Business

Would You Like E. Coli With That?

McDonalds faces deadly E. Coli outbreak.

The year of foodborne illnesses continues, as McDonalds has been struck with E. coli. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Friday that a deadly E. coli outbreak has been linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders specifically.

So far it has led to 75 cases across 13 states. The question is, why only the Quarter Pounders? What sort of meat is McDonald's using for those burgers, compared to the others. Well, turns out, it’s not the meat at all. 

Following an investigation of the source of the spread, it is believed to be caused by the slivered onions that are used particularly for that burger. 

The outbreak has affected 61 people so far, with 22 being hospitalized, and one reported death - an older adult in Colorado. Two of the people hospitalized have developed a serious condition that can cause kidney failure, called hemolytic uremic syndrome. 

All of the 42 people who were interviewed by the CDC reported eating at McDonald’s, while 39 reported eating a beef hamburger. The number of cases are most likely higher, as these are only the reported cases - not everyone might be sick enough to require attention and realize they have E. coli. Additionally, it usually takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak.

Those with infections ranged between ages 13 and 88. This comes two years after Wendy’s E. coli outbreak.

Shares of the restaurant dropped 3% on Friday and the stock has fallen 7% since the CDC announced the outbreak on Tuesday. McDonald’s declined to comment, citing the company’s statement when the outbreak first became public. 

Quarter Pounder hamburgers bring in billions of dollars annually for the fast food chain. However, stores in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, as well as parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma have temporarily stopped using Quarter Pounder slivered onions and beef patties.

California-based produce giant Taylor Farms has been identified as the supplier of the contaminated onions. Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell have pulled onions from select restaurants because of this outbreak, as well. Still, the beef patty used for the Quarter Pounder is still being investigated too. And nearly 20% of McDonald’s restaurants are not selling Quarter Pounder burgers right now. 

But, for now, McDonald’s is continuing to attempt to reassure customers that their items are safe to consume.

Alex Jones is Back in Court

This time to protect his social media accounts.

Alex Jones is attempting to protect his social media accounts from the upcoming auction of his infowars media platform. The auction comes as Jones owes more than $1 billion to relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, after claiming it was a hoax that was staged by “crisis actors” to get more gun control legislation passed (20 first-graders and six educators were killed in the shooting).

Jones argues that selling the accounts would violate his privacy and deny him a chance to make a fresh start following bankruptcy. 

However, the trustee overseeing the liquidation and selloff asked a federal judge on Friday to include the social media accounts as part of the auctions, which are scheduled for November and December. For now, the judge has delayed a decision on the matter for at least another week. 

Jones argument is that he uses his real name for his accounts and, therefore, they are not owned by Infowars. They should be considered part of his “persona” and cannot be owned by someone else, according to Jones. Jones has argued that a purchaser of said accounts could face lawsuits down the road in regards to rightfully obtaining them or not. 

Jones has also suggested a supporter of his purchase Infowars’ assets, which would allow him to continue hosting his show as an employee of Infowars. 

Jones’ X account has nearly three million followers.

Around the Water Cooler:

💊 Olympus CEO exits after drug allegations.

🤖 This is what Mark Cuban would do if he were 16 again.

Tech

Elon’s Secret Talks With Putin

Surely the internet will handle this rationally.

Another week and another story involving Elon Musk. Apparently Musk has engaged in (what were) secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022. This according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. 

The conversations reportedly occurred as Musk was in the midst of a buyout and takeover of Twitter, which is now known as X. These talks obviously also occurred as Russia waged war on Ukraine, a top U.S. ally. 

Reportedly, topics ranged from business to personal to geopolitical issues. In one instance, for example, Putin pressured Musk to direct SpaceX to withhold Starlink from Taiwan as a favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said, “if the story is true that there have been multiple conversations between Elon Musk and the president of Russia, then I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA, for the Department of Defense, for some of the intelligence agencies.” Nelson also said the matter “should be investigated.”

Musk has become a major Republican donor this election cycle. So allow the conspiracies to fly of Putin’s influence, through Musk, on this election.

What’s Happening:

🎰 The Government is betting big on technology.

🐜 App that set out to fight pesticides, now sells them.

Politics

The Washington Post is Endorsing… No One

They will be sitting this one out.

Buckle up, as Election Day is a week from tomorrow! And, for the first time in decades, The Washington Post will NOT endorse a candidate in this year’s presidential election, as announced by the newspaper on Friday. 

“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election,” Post publisher Will Lewis said in a statement. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” he explained. 

The Post also said that this decision was made by the newspaper’s new billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. 

The staffers of the editorial page had even drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, but the draft was never presented to the Washington Post’s board. According to one source “many on the editorial board are surprised and angry,” by that decision. 

The Post has endorsed a candidate in every election since the 1980’s (typically the democratic candidate). 

“The news is significant - and I know there will be strong reactions across the department,” David Shipley, the editorial page editor, told staffers in a memo. 

Around the Hill:

📈 Kamala Harris regains slight lead in national polls.

🙅‍♂️ CNN finds 32 false claims Trump made to Joe Rogan.

Finance

Apple No Longer World’s Most Valuble Company

Nvidia takes the top spot.

Nvidia continues to climb the ranks, now dethroning Apple as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock. This comes following a large demand for its specialized artificial intelligence chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched $3.53 trillion, just slightly above Apple’s $3.52 trillion.

In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft and Apple. The tech trio have been neck-and-neck for several months now, as Microsoft lags behind the others at $3.18 trillion.

Nvidia is the dominant supplier of processors used in AI computing and the company has been winning the race between Microsoft, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Meta and others to dominate the emerging sector in the technology world. 

Overall, Nvidia’s stock has risen about 18% in the month of October so far, with a string of gains coming after OpenAI announced a funding round of $6.6 billion.

Nividia posted a forecast-beating 54% jump in quarterly profit driven by soaring demand for chips used in AI. Meanwhile, Apple is struggling with tepid demand for its smartphones. iPhone sales in China slipped 0.3% in the third quarter, while sales of phones made by rival Huwaei surged 42%.

Analyst project a revenue growth of nearly 82% for Nvidia to $33 billion. 

Costco Ready for Their Moment

Analyst thinks they could be on the same path as netflix.

We wrote last week about Netflix’s 15% increase in 2024, in large part because of their crackdown on password sharing, forcing many to finally get their own account. And, now, Costco is jumping on board, hoping for similar success. 

Costco is introducing membership card scanners at the front of its stores, limiting account sharing. Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note last week that Costo is seeing as much as low double-digit increases in membership counts and that this could be their “Netflix moment.”

Costco and Netflix might have two very different business models, but could see similar results from the same crackdown method. 

Morgan Stanley’s analyst suggests that Costco could capture an additional four million members through this move. Costco has used these card readers at the front of its stores in Europe for more than two years now and are finally bringing them to the states, after six months of planning. 

Costco said it’ll also help them track in store traffic in real time, so they can monitor their fresh foods and line length at the register. The scanners will also notify customers if their membership renewals are due.

Costco said that the scanners have already helped speed up the checkout process and they have been “very well received by our members” so far. 

From the Street:

🚲 Could Peloton be worth 5x what it is now?

💸 Boeing looking to raise 15 billion as early as today.