💰 Politician portfolios

…and student-loan apps get delayed (again) (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images) Not a trading floor   Sponsored by Yesterday's market moves Dow Jones 39,446 (+1.76%) S&P 500 5,319 (+2.30%) Nasdaq 16,660 (+2.87%) Bitcoin $61,164 (+10.93%) Dow Jones 39,446 (+1.76%) S&P 500 5,319 (+2.30%) Nasdaq 16,660 (+2.87%) Bitcoin $61,164 (+10.93%) Hey Snackers, Snoop Dogg is turning out to be the biggest (nonathlete) star of the Olympics. After NBC brought him on as a special correspondent for the Paris Games, the iconic rapper’s [stylish cameos]( have taken over the internet. Snoooooooooo-oop 🎵. The S&P 500 had its [best day since 2022](, gaining 2.3% after weekly jobless claims came in lower than expected. That helped calm recession jitters after a disappointing July jobs report. 🧠Quiz into the weekend: Test your memory of the past week’s newsletters with our [Snacks Seven]( quiz. Here’s the first q: - Dolce & Gabbana is launching its first fragrance for who? ([Check your answer](.)   PORTFOLI-NO [Filings show Tim Walz doesn’t own stocks, as efforts to bar lawmakers from trading intensify]( Who’s not checking the portfolio… Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, VP Kamala Harris’ running mate, has something in common with nearly 80% of Americans — and it’s not that he doesn’t know what “brat summer” is. Financial disclosures show that neither Walz nor his wife, Gwen, directly owns [a single stock](. The disclosures also show that Walz isn’t invested in mutual funds, bonds, or crypto and doesn’t own real estate. It’s a highly unusual financial situation for a lawmaker on a national ticket, and it highlights both major parties’ attempts to appeal to working-class Americans. - Retirement plan: Filings show that Walz’s only investment assets are pensions, including one from his job as a teacher before he ran for Congress in 2006. - Worth check: Walz disclosed a net worth of under $1M. That’s far below Harris’ estimated $8M, Sen. JD Vance’s ~$7.5M, and former Prez Trump’s $5.7B. Trading bans in focus… Walz’s holdings (or lack thereof) are in line with his efforts to curb stock trading by congressional lawmakers: he sponsored 2012’s STOCK Act, which established the current system of trading disclosures for lawmakers (and paved the way for ETFs that track those moves). The idea behind congressional trading bans is that lawmakers have privileged knowledge that could be traded on (think: an upcoming policy that would affect a certain industry). About a dozen trading-ban proposals have been intro’d in the current Congress, including a bipartisan Senate bill that’s gone further than any previous attempt. THE TAKEAWAY It’s a race for the working class… A third of the 100 congressional lawmakers who reported trades last year beat the S&P 500, while 86% of Americans support blocking members of Congress and their families from trading individual stocks. Walz’s relatively humble finances could boost his appeal among working-class voters. The GOP may be trying to do the same with “Hillbilly Elegy” author Vance. [Read this online]( Sponsored by Nasdaq Your options are open…. AAPL. MFST. ADBE. And the rest. The Nasdaq-100 Micro Index is home to some of the world’s most innovative non-financial companies — and [Nasdaq-100 Micro Index Options (XND)]( present traders with a strategic tool to capitalize on this performance. [Nasdaq-100 Micro Index Options offer](: - Cash settlement: An in-the-money XND option settles to cash in your account at expiration. - European style: Option contracts can only be exercised upon expiration, reducing the early assignment risk taken on by sellers. - Tax-favorable treatment: Options contracts are subject to taxes — but index options benefit from a more favorable treatment. See options in action. Test Nasdaq-100 Micro Index Options strategies at historic market moments through [Nasdaq’s free Options Architect tool](. Sponsored by Nasdaq Your options are open…. AAPL. MFST. ADBE. And the rest. The Nasdaq-100 Micro Index is home to some of the world’s most innovative non-financial companies — and [Nasdaq-100 Micro Index Options (XND)]( present traders with a strategic tool to capitalize on this performance. [Nasdaq-100 Micro Index Options offer](: - Cash settlement: An in-the-money XND option settles to cash in your account at expiration. - European style: Option contracts can only be exercised upon expiration, reducing the early assignment risk taken on by sellers. - Tax-favorable treatment: Options contracts are subject to taxes — but index options benefit from a more favorable treatment. See options in action. Test Nasdaq-100 Micro Index Options strategies at historic market moments through [Nasdaq’s free Options Architect tool](.   