Snacks Daily

Attend our 1st ever LIVE “Snacks Break” virtual event @ 3pm EST on Friday 4/3 by registering at rbnhd.co/snacks-break — We’ll be whipping up our 3 mega takeaways on the corona-conomy. On today’s pod… Carnival Cruises was already facing a no-one-is-cruising-right-now moment — but now its Panama corporate citizenship is messing with its desperate bailout needs. HBO just made a critical hire for CEO of Warnermedia during the most important month for streaming of the year. And McCormick spices dipped 2% after its earnings because it’s facing what we’re calling the “seesaw situation” in the corona-conomy

We haven’t had an Amazon story during the entire corona-conomy — now it’s facing its crunch moment. Zoom became the most popular free app in the world, but now it’s facing its 1st major privacy investigation. And our “Unicorn of the Day” is ride-share under-puppy Via — it just raised $200M for AI-powered busses in the strangest timing for a ride-share investment yet.

Fresh after shutting down in February, HQ Trivia has been resurrected during this crucial moment for stay-at-home apps — and the announcement came via push notification. Cal-Maine is the largest egg producer in the country and it’s having a moment right now (eggs are essentially essential). And Johnson & Johnson shares jumped 8% on word it may be leading the race-for-a-corona-cure.

It’s been one year since Lululemon set an intention known as its “Power of Three” — and sticking to its 5-year plan has become pure corporate leadership in the coronaconomy. Startup “Fast” raised a new round of financing from Stripe to solve online shopping cart anxiety, but its real power is as a Big Tech outsider. And Nike’s earnings report reveals a valuable Wall Street strategy: Be a “close talker.”

Fresh after the latest two-trillion-dollar stimulus package, we got news of the red wedding week for American workers — 3.3M filed for unemployment last week. E-scooter legend Lime already pulled out of 99% of the cities it scoots around in, but a new fundraise could drop its valuation by 80%. And you’d think Target is living its best life right now, but a surprise report reveals that its profit puppies are getting no love.

Stocks popped (again) because the economic rescue bill finally passed the Senate, so we put the $2T spending total into a spreadsheet for you. Twitter and Facebook are enjoying bandwidth-breaking usage, but they’re about to face the ad-pocalypse of 2020. And workout platform ClassPass is launching virtual workouts — 1 year after they first tried the same exact thing and failed.

Businesses like Ford and 3M are entering phase they haven’t hit in decades: War Effort mode. The Harry’s Razors innovation arm whipped up its 2nd startup — a direct-to-consumer cat brand called Cat Person that’s changing direct-to-consumer. And marijuana companies faced an oversupply problem pre-coronavirus, but quarantines may be their cure.

Constellation Brands brews Corona lagers in Mexico, but its $1.4B investment in a new facility there now isn’t happening, so the stock dropped 12%. Despite all its reporting right now, the New York Times took a break to acquire Audm — doubling its content in 1 move. And the US response to coronavirus is now facing a Robert Frost style “Two Paths” moment: Officials may start weighing the economy vs. human lives.

We predict that the Corona-conomy is accelerating trends, including contactless payments, subscriptions, and cord-cutting. Universal Studios is going direct-to-consumer with its latest movies, which questions the whole must-be-in-theaters-first-for-90-days thing. And Airbnb promised investors and employees it would IPO this year, but now it’s got to make a careful calculation as its bookings plummet: Side with guests or hosts?

Even though ride-hailing has plummeted in the corona-conomy, Uber’s CEO announced the company has $10B of cash, food delivery, and some side hustle ideas. Media consumption is surging while you work from home, and Netflix’s business model may put it above its media rivals. Ford’s touching its $13B loan as part of an anti-treat-yo-self plan, but that’s more of a problem for its bank.

While it looks like nearly every stock has fallen, Walmart shares just hit a record high — we repeat: Record high stock price during this crisis. Apple just issued a subtle press release for new products that basically admits 1 big failure. And Starbucks has a couple billion dollars in extra cash, so it decided to treat itself… to more stock… of itself.

Lyft is worth 1 Lyft, but 1 Lyft is now worth less than $6B, so we’re wondering who may buy it (the whole company). Toilet paper sales have surged for Kimberly Clark, but the front-loaded demand now may not help its future sales. And the latest update in the government’s COVID-19 response is a nearly $1 Trillion stimulus package that completes a policy trifecta.

To rescue financial markets from pandemic ruin, The Fed took drastic measures Sunday — but it’s already used up its major tools. To help people figure out testing for COVID-19, Google’s deployed “Project Baseline”, which is like Healthcare.gov but for disease screening. And private businesses are making “flattening the curve” possible with pro-social distancing policies.

Despite your work-from-home lifestyle right now, office IM’ing service Slack announced a quarter that didn’t live up to expectations, because work software habits take time. Direct-to-patient half-icorn Ro has a new strategy: Launch pharmacies so it can vertically integrate your healthcare experience. And with the sudden end of the bull market, we’re looking at the history and reality of market cycles in the USA.

The worst day for markets since 1987’s Black Monday. We’re looking at why the stimulus keg from the government didn’t save stocks. Virus-testing company Lab Corp is now facing the moment it’s been waiting for (but it’s stock is still down). And Direct-to-Consumer startups and stocks have been having a different kind of moment, so we’re looking at Casper/Brandless/Harry’s/Outdoor Voice’s CAC problem (“customer acquisition cost”).