The Best One Yet - 🍫 “Cocoa Chanel” — Chocolate’s record high price. Apple’s Siri Sacrifice. TicketMaster’s yacht concert.

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

🎟️ 10 tickets left to TBOY Live NYC on sale here 🗽: https://citywinery.com/new-york-city/events/tboy-pod-cs3z0iCocoa prices rose another 25% last week to an all-time high — Wall Street noticed, because chocolate stocks now trade like luxury brands.Apple may be killing off Siri to put Google’s AI in your iPhone — If they do, it’s a lesson Apple learned painfully: The Maps Mistake.And Live Nation, the owner of TicketMaster, just launched concerts… on yachts — Cruise concerts capture the 3 big tailwinds of the 2024 economy.$HSY $MDLZ $NSRGYSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy. Tuesday, March 19th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It is a T-Boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. 10, 10, 10.

Yetis, 10 tickets are left to our New York City live T-Boy show. We just dropped them. We're dropping a link in today's episode description. If you're free April 24th and you're going to be in New York City, hit that link. Buy a ticket right now. 10 tickets left to the live show, Jack. In the meantime, let's hit our three stories. What do we got?

For our first story, we have a chocolate crisis. Cocoa Prices jumped another 25% last week to an all-time high. And that is why Hershey is looking a lot more like Hermes. For our second story, Apple is reportedly talking to Google about partnering on all things AI. Google may be killing Siri in the iPhone. That's what we're basically saying here. And our third and final story is a wild new thing we have to tell you about. Ticketmaster is producing a concert on a mega yacht.

Because Live Nation knows you'll pay a lot more to see Lil Yadi from a yacht. My Yaddy's, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Love the mix. What do we got, Jack? It is March 19th. So the spring equinox is happening today, tomorrow and the next day. It's the end of winter. It's beginning of spray. It's a lot of transitions.

Easter weekend is coming up. Mother's Day is right around the corner. you better start thinking about your summer wardrobe. And Halloween? Get this, Yeties. Home Depot is already previewing their Halloween collection in their stores right now. Best fees, your local Home Depot already has the 12-foot skeleton on the floor. $300, who wants it?

It's there. You're still recovering from St. Patty's Day with your buddy, Timmy, and boom, you're walking to Home Depot. It's Halloween costume time. Got to load up on some Kit Katz. Now, we've talked about Christmas creep, which has been getting worse. every year. Retailers, they start selling stocking stuffers all the way in September. But Halloween in mid-March, before the daffodils have even bloomed? Daffodils? The lovely daffodils, chat?

So Nick and I are wondering, are we sure that Home Depot is early? Or are they just really late to Halloween? Yeah, can you sprinkle on a little more context for us, please? Whip out the calendars, baby. Halloween is seven months away, which means the last Halloween was five months ago. Ipsophacto, we're actually closer to last Halloween than we are to next Halloween. So it's not clear if Home Depot's move is early Halloween, late Halloween, or just early April Fool's Day. Jack, I think someone in corporate read the Zodiac wrong. And then, Jack, let's take this a step further. Does this mean that Valentine's Day actually begins in October?

Does this mean pumpkin spice lattes are going to be teased in April? All I want for Christmas is the 4th of July? So yet, he's for this T-Boy Tuesday, we want to know from you. Is March too early to start Halloween? Or is March perfect because Halloween deserves a seven-month? build after we got a poll going on right now hit us up on instagram at teboy pot apparently it's called Halloween hallowee to march yay or boo hit us up at tea boy pod happy tea boy tuesday and jack let's trick or treat our three stories 15 years before this song two boys from the northeast met in the dorm

they had an idea to cause a cultural storm it's the best one yet but the best is no need to practice 50% that's a fat tip t boy city on your at list if you know you know because we're to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Coco prices searched 25% last week to an all-time high, and it's already trickling down to your Twix bar. Chocolate stocks have become luxury stocks.

