Enjoy your March 9th hand-crafted Brew!
Market Snapshot
- Energy stocks dragged U.S. markets lower despite positive economic data showing a spike in private hiring in the U.S., especially in manufacturing and construction
- Oil suffered its largest drop in over a year after an increase in U.S. stockpiles sent crude roughly 5.4% lower
Starbucks Ain’t So Grande
…After the coffee powerhouse lost 1% of its existing market share in February. Starbucks has come under renewed pressure after competitors like Dunkin Donuts, McDonald’s and Panera have rolled out attractive deals, giving customer more caffeine buzz for their buck. The bad news doesn’t end there—Starbucks’ (-1.11%) decision to hire refugees, coupled with its glitchy mobile delivery app, received considerable flak from some unhappy customers. Starbucks’ recovery? A Tall order indeed.
The End of Hipster?
…Urban Outfitters (-5.6%) has become the latest victim of the “retail bubble” burst. After a poor fourth quarter performance, the parent brand of Anthropologie and Free People is seeing “doors shuttering and rents retreating,” according to CEO Richard Hayne. As Anthropologie continues its uber-expensive-for-no-apparent-reason fashion errors, a drop in foot traffic to stores and an expensive transition to online sales are eating into the firm’s profits. Maybe mainstream ain’t that bad, after all?
Samsung is Coming to America
…And is planning to invest around $300 million in its new endeavor. How exactly will that money be spent? Samsung is looking to expand its U.S. production facilities and shift some manufacturing out of Mexico and into the U.S. of A. Why? Well, Trump, for one thing. For another, word on the street is that Samsung is in early talks to open a new home appliance manufacturing facility in the U.S. There’s yet to be an official comment—but we’ll keep our eyes peeled for you.
Google Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
…Just look at yesterday’s flurry of announcements:
A new machine learning API that recognizes objects in videos. Announced at its Cloud Next Conference in San Francisco, the new Video Intelligence API will allow developers to build apps that let users search and discover information in videos, as well as tag scene changes in a video.
An acquisition of Kaggle, a data science community founded in 2010. Kaggle is a coding competition platform that allows developers and data scientists to run machine learning contests, host datasets and write and share code. Google hopes to capitalize on the already half-a-million data scientists the platform already has.
An unveiling of its first original podcast series, “City Soundtracks.” Google Play added this new series yesterday, which features interviews with various musicians and their artistic inspirations. Want more? Each episode of “City Soundtracks” will be paired with a playlist created by the podcast’s guest—creating a personalized music experience for the listener.
Other Stories
- Loan startup Kabbage raises $500 million in latest financing round
- Ferrari unveils “Superfast”, its fastest production car ever
- Uber to stop using “greyball” tool to evade law enforcement
- Lead contender of Time Inc. sale drops out of the race
Economic Calendar
- Monday: Factory Orders (+)
- Tuesday: Boingo Wireless (+), Dick’s Sporting Goods (+), H&R Block (-), Urban Outfitters (-) Earnings; Consumer Credit (+)
- Wednesday: Adidas (+), Vera Bradley Earnings (+); Private Employment Report (+)
- Thursday: Domino’s, El Pollo Loco, Signet Jewelers Earnings
- Friday: Vail Resorts Earnings; March Jobs Report, Treasury Budget
U.S. Oil Ready to Boom
After falling on hard times back in 2014, it appears the American oil industry is poised for an extraordinary comeback. Much of this revival is thanks to rising oil prices and ramped up production in the Permian Basin in western Texas and New Mexico. Let’s drill into the numbers:
- The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that U.S. oil production will hit 9.7 million barrels per day in 2018, up from 8.7 million in July 2016. This would be the highest domestic production in U.S. history, breaking the 9.6 million barrels per day record set in 1970.
- The Permian Basin will largely drive this output. The rig count in this region has increased from 132 last April to its current count of 308. By the way, the Permian Basin is a wide swath of land in Texas and New Mexico that’s especially oil-rich. If you didn’t know, now you know.
- Rising oil prices have also fueled this boom: after bottoming out at $26 a barrel, oil has rebounded up to $53 a barrel. Think back to Econ 101—when price rises, quantity supplied increases. But that increased supply may eventually drag prices down again (which, as you dutiful snapshot readers know, is what we saw yesterday).
- So how will this output affect oil prices going forward? Actually not a lot. The EIA projects the average price of oil to only rise slightly next year to $56.18 per barrel. Place your bets.
Interview Question of the Day
Using only a four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass, how will you measure exactly nine minutes? Restriction: the process cannot take longer than nine minutes. (Answer)
Food for Thought
The number of billionaires globally has now reached 2,257, up 55% from five years ago. Since then, total wealth has risen by 16% to $8 trillion, which is equivalent to 10.7% of the world’s gross domestic product and up from 7% of the global GDP five years ago. Yep, the rich are getting richer.
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