(Manuel Blondeau/Getty Images) |
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As the dog days of summer near their end, the back-to-school scaries are creeping in: Google searches for "how to fall asleep fast" spiked on Monday. Insomniacs, assemble. Stocks yesterday moved up slightly as investors twiddled their thumbs ahead of Nvidia's earnings today. One big mover was Walgreens, whose stock lost 9% after Eli Lilly said it had started selling discounted vials of its weight-loss drug Zepbound directly to consumers. |
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Sending a message… Telegram boss Pavel Durov was detained by French authorities on Saturday and is expected to remain in custody through at least today. Durov was arrested as part of an investigation into the messaging platform, which the company says has nearly 1B monthly users. Durov's arrest is connected to allegations against an unnamed person who French authorities say is complicit in crimes committed via Telegram, including the distribution of child exploitative material, drug trafficking, and money laundering. |
- "At the heart of this case is the lack of moderation and cooperation of the platform," a French agency investigating Durov said.
- Telegram's emphasis on privacy and its moderation policies — widely criticized as lax — made it appealing to groups like crypto enthusiasts and Ukrainian refugees, but also to criminals and terrorists.
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Safety and censorship… it's a fine line. Durov's arrest has reignited a debate over free speech and moderation. Telegram said, "It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform." Telegram supporters called Durov's arrest government censorship, but French President Emmanuel Macron said it was "in no way a political decision." Elon Musk tweeted #FreePavel, while Mark Zuckerberg said gov't officials had wrongly pressured Meta to censor some Covid-19 posts. |
- At the same time, regulators are struggling to control crime online: in January, lawmakers grilled the top execs of Meta, TikTok, Snap, X, and Discord at a Senate hearing, saying they weren't doing enough to prevent child sexual abuse on their platforms.
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Responsibility is a gray area… In the US, Section 230 shields online platforms from being legally liable for their users' posts — but there've been calls to scrap that immunity. In the EU (where stricter regs went into effect last summer), the Telegram investigation could set a precedent for how authorities handle crimes on platforms. And if French authorities charge Durov, it could mean a reckoning for other tech bosses. |
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Beyond Nasdaq…Monogram's new investment potential |
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Beyond Nasdaq…Monogram's new investment potential |
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Pickin' up migraine meds... from the front porch. Pfizer launched its first direct-to-consumer portal yesterday. The platform (dubbed: PfizerForAll) lets US users schedule doc appointments, book vax shots, and order meds directly to their doors. Pfizer says it wants to "close gaps" in healthcare and help people get treated for common conditions like the flu. |
- Booster bust: Pfizer's profit hit a record $100B in 2022, driven by its Covid vax and pill, but sales have plunged as demand has dwindled.
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Flipping the script... Employers and insurers typically use pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) like CVS's Caremark and Cigna's Express Scripts to negotiate prices with drugmakers to save $$. But last month the FTC dropped a scathing report saying PBMs may be inflating drug prices. Meanwhile, more pharma companies are dealing directly with consumers. In January, Eli Lilly launched its LillyDirect portal, becoming the first major pharma co to sell meds straight to customers. Drugmakers may be trying to compete with direct-to-consumer disruptors: |
- Marked down: Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs started making and selling its own generic prescriptions to lower drug costs.
- Fast track: Amazon launched a $5/month prescription subscription called RxPass, and said its online pharmacy and healthcare units have seen "tremendous growth."
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Direct relationships can drive profits… By nixing intermediary negotiators, drugmakers can prevent PBMs from eating into their sales. This month, the Biden admin revealed the prices for the first 10 drugs included under its Medicare negotiation program (including one from Pfizer). By going directly to patients, drugmakers could ease the negotiation squeeze. |
Uncharted: What company — which serves a lot of green food but is stuck in the red — is this? Answer here. |
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How old are the posts Threads are recommending to its users? Read more. |
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- Swiftly: NFL players Jason and Travis Kelce scored a podcast deal (reportedly worth $100M+) with Amazon's Wondery. Pod stars like Dax Shepard and Alex Cooper have also recently sealed major deals.
- Space-Tourist: A SpaceX rocket was scheduled to launch this morning carrying fintech billionaire Jared Isaacman, who's set to become the first private citizen to walk in space (using a special mobility suit).
- BNPL: Buy now, pay later platform Klarna said it swung to a profit in the first half of the year, ahead of its anticipated IPO. Klarna said it leaned into AI to lower costs and boost employee productivity.
- Rack: Nordstrom blew past earnings estimates as its cost-cutting strategy started yielding results. Sales grew last quarter as bargain-hunters visited its off-price Nordstrom Rack chain.
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Fill in the headline: A new report said that globally half of _______ were used for less than one hour a day. (Answer here.) |
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- Earnings expected from Abercrombie & Fitch, Chewy, Li Auto, Kohl's, Foot Locker, Bath & Body Works, Royal Bank of Canada, JM Smucker, Nvidia, CrowdStrike, Salesforce, Affirm, Okta, HP, NetApp, and Victoria's Secret
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Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Alphabet, Amazon, CVS, Nvidia, and Snap |
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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 |
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