Literally. Yet he's pro-tip. A new date night, Jack and I have cooked up for you. Here's the idea. Jack, what should you do instead of going out for dinner these days? I don't know if it's a pro tip, but you could just share a total blur. on bar. Sounds like a pro tip because yet these cocoa prices have tripled in the last year. Honestly, we're in the middle of a cocoa prices. Because the bean needed to make chocolate now costs $4 per pound worldwide, which is the same price as a live main lobster. The reason why, Jack, supply, isn't it? Cocoa beans grow in just a few countries in the world, and most of those

countries are in Africa. The ivory coast, Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria are four countries that produce 75% of all the world's cocoa. And those four countries have to be able to. And those four countries haven't invested in new trees in a while. So their old cocoa trees suffer from disease and bad growing weather. Meanwhile, we are also guilty too because consumption of chocolate worldwide has tripled in the past 30 years. Higher demand, lower supply, chocolate prices are popping like their cocoa caveat.

The wholesale prices are way up, and that is trickling down to the prices we pay in that little candy vending machine. Hershey's should now be pronounced Hershey's, because more like Hermes. See what I tried to do there? I like what you did there. I mean, the crunch bar is basically Christian Dior these days. And here's the wildest part.

There's no short-term fix in sight for this cocoa crisis. The only solution is to plant more cocoa trees, which takes years. I mean, Jack, don't get her an engagement ring. Put a butterfinger on her finger. With these M&M's Ivy wed. But yet he's here's what Jack and I find fascinating about this cocoa crisis. High chocolate prices have led to a. disturbing new phenomenon that we're calling fillingflation.

We're not talking about shrinkflation, which is a smaller bar for the same price. No, we're talking about fillingflation, which is filling the chocolate bar with a lower price fillings. Like sprinkling some almond bits here, sprinkling some hazelnuts there. Hey, three musketeers, you try to trick us with cherry and nougat? They're filling the chocolate bar with as many fruits and nuts as possible to keep that expensive part down. Like your Milky Way has too much milk in the way. actually found some data. 40% of chocolate bars sold in America now have some sort of non-chocket filling in there too. And that is an all-time high. This is filling inflation people. That's why Hershey's is now

selling a donut-filled chocolate bar. It's mostly donut in there. That's why Reese's just launched a peanut butter cup with peanut butter and caramel. Extra caramel. Now, you're trying to consume less chocolate this year? Ironically, so are the chocolate companies, because it's so expensive. Step away from the Cadbury. So, Jack, what's... That's the takeaway for all our buddies in the chocolate industry. Wall Street analysis confirms that chocolate stocks are now luxury stocks. Yeti's a powerful, simple tool that you can use to analyze a stock is a P.E. ratio, the price to earnings ratio. It compares the stock's price to the company's earnings.

Every stock has a P.E. ratio you can find online easily. And that ratio reveals how investors see the company's future potential, what the stock price reflects, to its current performance. what the earnings reflect. The higher the PE ratio, the greater growth potential investors think the company has. And the PE ratio of chocolate companies right now? They look a lot more like luxury stocks than they do food stocks. If you look at the PE ratio of Hershey's, Mondalese, and Nestle, which are the three biggest chocolate sellers, the PE ratio is in the 20s.

That's pretty high. On the other hand, the PE ratios of non-choccalate food companies like Kraft Heinz, General Mills, Campbell Soup, they're much lower around 15. So chocolate companies actually have PE ratios similar to luxury companies. Prada, Michael Coors, Christian Dior, those luxurious companies have PE ratios that are closer to chocolate companies in the mid-20s. Wall Street investors see that chocolate is becoming a luxury, literally. So they're trading chocolate companies like luxury companies, and we see it in the PE ratio. For our second story, Apple is reportedly talking to Google about part of the power.

on all things AI. Didn't think we'd see the day, did we, Jack? Apple may kill Siri and replace her with a Google-made chatbot. Siri, if you're listening, it's just nothing to do with you. Siri, if you're listening, earmuffs. Earmuffs. Oh, Jack, we're gonna kick on this story. Can you kick it off with a hero stat? What do we got, man?

Get this. Apple has two billion active devices worldwide that are being used right now. Two billion. Apple holds the key to a whole lot of eyeballs and a whole lot of wall of wall. and a whole lot of pockets. A whole lot of fingertips, a whole lot of tapping, a whole lot of swiping.

