🎓 Loan repayments get an F

…and Tilray’s cannabeer biz   Cue the hold music (Hans Gutknecht/Getty Images)   Yesterday’s Market Moves   Dow Jones 37,525 (-0.42%) S&P 500 4,757 (-0.15%) Nasdaq 14,858 (+0.09%) Bitcoin $46,261 (-1.56%) Dow Jones 37,525 (-0.42%) S&P 500 4,757 (-0.15%) Nasdaq 14,858 (+0.09%) Bitcoin $46,261 (-1.56%) Hey Snackers, Who needs AI when you got OJ? Tropicana says there’s “nothing artificial” in its juices, so it [dropped]( the “A” and “I” from its logo on limited-edition bottles at the CES tech expo, and is hiding them at some [Kroger]( stores (look for: Tropcn). Tech stocks ticked up yesterday as investors await tomorrow’s December inflation report. In a wild turn of events, bitcoin popped after a post on the SEC’s X account said the regulator had approved a spot bitcoin ETF… only to then plunge after the SEC [said]( that its X account had been “compromised” and no spot ETF had been approved at the time. PASTDUE Student-loan servicers face fines as repayments are still sloppy 3 months in Hold please… Restarting student-loan repayments for tens of millions of borrowers after a more than three-year pause is easier said than done. Since October, the payment restart has been [plagued]( by 3M+ billing mistakes and customer-service wait times up to nine hours (yikes), a new gov’t-watchdog report said. Now the Biden admin is withholding payments from its loan servicers as a fine for their failures. - Yellow card: The Education Department withheld $2M in payments to Aidvantage, the second-largest servicer, and smaller sums from both [Nelnet]( and EdFinancial. In October, the department fined Mohela $7M over similar billing errors. - Stat sheet: Borrowers are getting a little too familiar with their servicers’ hold music, as August’s 12-minute average wait time jumped to 73 minutes by the end of October. The # of borrowers who’d hung up before reaching anyone hit 47%, up from August’s 17%. - Part of the problem: [Navient]( once the industry’s largest loan servicer, left the student-debt biz in 2021. Other servicers laid off hundreds of employees during the payment pause, leading to understaffing. Cancellation’s still on the table… but it’ll probably be a smaller plate than many had hoped. After a SCOTUS ruling shut down President Biden’s plan to provide student-debt relief for 40M Americans, the admin has continued to cancel debt on more constricted grounds (for example: borrowers who’ve been in repayment for ~20 years). About 3.6M borrowers have had $132B in federal student debt flagged for cancellation. The admin is expected to propose its student-debt relief plan B in May, targeting between 4M and 10M borrowers. Meantime, borrowers will likely stay on hold as the repayment woes drag on. THE TAKEAWAY Restarting an old engine can backfire… This fall, the Education Department’s remaining servicers faced a flood of 28M borrowers resuming payments — 5x the # who enter repayment in a typical year. That influx, combined with confused, inflation-battered borrowers facing unfamiliar payment portals, has led to a logistical nightmare. And it shows: about 9M borrowers missed their first payment. - 🌡️ Snacks Temp Check: If you have US student-loan debt, take our [one-question poll]( about your experience with repayments. We’ll share the anonymized results next week so that you can see how your answer compares to your peers’. Cannabev Tilray’s beer pivot pays off as the Canadian cannabiz avoids a sticky US legal sitch Turnin’ a new leaf, eh?… Pot titan [Tilray]( rolled up record [revenue]( in Q2. But the ratio of that $$ coming from cannabis dwindled, with weed sales growth slowing to 35%. Meanwhile, Tilray’s craft-beer biz foamed up to fill more of its glass: beverage sales more than doubled, to $47M, drawing closer to Tilray’s $67M in pot revenue. Faced with a patchwork of US state laws and no federal change-of-heart in sight, the Canadian company has diversified its cannabusiness into drinks. - Can-o-beer: In 2022, Tilray bought Montauk Brewing Co. for $35M, and last year it snatched up eight beer brands from Bud owner [AB InBev]( for $85M, including Shock Top and Blue Point. Tilray said it’s now the fifth-largest craft beer co in America. Waitin’ for the green light… Tilray dominates pot in Canada, one of the few countries where bud is federally legal. But Tilray can’t sell cannabis in the US, where the leaf’s designated an illegal Schedule 1 drug on the federal level (along with heroin and cocaine). While 24 states have legalized pot for recreational use, pro-marijuana legislation is stalled in DC. However the chips may fall, Tilray looks prepared… - Puffscription: Cannabis might be rescheduled to a less severe category, making it federally legal for medicinal use. Tilray has a medical-cannabis biz. - Double hitter: Tilray said its beer-quisitions could be leveraged to sell THC drinks, and it bought a cannabis-drinks co from [Molson Coors Canada]( this summer. THE TAKEAWAY Spreading your roots is strategic… Tilray has tilled the soil in hopes it’ll thrive in any conditions. It’s even planning on growing fruits and veggies on cannabis-cultivation farms in Canada. But if the US ever does go green, Tilray appears ready. MJBiz Factbook predicts US cannabis sales will grow from $33B last year to $57B in 2028. DEFI(NE) Heard on the Block: “genesis wallet” 👛 Like if the inventor of coins also made the first change purse… Someone sent nearly $1.2M worth of [bitcoin]( to the first bitcoin wallet address ever created. The “[genesis wallet]( was made in 2009 and is believed to belong to bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. People have transferred nearly 100 BTC to the genesis wallet over the years, like tossing their coins into crypto’s most storied wishing well (with no hope of getting them back). Despite speculation that Satoshi had returned, no funds have moved out of the genesis wallet since Nakamoto’s disappearance in 2010. What else we're Snackin' - [WTF]( The SEC said yesterday that it had not approved a spot bitcoin ETF, despite a post on the regulator’s official X account saying it had (hacked?). The SEC has until today to respond to several spot bitcoin ETF applications. - [Steep]( [Starbucks]( plans to open 600+ locations in India (2 stores/week) by 2028. The world’s most populous country is a hot market for Starbs, which is trying to win customers there with tea offerings like masala chai. - [Compute]( [Nvidia]( dropped a new line of graphic chips designed to enhance AI tech on PCs (picture: higher-res video games and photo editing). As computer sales slow, chipmakers hope “AI PCs” can recharge growth. - [Trying]( X said it’ll launch peer-to-peer payments later this year. The biz has struggled to diversify its revenue from ads with products like subscriptions as major companies like [IBM]( and [Disney]( pause ads on the platform. - [Wrinkly]( It’s layoff szn, and designer rental platform [Rent the Runway]( is axing 10% of its corporate staff as subscribers shrink. It’s the latest cost-cutting measure by the “shared closet” biz as it tries to break even. 🍪 Thanks for Snacking with us! Want to share the Snacks? Invite your friends to sign up [here](. Snack Fact Of the Day Sunday's Golden Globes viewership (~9.4M people) was about half of what it drew prepandemic [Read more]( Wednesday - Earnings expected from KB Home Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares of: Disney, Nvidia, Rent the Runway, and Starbucks 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... [See more]( [Sherwood Terms and Conditions]( • [Our Editorial Principles]( • [Contact Us](mailto:hellosnacks@sherwoodmedia.com) • [Privacy Policy]( • [Advertise with us](mailto:advertising@sherwoodmedia.com) [Unsubscribe](