💊 Getting Lit At Work

Forget Adderall, psychedelic treatment might become a thing?! April 29, 2024 | Peel #698 Silver Banana goes to... [Interactive Brokers. ]( In this issue of the Peel: - 🌶 The PCE price index increased 2.7% annually in March. - 🤖 One chip company went up, while another went down. - 💊 Forget Adderall, psychedelic treatment might become a thing?! Market Snapshot 📸 = Banana Bits 🍌 - Spending growth continued to [outpace income growth in March](=) - The yen hit its weakest value against the [dollar in 34 years](=) - A full breakdown of the chaos involved in the [sale of Paramount]( - China has no plans to [allow TikTok to be sold](=) Interactive Brokers has key competitive advantages for sophisticated investors like you. IBKR was rated lowest margin fees by stockbrokers.com and offers USD margin rates from just 5.83% to 6.83%. IBKR provides unparalleled access to over 150 global markets across stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, and funds, all from a single unified platform. [Commissions start at USD 0 on US stocks and listed ETFs](, with no added spreads, ticket charges, platform fees, or account minimums. IBKR’s award-winning trading platforms for mobile, web and desktop are loaded with powerful tools to help you successfully execute your trading strategy. When placing your money with a broker, go with a broker you can trust and can endure through good and troubled times. IBKR’s strong capital position, conservative balance sheet and automated risk controls help protect the firm and its clients from large trading losses. Member SIPC. Rates subject to change. See why the best-informed investors choose Interactive Brokers. Get started today at [IBKR.com/compare]( Macro Monkey Says 🐒 Too Jacked It’s a common problem for me, and I assume for most of you wise, hot, and profitable apes, too. Being too jacked can get so annoying. Like breaking cutting boards when making food, destroying golf balls on the tee box, and shattering my keyboard every time I see a #REF in my spreadsheets. That last one happens every time I’m unfortunate enough to open Excel, but it’s only once a month that we’re reminded that PCE inflation is way too jacked too. Yesterday, we finally got the Fed’s favorite inflation reading for March. Thursday’s GDP report gave us a sneak peak, but now, let’s get into it. The Numbers The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index increased 2.7% annually in March, up from 2.5% in February and above the 2.6% economists had guesstimated. On the monthly side, headline PCE prices rose 0.3%. So, inflation is still way too jacked, at least at the headline level. But, the good news is it could be worse (if that can be considered good news), especially when we look at the Core PCE reading. Excluding food and energy costs, Core PCE jumped 2.8% in March, which is right in line with the increase in February and economists’ guesstimates. Now, that doesn’t sound good, but on the bright side, this continues Core PCE’s trend of registering 2 months in a row of the same reading before then falling by 0.1% for the next 2 month period. Hopefully, that actually works out when we get April’s data about a month from now. Who Cares? In addition to being the Fed’s favorite reading, the PCE report gives us fresh data on incomes and spending. As a reminder, consumer spending makes up ~70% of U.S. GDP on average, so this might be slightly important. And as usual, you apes are raking it in. Real disposable incomes rose 0.2% for the month, contributing to the 0.5% increase in spending for the period. Within that spending data, we can see that goods dominated last month, growing by 1.1% while services grew by only 0.2%. While it’s great to see real incomes after tax continue to increase, the split between goods and services is like when they start playing dark/scary music in a movie. Not only do services account for the vast majority of consumer spending, but the primary increase in goods spending can be attributed to rising prices at the pump. [Source]() And, it’s not even like oil and gas prices have increased that much. What we’re seeing is a combo of companies using inflation to boost margins along with consumers racking up more driving hours as part of the travel boom. While government reports are great, this is an organization that allocated [$2mn to an internship program](that hired only one intern in 2023. So, while that intern is making us look like idiots for going into finance, let’s remember who’s compiling this data. Walmart U.S. President & CEO John Furner gave an interview [with ABC]( this weekend in which he detailed the deflation the world’s largest retailer is currently seeing. Walking into most Walmarts in the U.S. today feels similar to what I imagine storming the beaches of Normandy felt like, but I might have to start going after hearing that: “At Walmart, we are now seeing prices that are in line with where they were 12 months ago. I haven’t been able to say that for a few years now.” The Takeaway? Destroying the last few inflationary bps has been much harder than most anticipated. We know this is an asymptotic process, given that correcting the first 90% of inflation is a lot easier than the last 10%, but damn this sh*t is stubborn. Taking a broader perspective, inflation is still moving in the right direction—for the most part. As important as these monthly readings are when it comes to interest rates, the broader trend is really what matters. It’s gonna be bumpy for the last mile, but as author and Director of Institutional Asset Management of Ritholtz Wealth Management Ben Carlson once said, “If we’re arguing about decimal points, we’ve already won the game.” [Source](=) Most of the time, we’d hate nothing more than having JPow’s job. But given this is an election year, we’d hate even more to have