Well, Yeti's where you own an iPhone, an iPad or a MacBook. If you want to reach the web, the default search is Google. I do want to reach the web, Nick. I'm sorry. I meant reach the web, obviously. It's the new world, WWW.

And why? Well, because Google paid Apple a whopping $18 billion a year to become the default online search engine. Google thinks that being the go-to search engine for iPhones worldwide, is worth $18 billion. And now Google wants to do that same type of deal for artificial intelligence.

That's according to Bloomberg's Mark German, who is the most connected Apple reporter in all of journalism. Here's the idea yet is someday Apple may put an AI assistant button onto your iPhone. And Google's chatbot could answer when you press it. Yep, but according to the reports, Apple is also in talks with OpenAI. So it looks like they're going to sell this privilege, like the official AI chatbot of the iPhone, to whoever bids the highest price. Yeah, Jack, this is like Apple's being an auctioneer. They're like auctioning themselves off here, their own real estate, right?

It's like a charity gala. The next item for bid is the default AI chap-op position for the world's 2 billion iPhones. I got $21 billion for the man of the green shirt. $22 billion. I'll get you in the white dress. It doesn't go to charity. It goes to Apple's bottom line. Yeah, Jack, I hear that Tim Cook's been walking around Cupertino with like an auction hammer, you know?

And he's wielding it like he's sore. Have you heard that too? I've not heard that yet. Okay. I've just, I've heard things. Let me ask Siri. Now, Eddies, there's no guarantee that Apple reaches a deal with Google or how it will be implemented. But in the meantime, this relationship is pretty shocking and pretty interesting.

But the first thing Nick and I thought of when we heard this story, wow, Apple must be really behind on AI. Because for like 18 months now, the only thing in tech that has mattered is artificial intelligence. So you would have thought that Apple is putting its. top people on AI. Like you would have thought Apple has educated Siri on AI to become super Siri. But instead, Apple may just put Siri to rest and replace her with Google's AI chatbot. But this would be such a big opportunity for Google that the stock jumped 7% yesterday to an all-time high on this report. Because Yeties, Apple and Google, are both behind Microsoft when it comes to artificial intelligence because Microsoft owns half of Open AI.

But together, could they leap-prog Microsoft? Together, could a couple of losers in AI become a winner? That's what Wall Street seems to think based on yesterday's movements. So, Jack, what's the takeaway? Siri, you can listen again. What's the takeaway for our buddies over at Apple and Google? Apple is trying to avoid its map's mistake. Yet is Apple decided not to compete with Google and Google.

search. And now, Apple's making $18 billion a year from Google search. But when it comes to Maps, Apple did compete with Google by launching Apple Maps. And guess what? Apple doesn't make $18 billion a year on Maps. They make almost nothing on Maps. Because Google dominates maps like a dominate search. On the other hand, Apple Maps is still not even close. Google Maps is estimated to have a market share of 70%. Apple Maps has just 10% market share. The majority of iPhone users, yeah, you're not getting to your destination with Apple Maps, you're getting there with Google Maps. That's the Maps mistake. So Apple realized the best way for it to make money isn't necessarily creating a new product. Right, Apple realized the best way for them to make money is selling access

to their best product. So instead of creating an AI chatbot like everyone else, Apple may just sell their premium access to the iPhone. With AI, Apple is trying to avoid the Maps mistake. Now a quick word from our sponsor. our third and final story. Live Nation, best known for owning Ticketmaster and promoting concerts, is getting into, get this, the cruise industry. Not just cruises, luxury cruises on a megayat with a whole itinerary focused on music concerts. That is Live Nation.

It happens to be the most hated company in America last year. Live Nation owns Ticketmaster, so they totally botched the Taylor Swift Erez Tour and launched. To bite all that Taylor Swift drama, Live Nation stock is up 50% in the last year. They're a $25 billion company now. So last year, they introduced a new music subsidiary called Vibe. Vibe, a subsidiary that would merge travel with music. It's like merging vacay with Dr. Dre. Here's how Vibe described what they were going to do.

Unforgettable immersive trips for music lovers and sought after destinations around the world. When you say it like that, it sounds like slide three of the Firefest pitch deck. Yeah, it does, doesn't it? Now, we assumed that Vibe was going to offer all-inclusive trips for music festivals on land. When we heard that description, we assumed it was going to offer hotel, dinner, as music festivals. The whole trip included in one ticket on dry land. And that's what Vibe is.

