Life

Queen Elizabeth’s Net Worth, Plus Under Armour’s Stock Rises 7% After Earnings Released

by Last Updated

This week’s Brew quiz is live! You know the rules: five questions. Multiple choice. We’ll randomly select one of you fine Brew folks who aced it to win an exclusive Brew shout-out next week and some sweet Brew swag. Good luck!

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“Autonomous vehicles are key…I don’t want to talk too much about it. I have to be careful what I say” — Elon Musk, in typical shifty Elon Musk fashion at a transportation conference in Norway. Apparently, Musk has a plan for solving traffic congestion using a fleet of self-driving buses…but the details must wait.

 

MARKET SNAPSHOT
Big Picture

  • U.S. stocks dipped a bit on Thursday, breaking their three-day winning streak as defensive sectors and a decline in oil dragged the S&P and Dow lower

Market Movers

  • In a move that seemed all but inevitable, SunEdison finally filed for bankruptcy after the renewable energy company racked up billions of dollars in debt over the past few years
  • On the same sinking ship is the preppy clothing line Aéropostale, which plans to file bankruptcy later this month following three straight years of losses and disputes with its biggest lender, Sycamore Partners—shares were down nearly 30%
  • While not a bankruptcy (phew), shares of Sarepta Therapeutics fell off a 47% cliff after the FDA gave its fancy new RNA drug a negative review, destroying its approval chances and wiping out $420 million of market value

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CORPORATE PRIMER

Steph the Savior

Some people believe Steph Curry has the potential to dethrone LeBron James as King of the NBA. After Under Armour released earnings yesterday, Curry is right on track. The athletic apparel outfitter’s once-dismal sneaker line shot its way into the spotlight with 64% growth since January…all thanks to Curry’s line. His shoe is selling faster than that of most competitors, a trend many attribute to his team’s success this season. Fresh off the win, Under Armour is just as deadly in the athletic apparel market as Curry is on the court, and investors couldn’t be happier: the stock rose nearly 7% yesterday.

Baby Steps Won’t Cut It

More news on the Volkswagen emissions scandal cracked yesterday, and the Brew is all over it. Here’s the deal: VW has finally agreed to make “substantial payouts” to affected customers in the U.S. (around $5,000 per vehicle, to around 500,000 customers), along with compensation to fix any outstanding engine problems. Plus, it’s agreeing to buy back any affected vehicles. Yes, it’s true, the German auto colossus—owner of Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Porsche—looks to finally be saying sorry.

Alphabetting

It’s tough being numero uno. Yesterday, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, relinquished its title as the most valuable company in the world after its earnings displeased the Street. No love for Google? Not exactly. Alphabet has been investing in new, riskier projects—dubbed “Other Bets” in its new-look financial statements—that have yet to pay off. They include smart gadget maker Nest, driverless cars, Google Fiber and more fun and interesting initiatives. If only being fun and interesting meant being profitable. For now, Google and its thriving advertising business are carrying the team. But hey, you can’t fault Alphabet for trying…and these long-shot bets may very well pay off down the road.

The Mighty Cloud

Tech giant Microsoft announced earnings yesterday. Verdict? Eh. Earnings were hurt by the strong dollar (a typical culprit that hurts international revenues) as well as a decline in PC sales—global shipments are down by almost 10%. If “weak PC market” sounds familiar, it should—as you’ll know if you’ve been up on your Brew, Intel announced plans to lay off 11% of its workforce earlier this week for the very same reason. And just like Intel, as PCs go extinct, Microsoft has shifted to its cloud business, which has been doing well enough to keep it afloat—the segment grew a solid 8%, quite a bit more than expected. For the cloud, well, the sky’s the limit, but investors were still disappointed overall, dropping the stock over 5% after hours.

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OTHER STORIES

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ECONOMIC CALENDAR

SHE’S OLD, BUT HOW MUCH IS SHE WORTH?

It was Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday yesterday. Think that number is incredible? How about this: according to a recent report, the value of the British monarchy stands at around $84 billion. Better yet, through areas like tourism and business, it’s estimated that the royal family contributed more than a billion pounds to the British economy. Here’s more:

  • The report didn’t just account for royal family income sources, such as the surplus generated by the Crown Estate, uplift to tourism and the fees that go along with brands that use royal warrants. It deducted expenses as well, such as palace maintenance, security and the queen’s public income.
  • Both tangible and intangible assets were included in the 58.4 billion pound valuation. Tangible assets (21 billion pounds) included the Crown estate, the Royal Collection treasure trove and many other private estates. Intangible assets (37.4 billion pounds) mostly included the monarchy’s long-term contribution to the economy.
  • As is often the case with monarchy, not everyone is a fan. The campaign group Republic calculated that each royal family member costs the British taxpayers an average of 18.5 million pounds, making them the most expensive public officials in the country.

INTERVIEW QUESTION OF THE DAY

A car travels a distance of 60 miles at an average speed of 30 mph. How fast would the car have to travel the same 60 mile distance home to average 60 mph over the entire trip? (Answer)

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BUSINESS TERM OF THE DAY

Credit Default Swap (CDS) — A credit default swap is a special type of swap that transfers the credit exposure of fixed income products between two or more parties. Think of it as insurance against a default. If the buyer of the CDS of a company defaults, then the seller of the CDS must exchange the defaulted bonds for something of value like treasury bonds. For more, read Michael Lewis’s outstanding book The Big Short, watch the Oscar winning film, or better yet, do both.

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HISTORY-MAKING STATISTIC

$1.3 million: the FBI paid the largest-ever publicized amount for a hacking technique to break into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. FBI Director James Comey also stated that this is more than he would make for the remaining seven years and four months he has on the job. Not bad for a day’s hack.

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