🛒 The store-brand surge

…and Wall Street leaves the chat   New Kirkland drop (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)   [Sponsored by]( Yesterday’s Market Moves   Dow Jones 33,665 (-0.98%) S&P 500 4,315 (-1.34%) Nasdaq 13,314 (-1.62%) Bitcoin $28,271 (-0.49%) Dow Jones 33,665 (-0.98%) S&P 500 4,315 (-1.34%) Nasdaq 13,314 (-1.62%) Bitcoin $28,271 (-0.49%) Hey Snackers, This cookie szn could be bittersweet: inflation [hasn’t spared]( Girl Scout cookies, which will soon cost $6/box (up from $5) in many parts of the US. Thin wallets had better watch out for Thin Mints. Stocks fell yesterday as the 10-year Treasury yield hit a 16-year high. Meanwhile, oil prices climbed on concerns the Israel-Hamas war could spread. Branding Retailers are expanding store-brand offerings to nab deal-seeking shoppers From store brand to couture brand… Private-label foods have come a long way from the days of knockoff Cheerios gathering dust on the bottom shelf. As shoppers look for deals in the face of higher food prices, retailers are [stocking]( shelves with store-owned food and drink brands. Picture: [Target]( Good & Gather and [Costco]( Kirkland. They’re seeing results too. Private-label sales have eclipsed prepandemic #s, growing to 20.6% from 18.7% of total US grocery $$ spent. - Chompin’ on Baked Rays: At [Casey’s]( (the convenience chain with 2.5K stores), private-label chips were a quarter of all chips sold this summer. Now Casey’s says it plans to add 45 private-label products to the 350 already on its shelves. - Going private: It’s not just snacks. Private-label varieties make up nearly half the cheese market and 38% of canned veggies. Once copycat, now competition… Besides being cheaper, private-label brands are typically more profitable for retailers because they don’t have the marketing costs of brand names. And shoppers have responded: Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand pulled in $58B in 2021 (and even has its own merch). [Walmart]( Great Value sales grew 9% between 2021 and 2023, and Wegmans has grown its store-brand biz to 17K+ products. THE TAKEAWAY Brand loyalty only goes so far… As name brands hiked prices during the pandemic, shoppers started to look at store brands in a new light. Private-label sales grew 8% to $108B in the first half of this year, and 54% of shoppers said they’d continue to choose private labels. This summer, [Kraft]( said that store brands haven’t followed its own recent price hikes, which has led to bigger price gaps. That could make name-brand price bumps tougher to push through. Sponsored by CBOE What’s driving traders to index options? Index options volume on the S&P 500 have grown over 30% annually since 2020, reaching over $7B trading every day! Why some traders are turning to index options: Choosing stock or ETF options can be overwhelming. With just one index option contract in your toolkit, [the pros at Cboe® know that you can potentially:]( - Trade based on your view of the market - Hedge your portfolio during market turbulence - Boost your income with strategic moves Ready to take the warm-up lap? Get off the starting line and [learn the potential Benefits of Index Options with Cboe.]( Blocked HSBC reportedly bans texting on work phones over concerns regulators are lurking in Wall Street’s group chat Leavin’ the chat… Mega bank [HSBC]( is [disabling texting]( on its employees’ work phones, Bloomberg reported, after previously blocking staff from messaging on WhatsApp. Financial institutions are required to keep records of their employees’ biz messages so that regulators can pull chat logs during investigations. Failure to save messages can = regulators fining companies — and companies fining or firing employees. Earlier this year HSBC paid $45M to regulators over its employees’ use of unauthorized messaging apps like WhatsApp. - Do not disturb: WhatsApp can be set to auto-delete messages, making it more difficult for employers (and regulators) to monitor. - SM-mess: HSBC’s text ban could be seen as a precaution meant to keep all employees’ written communication in preapproved digi venues. Emoji legislation… SEC Chair Gensler is scrutinizing Wall Street’s messaging habits as if it’s used up all the texts on his family plan. He started a probe two years ago, when bankers embraced the habit of off-channel messaging while WFH during the pandemic. Regulators found that convos on unofficial channels about deals and other biz topics were so common that one Reuters source called the ensuing sweep “shooting fish in a barrel.” They were big fish: the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined [Bank of America]( [Wells Fargo]( [Barclays]( [Citigroup]( and others $2.7B. - Widening scope: The SEC recently started investigating the messaging records of private-equity firms including [Apollo Global Management]( and [Blackstone](. THE TAKEAWAY You can’t slip if you don’t go on the ice… In response to regulators’ crackdown, banks around the world are said to be barring staff from using messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal. But even monitoring messages on official channels (think: work email) can be tricky. Courts ruled this summer that emojis like 🚀 and 💰 can indicate a return on investment, but companies’ internal monitoring software may not be hip enough to understand any #nuances. What else we're Snackin' - [Click]( X said that to battle bots it’ll charge new users in New Zealand and the Philippines $1/year to post, like, etc. Recently, boss Elon Musk highlighted X’s tanking ad revenue. - [Scrub]( Tide and Gillette owner [P&G]( topped Wall Street’s earnings estimates. It had higher prices to thank, saying shoppers shelled out for pricier goods as sales volumes declined. - [Boost]( Last quarter, China’s GDP grew a better-than-expected 4.9% on the year, fueled by consumers spending more on things like cars and dining out. That pushed China’s retail sales to their highest level since May. - [Pause]( Bandcamp cut half its workforce a few weeks after being bought by Songtradr. Employees at the indie music hub, which was purchased by Epic Games just last year, had formed a union earlier this year. - [Flew]( [United]( shares fell nearly 10% after the airline said higher prices and the Israel-Hamas war could hurt profits. The cost of jet fuel at major US airports is up nearly 25% since summer began. 🍪 Thanks for Snacking with us! Want to share the Snacks? Invite your friends to sign up [here](. Snack Fact Of the Day As rates soar, mortgage demand has hit its lowest level since 1995 [Read more]( Thursday - Earnings expected from American Airlines, Alaska Air, and AT&T Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Alaska Air, Kraft, and Walmart *Advertiser’s disclosure: There are important risks associated with transacting in any of the Cboe Company products discussed here. Before engaging in any transactions in those products, it is important for market participants to carefully review the disclosures and disclaimers contained at [(. 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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