Tale of the Tape

Happy Monday, y’all. We hope everyone enjoyed a much-needed weekend. 🍻 ☀️

The major indexes were split. Small caps and the Nasdaq powered higher while the S&P 500 and Dow lagged.

Real estate ran up 0.95%, and $XLRE closed at another all-time high. Materials, industrials, and financials were the weakest of the bunch. 

Bitcoin slid 5% lower to ~ $34k — it’s straight-up 🐻 flaggin’ on the daily chart. Ethereum fell 4% to ~ $2,600. Check this out:

The Memestocks moved higher. $AMC ascended 15%, $GME gained 13%, and $BB bounced 14%. 🚀 🚀

Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug passed US regulation and officially became the first drug of its kind approved to treat the disease. $BIIB blasted 38% on the announcement, closing at $396. 👩‍🔬 More on this below.

$PLBY popped 13.5% and the company announced a secondary offering after the close. Classic.

Here are the closing prints: 

S&P 500	4,226	-0.08%
Nasdaq	13,881	+0.49%
Russell 2000	2,319	+1.43%
Dow Jones	34,630	-0.36%

The Deal With The Alzheimer’s Drug

Biogen’s controversial new drug for Alzheimer’s disease cleared US regulation today. It’s the first drug ever approved to address underlying causes of the disease. 🥳 🥂 

Biogen’s announcement sent shares soaring today. $BIIB closed up 38.3%, with Eisai (Biogen’s Japanese partner) ($ESALY) +56.3%.

Adacanumab is the first therapy approved for Alzheimer’s since 2003. The drug will be sold for $56,000/yr— with over 6 million patients currently experiencing Alzheimer’s, that’s an expensive (but worthwhile) spend. 

Not everyone is sold, though. Doctors, pricing watchdogs, and even regulators have shared concerns about whether the drug actually works.

We’ll probably get to the bottom of it in a few years. The FDA will require Biogen to conduct another study to prove the drug is effective. If it isn’t, regulators could yoink that approval… and shareholder gains. 😬

PSTH, Y’all— It Happened 🤭

A year ago, Bill Ackman’s mega-SPAC made headlines by becoming the biggest SPAC offering ever. On Friday, $PSTH once again made headlines— the SPAC confirmed that it’s in talks to buy 10% of Universal Music for $4B. 

The decision to take a minority stake in a future IPO is unexpected, but could hugely reward investors. 💰 $14.75 of investors’ initial $20 will be spent on shares of UMG— IOUs until UMG goes public later this year. That reserves the remaining $5.25/share for another (smaller) acquisition target. 

To sweeten the deal, $PSTH investors will get a SPAR offering, or the right to invest in a new future SPAC (that is, if they’re interested in the acquisition target). 

This has never been done before, so we’re curious to see how it goes. But there are definitely investors who are not here for it. 😅 

If you zoom out a bit, you’ll see what we mean:

$PSTH fell 11.94% on Friday.

Earnings Round-Up

Stitch Fix beat top and bottom line estimates and raised its revenue outlook for the full year. 👚 ✨

Here are the stats:

EPS: ($0.18) vs ($0.27) est
Revenue: $536M, +44% YoY

Stitch Fix President (and incoming CEO) Elizabeth Spaulding said: 

In Q3 we delivered $536 million in net revenue, reflecting 44% year-over-year growth, and grew our active client count to more than 4.1 million, reflecting 20% year-over-year growth and our second highest quarter-over-quarter active client additions ever.

$SFIX soared 15.55% after hours.

Vail Resorts reported Q3 earnings today after the bell. ⛷️

Here are the details:

EPS: $6.71 vs $6.67 est
Revenue: $888M, +28% YoY

Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts, shared:

Results continued to improve as the season progressed, primarily as a result of stronger destination visitation at our Colorado and Utah resorts, including improved lift ticket purchases relative to fiscal 2021 second quarter results.

$MTN was flat after hours.

The Coinbase Effect?

Dogecoin jumped over 25% last week after Coinbase announced it would list the crypto on its Pro and Core platforms.

The listing wasn’t as exciting as investors hoped, though. 🤷 By the time $DOGE went live on Coinbase Pro, the crypto had already bounced well off its weekly high. $DOGE slid throughout the weekend and now trades at $0.3584.

But there may still be hope. We’ll see if the infamous  “Coinbase Effect” works its magic on Dogecoin. ✨ 👩‍🔬 Messari Research coined the term after observing that Coinbase’s newly-added cryptos nearly double on average within five days after listing.

So far, Dogecoin could be an outlier— it’s not a done deal yet, bulls. But that’s unlikely to stop Coinbase from celebrating its latest listing. The exchange is offering $1.2M of $DOGE in a giveaway to celebrate. 🥂

Apple WWDC 2021 🎉

Apple kicked off its 2021 Worldwide Developers Conference today, and we have to say— there’s some pretty cool new technology out there. 🤓

Last year, Apple wow-ed virtual WWDC audiences with its drone shots and smooth transitions. Today, the company showcased new iOS 15 features tailored to our increasingly-digitized world. Some of Apple’s latest releases include: 

• Facetime updates allowing users to watch movies or listen to music with callers 🎶
• Android compatibility on Facetime calls 🤝
• Mobile wallet updates permitting users to unlock their cars, homes, hotel rooms, and even store government IDs on iPhone 👜

In light of recent controversy surrounding big tech, Apple also shared a statement on privacy concerns. Apple Senior VP Craig Federighi commented: 

At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right. We don’t think you should have to make a tradeoff between great features and privacy. We believe you deserve both.

Here’s TechCrunch with more on Apple. 

Links That Don’t Suck

💉 Here’s a List of Everything You Can Get Free (If You’re Vaccinated)

💰 An MIT Experiment Gave Students Bitcoin in 2014. Some Held On.

🕵️‍♂️ Inside Credit Suisse’s $5.5 Billion Breakdown

🤔 Is $1 Million Still Worth $1 Million?

📈 Why The “Increasing Chart Emoji” Is Red

🤑 FTX Is Writing a $210 Million Dollar Check for Three Letters

💼 Wall Street Sees 61% of Workers Returning to Office by September