purchase NJOY for a minimum of $2.75 billion, with an extra $500 million if the FDA approves additional products such as menthol refill pods.

Bye Bye Juul: Altria is walking away from its failed investment in Juul, incinerating its nearly $13 billion stake down to ~$250 million.

Altria says its learned its lesson from their journey with Juul, and pointed to the fact that NJOY has FDA authorized products with minimal teenage use, rather than Juul who had a pending product with massive teenage use.

Juul, who is appealing the FDA’s decision to remove its products from market, still holds 26% of the e-cig market.

NJOY currently represents ~3% of the overall market.

Today’s Challenge: Delete 5 apps from your phone.

Thanks for reading, go out and make today a great one.

Much Love,

Andrew (and AI)