💼 5-day RTO

…and Trump’s crypto launch falls flat (Amazon) At least there’s catering   Presented by Hey Snackers, The Tupperware party’s over. The 78-year-old brand may be putting a lid on it — reportedly [prepping for bankruptcy]( after years of stale sales. Perhaps it can rebuild with what’s left over. The S&P 500 closed flat yesterday after hitting a [record high]( midday. Retail sales unexpectedly ticked up last month. Today [all eyes are on]( the Fed’s much-hyped rate decision. Yesterday traders were pricing in a ~65% chance of a jumbo half-point cut.   BADGED-IN [Amazon orders employees back to the office 5 days a week, out-RTO’ing peers]( Sad desk salads… are back at Amazon, which told its 350K+ corporate workers they’ll need to return to the office [five days a week]( starting in January. Last May it started requiring three days in the office a week, which led to protests. Back then, CEO Andy Jassy said disgruntled staffers should “disagree and commit,” suggesting they should quit. Amazon’s five-day policy sets it apart from its more flexible peers, and employees are said to be venting in internal chats. - No mute button: Jassy said that WFH days weren’t “a given” prepandemic and that working in person strengthens Amazon’s culture and collaboration. - Blurry picture: Studies on whether employees are more productive remotely versus in the office are complicated. While some remote workers grind out more deliverables in the short term, their future output could be negatively affected by a lack of desk-buddy mentorship. Going against the flow… Once the pandemic subsided enough for people to come within six feet of one another, the likes of Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple brought employees back into offices two to three days a week. Some (including Amazon) have ramped up enforcement of that minimum by tracking badge swipes. While hybrid work has become Big Tech’s norm, more than a third of workers who could work from home were [fully remote]( last year. That’s down from 55% in October 2020, but up from just 7% before the pandemic. THE TAKEAWAY RTO is a multi-tool… Stricter in-office policies can lead to employees quitting — critics call them “back-channel layoffs.” A quarter of high-ranking execs and a fifth of HR personnel in a BambooHR survey said they’d hoped for some folks to quit after their companies announced RTO. When Jassy announced the new RTO policy, he said Amazon would also be culling middle management. [Read this online](   Presented by SECTOR SPDR ETFs Interest rates can impact all financial companies. Why continue to take single stock risk? [The Financial Sector ETF (XLF)]( provides investors access to the financial stocks in the S&P 500, all encapsulated within a single security. Why continue to take on the risk of single stock exposure, when you can own the entire financial sector of the S&P 500? Learn more about the [Select Sector SPDR Fund XLF](. Advertiser’s disclosure: All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal. Sector ETF products are also subject to sector risk and non-diversification risk, which will result in greater price fluctuations than the overall market. An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus, which contains this and other information, call 1-866-SECTOR-ETF (866-732-8673) or visit [www.sectorspdrs.com](. Read the prospectus carefully before investing. ALPS Portfolio Solutions Distributor, Inc., a registered broker-dealer, is distributor for the Select Sector SPDR Trust. Presented by SECTOR SPDR ETFs Interest rates can impact all financial companies. Why continue to take single stock risk? [The Financial Sector ETF (XLF)]( provides investors access to the financial stocks in the S&P 500, all encapsulated within a single security. Why continue to take on the risk of single stock exposure, when you can own the entire financial sector of the S&P 500? Learn more about the [Select Sector SPDR Fund XLF](. Advertiser’s disclosure: All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal. Sector ETF products are also subject to sector risk and non-diversification risk, which will result in greater price fluctuations than the overall market. An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus, which contains this and other information, call 1-866-SECTOR-ETF (866-732-8673) or visit [www.sectorspdrs.com](. Read the prospectus carefully before investing. ALPS Portfolio Solutions Distributor, Inc., a registered broker-dealer, is distributor for the Select Sector SPDR Trust.   WLF? [Trump-linked World Liberty Financial punts its launch as crypto second-guesses the DeFi project]( Ready, set… oh. The debut for a crypto project hyped by former Prez Donald Trump and his sons came and went on Monday without an actual kickoff. Over the course of a two-hour X Spaces conference that Trump said would “[launch](” World Liberty Financial, few details were shared about the reported [decentralized-finance]( project (meantime, listeners dropped off). While WLF didn’t launch, some more details were shared: - Token offering: The WLF crypto “governance token” (which would let users vote on how the project is run) was said to be nontransferable and wouldn’t earn yield. The WLF team would get 20% of the supply, with 63% set aside for big-fish investors. - Stable genius: The Spaces speakers — which included Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and two project insiders — leaned into the value of [stablecoins](. It’s unclear how or if WLF involves stables. On second thought… World Liberty Financial’s bumpy rollout — which included the apparent [hack]( of Lara and Tiffany Trump’s X accounts — has had mixed reactions from crypto insiders. One prominent crypto VC [called it]( a “huge mistake” that seemed like a cash grab. Now analysts say the project’s ties to Trump could backfire for the industry by alienating Democratic lawmakers just as they’ve started [warming]( to crypto. Trump’s charging ahead: “Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” he said on the stream. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.” THE TAKEAWAY Fresh fans can flip quickly… because their loyalty isn’t sticky. Trump had found support in the crypto community after his public [embrace]( of bitcoin over the summer (he’d previously called it a “scam”). Now, as the US presidential election nears, he risks losing some of that support should WLF fail or be perceived as sketchy. [Read this online](   REDACTED Uncharted: Which YouTube channel has amassed over 13.5M subscribers thanks to a hit show featuring chicken wings? Hint: BuzzFeed’s trying to sell the channel for $70M. ([Answer here.]()   ON SHERWOOD [Mark Zuckerberg’s 20-year mistake]( Meta’s CEO says he’s done apologizing. Should we worry? [Read more.](   What else we're Snackin' - Instagram [rolled out]( sweeping restrictions for teen accounts, including automatically muting notifications overnight and blocking sensitive content. - Real Madrid’s soccer stadium, freshly reno’d for nearly $2B to host music acts, [canceled]( all concerts until next year after locals complained of unbearable noise. - FanDuel owner Flutter Entertainment offered [$2.6B]( in cash to buy Italian gaming giant Snaitech, which would make Flutter Italy’s largest gambling co. - Walmart’s Sam’s Club is [hiking]( its minimum wage to $16/hour and raising pay for 100K workers to compete with Costco ($19.50/hour). - Intel shares [sparked up]( after the chipmaker announced a “multibillion-dollar” partnership with Amazon to create a custom AI computing chip.   Snack Fact of the Day [The median weekly earnings for a full-time worker in the US is $1.1K — nearly 4% higher than a year ago](   Wednesday - Fed’s interest-rate decision; Powell’s press conference - August housing starts - International Equal Pay Day - Earnings expected from General Mills Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares of: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Walmart   [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [Sherwood Logo]( Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... 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