🍎 Apple’s still sellin’

…and Carvana stalls out [Disclosures](   Can’t stop, won’t stop — selling iPhones (Win McNamee/Getty Images)   Yesterday’s Market Moves   Dow Jones 33,916 (+1.85%) S&P 500 4,288 (+2.47%) Nasdaq 12,872 (+3.06%) Bitcoin $39,762 (+0.05%) Dow Jones 33,916 (+1.85%) S&P 500 4,288 (+2.47%) Nasdaq 12,872 (+3.06%) Bitcoin $39,762 (+0.05%) Hey Snackers, Someone call the breakfast police: Tropicana has [unveiled]( a cereal meant to be eaten with OJ instead of milk. Some things just shouldn’t be messed with. Stocks finally staged the comeback rally they’d been trying for, led by techies like [Meta]( which sent the Nasdaq up 3%. The rally came despite data showing the US economy shrank last quarter for the first time since the early days of the pandemic. Fruit Apple had one of its best quarters ever, offering hope for the rest of the global economy Isaac Newton would be stumped… This [Apple]( just doesn’t seem to fall. Yesterday the world’s most valuable company said sales [jumped]( more than expected last quarter — to $97B — despite ongoing supply issues, the war in Ukraine, and booming inflation. All told, it was Apple’s third-best quarter of all time. The details: - Booming sales: Sales of iPhones, Macs, and other hardware like AirPods all [rose]( more than expected. Sales grew fastest in the services division (think: App Store, iCloud). - Soaring buybacks: Apple’s board authorized $90B in stock buybacks, even more than last year. Analysts typically see buybacks as a sign of confidence. The post-pandemic slump… still hasn’t hit Apple. Apple’s stock is still up more than double since the pandemic began, while fellow stay-at-home surgers Meta, [Zoom]( [Peloton]( and [Netflix]( have fallen to pre-pandemic levels. But some analysts worried that China’s latest lockdowns would finally put a damper on Apple’s results: - The cause for concern: China is critical to Apple’s business: an estimated 20% of iProducts are sold in China and 85% are built there. - Saved by a flexible supply chain: Apple’s recent sales didn’t fall. Part of the reason: the Fruit shifted production resources between products to prevent shortages (basically: making more iPhones than iPads when they ran low). THE TAKEAWAY Apple isn’t just a company… it’s an iConomy. Apple’s worth nearly $3T (or about 2% of the world’s GDP), making it an indicator for the entire global economy. The combo of steady iDemand and Apple’s flexible supply chain offers investors hope that consumers may keep spending despite soaring prices and other economic headwinds. Skid Carvana gets help from private equity as the used-car biz stalls out Carvana’s car-vending machine… is running out of quarters as the lure of cash-burning used-car companies wears off. Yesterday, private-equity giant [Apollo]( reportedly agreed to buy $1.6B of [Carvana’s]( corporate debt (think: investors lend Carvana $$ through bonds, and then get paid with interest). Apollo’s coming to the rescue after Carvana struggled to raise money for an acquisition amid slowing demand for its refurbished cars sold online. - Last quarter: Carvana posted its first sales [decline]( since going public in 2017 — and it’s expected to lose $800M this year. - Slashing tires: In response to supply backlogs and labor shortages, Carvana hiked its car prices and trimmed back on inventory for online shoppers. Your 2018 [Honda]( Civic… is worth more than you think. Used-car sales hit [record]( highs during the pandemic as supply shortages made new wheels hard to come by. Some models were even [selling]( for 20% more than their new editions. Carvana made it easy for shoppers to buy online and have their cars delivered, without hassling with a dealership. But as car shopping has become more like house hunting (see: low inventory, high prices), it’s hurting demand — and not just for Carvana: - Rival [Vroom]( has lost 90% of its post-IPO [gains]( while used-car OG [CarMax]( says [shaky]( consumer confidence is keeping buyers away. THE TAKEAWAY The pandemic thriver model is broken… and private equity wants to be the glue to fix it. From [Airbnb]( to [Carnival]( PE firms have thrown lifelines to numerous companies needing quick cash to combat pandemic-fueled losses. In turn, firms like Apollo guarantee dividends for investors and a big payout down the road. It’s worked before: Apollo's fund jumped 10% after [Hertz]( paid [back]( part of a $1.5B loan less than a year after getting it. What else we're Snackin' - [Boxed]( In its latest earnings results, [Amazon]( posted its slowest sales growth in over two decades. The e-commerce legend notched a $7.6B loss from its stake in EV-maker [Rivian]( and warned of slower sales ahead. - [Shots]( We’re gonna need more lollipops: after successful trials, [Moderna]( asked for emergency FDA approval for its Covid vax for little kids. If approved, it’d be the first vax available to the pre-K crowd. - [Rx]( [Teladoc]( is the latest stay-at-home stock to get crushed: shares lost nearly half their value after the telemedicine company badly missed earnings, blaming a slowdown in sales and increase in competition. - [Dough]( Ben & Jerry’s parent, [Unilever]( said it saw a softening in consumer demand last quarter after raising prices by 8%, which suggests that Unilever may have found the limit of price hikes that consumers will accept. - [Bird]( [Twitter]( missed its sales expectations for the quarter but reported an uptick in daily users, to 229M. It could be one of the last earnings reports for Twitter before its sale to Elon is finalized. 🍪 Thanks for Snacking with us! Want to share the Snacks? Invite your friends to sign up [here](. Snack Fact Of the Day Last quarter Apple made an average of $13K every second of each business day [Read more]( Friday - Earnings expected from: ExxonMobil, Chevron, AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb Authors of this Snacks own shares of Apple, Netflix, Twitter, Exxon, Vroom, and Moderna ID: 2177908 Robinhood Snacks newsletters reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robinhood Financial LLC (Member [SIPC]( and do not reflect the views of Robinhood Markets, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are for informational purposes only, and are not a recommendation of an investment strategy or to buy or sell any security, digital asset (cryptocurrency, etc) in any account. They are also not research reports and are not intended to serve as the basis for any investment decision. 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