big dawg Joey B’s job if prices keep rising. What's Ripe 🤩 Snap Inc (SNAP) 📈27.6% - Well, I owe someone a kidney, given that Snap actually rose on earnings for the first time since Moses had a paper route. A low bar is easy to hop over. - Sales growth is back in the double-digits at 21% and Snap reported a surprise profit at $0.03/sh vs the $0.05 loss expected. Their 422mn MAUs beat as well. - But, perhaps best for long-term shareholders is Snaps’ growth in ARPU, raking in $2.83/sh vs the $2.67 expected. - Snap is also a sneaky AI/VR player with their bullsh*tty lenses and whatever-the-f*cks, helping grow Snapchat+ revenue by 184% YoY. Nvidia (NVDA) 📈6.2% - No stock has mastered the ability to gain on other firm’s announcements like Nvidia. Tesla, Microsoft, and Google all hyped up the firm’s chips this week. - Elon spent much of Tesla’s call bragging about how many H100s they have. Then, Satya and Sundar chimed in as well on how crucial the H100s have been. - Nvidia’s H100 chips were dominant already, but to hear the brightest in tech confirm it is always nice. Hopefully, they can live up to the hype on their earnings release on May 22nd. What's Rotten 🤮 Intel (INTC) 📉9.2% - Meanwhile, and similar to Utz, Intel’s chips clearly suck in comparison. Shares sold off Friday, mostly thanks to a weak outlook. - Sales missed for the quarter at “just” $12.72bn vs the $12.78bn expected, but earnings more than quadrupled expectations at $0.18/sh vs $0.04/sh. - But, the CPU king needs a Prozac prescription for its Q2 outlook, advising investors it will take several quarters for its foundry, AI, and other bets to pay off. Big Oil (DJUSEN) 📉0.9% - Party at Greta Thunberg’s tonight as the world’s 2nd and 3rd largest oil companies (after Saudi Aramco) saw shares dive after Q1 earnings. - Exxon and Chevron both reported mixed numbers, with Exxon beating on sales and missing on earnings and Chevron doing the opposite. - Oil prices are up about 17% so far in 2024, but natural gas prices have lagged heavily, squeezing margins. Still, it could be a good inflation/WWIII hedge. = Thought Banana 🤔 Get Psyched At Work Finally, we have a reason to blame our parents for our lack of professional success—they stopped us from doing drugs. If I had a dollar for every time my D.A.R.E. officer told us not to do drugs, I’d probably have more money than that D.A.R.E. officer, but it turns out doing drugs might be the key we’ve been missing. According to reports, it’s not the elites of Silicon Valley that dabble in dosing at the office. Microdosing through the monotony is becoming a lot more popular. What’s Going On? Companies like MindMed are even cooler and edgier than cannabis companies. This is one of many hot, new healthcare companies specializing in the use of psychedelic drugs to treat primarily mental health disorders. Like most, MindMed currently makes less revenue than I’m getting paid to type this (and that’s saying something) as this is a “clinical stage” biotech firm, meaning none of their therapies have been approved yet for public use. But, compounds and products like those sold by MindMed are becoming more and more popular among white-collar workers outside of the limited historical scope of Silicon Valley’s tech darlings. As this [WSJ report]( highlights, company leaders across marketing, tax, and financial services (hell yeah) are trying this “hippie sh*t” out and have near-universally determined the effects to be overwhelmingly positive. Some firms are even covering psychedelic treatments for their [employees already](=)… and I personally really hope my boss reads that part. The tough part is that none of these treatments have landed the biotech Holy Grail that is FDA approval. But our boy MindMed did recently take one giant leap in that directions. = [Source]( Just a few weeks ago, the firm received a “Breakthrough Therapy Designation” from the FDA, meaning that the results of clinical trials are so compelling in a market with few viable options that the agency is fast-tracking the development of the drug. In this case, the drug is called MM120, a lysergic-acid-based treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). And for the uninitiated, lysergic acid is just the nerdy way of saying LSD. It’s a non-hallucinogenic version, but it still looks like the Beatles were onto something. Nobody is using MM120 at large just yet, but with a legion of soul-starved, white-collar consumer workers getting used to this stuff, don’t be surprised if doing drugs is actually encouraged at next year’s holiday party. 💭 The Big Question 💭: What happens if this drug becomes approved? Will more firms cover psychedelic treatments for their employees? What are the long-term implications of this? Banana Brain Teaser 💡 Previous 🗓 A small business invests $9,900 in equipment to produce a product. Each unit of the product costs $0.65 to produce and is sold for $1.20. How many units of the product must be sold before the revenue received equals the total expense of production, including the initial investment in equipment? Answer: 18,000 units Today 🕐 Kevin invested $8,000 for one year at a simple annual interest rate of 6 percent and invested $10,000 for one year at an annual interest rate of 8 percent compounded semiannually. What is the total amount of interest that Kevin earned on the two investments? Send your guesses to vyomesh@wallstreetoasis.com Wise Investor Says 🤓 “Beware the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns." — Warren Buffett How Would You Rate Today's Peel? 😁[All the bananas]() 😐[Meh]() 😩[Rotten AF]() Happy Investing, David, Vyom, Jasper & Patrick [ADVERTISE]( // [WSO ALPHA](=) // [ACADEMY]( // [COURSES]( // [LEGAL](=) [Unsubscribe]( IB Oasis Corp. (aka "Wall Street Oasis") 20705 Saint Charles St Saratoga, California 95070 United States (617) 337-3353