DEL-AID [The FAFSA rollout gets delayed (again), leaving aid-seeking students in limbo]( Not so fast-fa… US students can’t file for federal financial aid until December, marking the second year in a row that the FAFSA form’s been delayed two months beyond its typical October rollout. A small number of students can apply using a beta version of FAFSA as part of the Education Department’s effort to catch any glitches before the form’s launch — and to avoid a repeat of last year. - ICYMI: Last year FAFSA — aka the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — got an overhaul that was supposed to streamline applications. Changes included letting some students skip as many as 26 questions and making up to 7.3M students eligible for Pell Grants. - Botched: The Ed. Dept. struggled to resolve technical issues around the revamped form’s release, which led to errors and delays. It’s disorientation week… Students are still dealing with the fallout from last year’s fumbled FAFSA rollout. Nearly half of families’ financial-aid offers were delayed, while a mistake in income calculations put $1.8B of aid at risk. As the Ed. Dept. tried to fix the error, colleges didn’t start receiving students’ financial aid info until March. It means students didn’t start getting aid offers until sometime in April, whereas most colleges’ decision deadlines are May 1. Some schools pushed back their deadlines (some indefinitely). - Hold music: Student-loan borrowers also faced a [hot mess]( last fall as payments restarted after a three-year pause (think: incorrect bills, site glitches, long hold times). THE TAKEAWAY Futures need funds… US college enrollment has been dropping for over a decade. And as college tuition and fees continue to spike, not receiving aid on time could lead to even more students skipping higher ed. Glitchy FAFSA forms could accelerate the trend: last year fewer students applied than usual. [Read this online](   MEMEY The Crypto Catch-Up… 📜 Policy… The crypto industry is trying to [court]( Harris (a “Crypto for Harris” event is scheduled next week). Meantime, Trump has called for a national bitcoin “stockpile,” and Harris has added former crypto execs to her staff. 🪙 Coins… The # of meme-coin-related projects is [up more than 5x]( in the past two years. But even as new coins flood the market, one report said 97% of the meme coins created no longer exist. ⚖️ Judgy… A judged [fined]( crypto-payments biz Ripple $125M after ruling that its institutional XRP token sale violated securities laws. Ripple declared that a victory (the SEC wanted a $2B fine), saying it could easily pay. XRP popped 25% after the news.   ON SHERWOOD [AI is mining the sum of human knowledge from Wikipedia. What does that mean for its future?]( We spoke with Wikipedia executives who told us AI could jeopardize the encyclopedia’s connection with the volunteers who create it. [Read More.](   What else we're Snackin' - [Fumble](: Bumble stock plunged ~30% yesterday to a record low after the dating app slashed its annual sales forecast. While revenue and paying users grew last quarter, the average paying swiper spent less. - [CordCut](: Warner Bros. Discovery said its cable biz lost $9B in value in an accounting move that led it to post a $10B quarterly loss. Cord-cutting is intensifying as streamers add live sports and bundle up. - [Injected](: Eli Lilly blew past quarterly growth expectations and hiked its outlook as demand shot up for its diabetes drug Mounjaro and weight-loss injection Zepbound. Weight-drug rival Novo Nordisk disappointed. - [Sparked](: Last month China’s EV and hybrid sales surpassed OG gas-car sales for the first time. Chinese cos like BYD are leading the electric charge as gov’t incentives and plug-in tech drive demand. - [Whopper](: Burger King and Tim Hortons parent Restaurant Brands said its quarterly same-store sales grew. BK pushed promos, and coffee chain Hortons drew in customers with new items like pizza and cold drinks.   Snack Fact of the Day [The average pay for the CEO of an S&P 500 company last year was $17.7M](   Friday - Earnings expected from Canopy Growth, AMC Networks, Soho House, and Getty Images Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares of: Eli Lilly, and Warner Bros. Discovery Advertiser's disclosures: Nasdaq® is a registered trademark of Nasdaq, Inc. The information contained above is provided for informational and educational purposes only, and nothing contained herein should be construed as investment advice, either on behalf of a particular security, digital asset or an overall investment strategy. Neither Nasdaq, Inc. nor any of its affiliates makes any recommendation to buy or sell any security or digital asset or any representation about the financial condition of any company. Statements regarding Nasdaq-listed companies or Nasdaq proprietary indexes are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investors should undertake their own due diligence and carefully evaluate companies before investing. Investing in options carries unique risks. 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