Business

You Can’t Silence Ben & Jerry

Even if their parent company wants too.

Ben & Jerry’s might be known for their fun ice cream flavor names like “Cherry Garcia” and “Chunky Monkey,” but what about “Make Some Motherchunkin’ Change!” That was the name of their ad campaign from this past summer, their first in a decade, as the company remains outspoken in activism attempts.

However, not as outspoken as they would like, as Ben & Jerry’s is suing their parent company, Unilever, over claims of censorship and threats. Ben & Jerry’s has voiced its support of Palestinian refugees and even pulled their ice cream from Jerusalem and Israeli occupied places. At the time, they cited that the sales in those territories were “inconsistent with our values.”

But the lawsuit claims that Unilever attempted to dismantle Ben & Jerry’s independent board to silence its support for said refugees, U.S. student protests against civilian casualties in Gaza, and the ending of U.S. Military aid to Israel. 

“Unilver has silenced each of these efforts,” the lawsuit stated. However, Unilever said that it would “strongly defend” itself against these accusations, dismissing them as inaccurate. 

This is nothing new for the ice cream company, which has always taken bold stances on political and social issues, dating back to the 1980’s. Some of these stances involved wars, LGBTQ+ rights and racial justice. 

Ben & Jerry’s has been butting heads with its parent company for a few years now, as the two might not see eye to eye on the outspokenness. Unilever, which acquired the company in 2000, has taken a financial hit since Ben & Jerry’s pulled their ice cream from certain regions in protest. However, when that sale was made two decades ago, it was agreed that the ice-cream maker’s independent board would be allowed to stay intact and pursue its social mission and activism. But Unilever might now be regretting that, all these years later…

Retailers See Big Numbers

Sales are up with Black Friday on the Horizon!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for the retail stores in this country. The holidays are upon us and retail sales are up solidly. 

Retail sales rose 0.4% from September to October, according to the data released by the Commerce Department on Friday. This was after a 0.8% increase in the previous month. 

A 1.6% jump in sales at auto dealers drove much of the overall October gain. But purchases also climbed 2.3% at electronics and appliances stores and 0.7% at restaurants and bars.

Now stats are like bikinis, as they show a lot but not everything… and these numbers don’t account for the fact that prices have increased as well… which might be a big reason why these numbers are up (as they’re based on money spent, not items sold). Prices are still nearly 20% higher than they were three years ago.

However, Tim Quinlan, an economist at Wells Fargo, explained that “people may not love how much it costs to go out to eat, but their bar and restaurant spending is growing faster than the prices are.”

Still, sales did fall in some categories, such as furniture stores, clothing outlets and drug stores (which, as we previously covered, have been struggling). However, economists did blame these decreases on the hurricanes that rolled through the southeast. 

These numbers are expected to climb through the rest of the year (by about 3%, compared to last year), with the holidays (and black friday) coming up. Additionally, inflation is down to 2.6% and Americans’ take-home pay, on average, has surpassed inflation for the first time in 18 months. And the proportion of consumers who expect a recession in the next 12 months has now dropped to its lowest point since the question was first being asked in 2022.

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Politics

Trump On Trial

Republicans call to halt the political prosecution of the President Elect.

Now that Donald Trump has been elected as President once again, Republican attorney generals are urging prosecutors to halt “political prosecutions of the incoming president.”

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird explained to Fox News Digital last week that “the cases brought against President Trump, particularly the criminal prosecutions, had nothing to do with crime. They had everything to do with the fact that he was running for president again. He is innocent. He didn’t do anything wrong, and those cases never should have been brought in the first place.”

Bird called it “campaign lawfare.” And now that Trump has won, and that alleged strategy didn’t work, she believes it’s time to give it a rest. 

And she’s not alone. More than 20 other attorney generals joined Bird and sent a letter to Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, calling on them to drop their cases to avoid the risk of a “constitutional crisis.” 

The other attorney generals to join in came from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia. 

The letter explained that “President of the United States is the most important job in the world. The President leads the free world. And America just gave President Trump a mandate to lead the United States to a brighter future. Prosecutions aimed at “self-promotion” are at no time appropriate.” 

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Finance | Tech

All Eyes Are On Nvidia

The belle of the stock market ball, is reporting Q3 earnings on Wednesday.

Nvidia, the world’s largest publicly traded company, has seen its stock price continue to soar throughout 2024, increasing 189% year to date, far outpacing any of its chip rivals. Nvidia’s closest competitor, AMD, has only enjoyed an 8% increase year to date, while Intel has actually seen a stock plunge of 51%. 

So it’s not just the right place, right time for Nvidia with the explosion of AI. They also seem to be doing something right and better than the competition. 

Nvidia is expected to report Q3 earnings per share of $0.74 on revenue of $33.2 billion, which would work out to an 83% year-over-year increase. 

Nvidia’s Data Center, its largest business, is set to bring in a whopping $29 billion for the quarter. That’s a 100% increase from the $14.5 billion the company reported for Q3 a year ago. 

Gaming revenue is expected to top out at $3 billion, which would be up 7% from the $2.8 billion last year. Analysts are anticipating gross margins to hit 75%. 

Nvidia isn’t expected to slow down either, as analysts expect $37 billion in revenue for Q4 this year. 

However, some fear that they’re facing an uncertain future, with president-elect Donald Trump threatening to put blanket tariffs on products from around the world. He’s also discussed tariffs for chips made in Taiwan, where the vast majority of Nvidia’s chips are built by TSMC. Tariffs could lead to depressing margins for Nvidia, or the company charging more for its AI chips to pass the added cost on to its customers (which could also backfire, as well). 

But for now, it seems like nothing else can slow them down

You Lost 500 Billion Dollars in a Day

Rough start to the weekend for big tech.

The Stock Market continues to fall, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average  further slipped 0.7% (305 points) on Friday, the S&P 500 declined 1.3%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.2% and even the small-cap Russell 2000 dipped 1.5%. All four of those posted weekly declines, after posting their best weeks of 2024 following Trump’s Election Day victory. 

Overall, these indexes are all still in the green since Election Day. But last week was a concerning stretch.

As the late, great football coach Dennis Green would say, how you feel about your (football team’s) record depends on when the wins and losses came. Things are still, overall, good since the election, however last week leaves a bad taste in your mouth - as the Nasdaq 100 suffered its first five-day losing streak since the first week of the year. 

Overall, $458 billion of market capitalization from the U.S.’ six most valuable companies (Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta) was lost on Friday. Both Amazon and Nvidia lost more than $90 billion alone. 

From the Street:

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Global News

Protests in New Zealand

No one, and I mean no on protests like the Maori.

A protest broke out in New Zealand on Friday, as thousands of people marched towards the capital, following a contentious bill passing its first hurdle in Parliament. 

Several more rallies against the Treaty Principles Bill are being staged across the country as part of a nine-day march. The bill would reinterpret the country’s 184-year-old founding document, which was first signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs. The treaty lays down how the two parties agreed to govern, as the clauses in the document are still being used to guide legislation and policy today.

An estimated 10,000 people marched through Rotorua, with some wearing traditional clothing, waving the Maori flag and chanting. 

Maori and their supporters say that this bill undermines the rights of the country’s Indigenous people, which makes up about 20% of the population (5.3 million people total).

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also reaffirmed on Thursday that his National Party would not support the bill’s progress beyond the first reading.

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