But this week, they launched a cruise line. Yadies, that is what we found fascinating about this story. A ticket industry company just got into the cruise industry. Vibe just launched what they're calling Vibe Yacht Club. That is this live nation ticket master subsidiary is chartering two 150-foot megay yachts for the whole summer to offer the public week-long music-themed yacht experiences. The week-long cruises start at $3,000 per person, and they include island hopping adventures across Croatia and the Adriatic Sea, and it starts and ends with a concert on land. Okay, this is like a generational shift, because boomers used to cruise to Kazamel and Carnival's Voyager of the Seas. is maybe listening to a little Jimmy Buffett along the way.

But our very millennial buddy, Timmy, he does it different. He goes on an EDM-based mega yacht cruise with his buddies around Croatia. The funny thing, the cruise industry, they actually came to a similar idea, but in a reverse way, didn't they? Norwegian cruises acquired a concert promoter years ago, and they bring the entire band on the boat for the whole cruise. It's like Ticketmaster is getting into boating, but like the boat industry acquired a Ticketmaster competitor. Either way, you're going to bump into Blink 182 on the poop deck. And Frank Ocean in the ocean. So, Captain, my Captain, what is the takeaway for our buddies over at Live Nation?

I didn't know you listen to Frank Ocean. Only on the ocean. Yet is the three themes of 2024 are events, luxury, and cruises. Look, besties. It's Jackson, my job, to follow trends that are shaping business and our economy. and then we report them back to you in the form of takeaways. But this is the first story that captures three trends of the year in one story, events, luxury, and cruises.

The first events, the post-pandemic demand for live events, but hasn't slowed. In fact, it's only accelerated. Then there's luxury. The booming stock market and real estate wealth that's been created last few years, it means lux is bigger than ever. And finally, cruises. In a world of unlimited travel choice, people will pay for convenience, like a fully planned cruise vacation.

Live Nation already dominates live music. They're merging that domination with luxury cruises now. Well, now Live Nation is trying to catch all three tailwinds, literally. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for Tea Boy Tuesday? Chocolate prices are so high, it's becoming a luxury industry, literally. And we see it in chocolate stocks, because their PE ratios are at the same level as luxury stocks. For our second story, according to reports, Apple is going to let another tech company handle AI on the iPhone, and it's probably going to be Google. Apple may be trying to avoid the mistake that they made with Apple Maps.

And our third and final story, Live Nation has chartered two yachts for music-based yacht cruises all summer. Live Nation is going for three trends all in one. Live events, luxury, and cruises. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the biggest change in the real estate industry in years is now official. Broker fees are changing. After a legal settlement over the weekend, the standard 5 to 6% commission on real estate transactions is now truly negotiable. It is tough news for real estate agents.

And stocks of Redfin and Zillow both fell 15% on the update. Second, Vladimir Putin won his fifth presidential election in Russia. The Putin regime will now last another six years. There are going to use air quotes on this. He won 87% of the. vote because it's not really an election yeties, it's more of a vote. Putin's main opponent, Alexei Navalny, is dead. And the only other opponents on the ballot were handpicked by Vladimir Putin. And finally, after 250, I can't think of a long word, but glorious years, Encyclopedia

Britannica is reportedly going to IPO later this year. This is the company that owns the Miriam Webster dictionary. Which means we got to ask Jack, can you use IPO in a sentence please? I think we just dead neck. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Jason Geiger from lovely upstate Buffalo, New York. Of the S&P 500 companies, 4159 CEOs are male and just 41 are female. That is a difference of over 11 to 1. There's another difference also. Male CEOs returns average 261%, but females 385%. What it really shows is that forward-thinking companies have, have gender blindness. This literally equates to billions of dollars a year.

Powerful statistic, Nick. Wild statistic over a 10-year period, Jack. We looked into the numbers. That's over a 10-year period. And not all of the female-led companies had women CEOs for that entire 10-year period that this comparison is made on. Okay, but the companies that appointed a woman as CEO hugely outperformed those that didn't from 2013 to 2023.

Yetis, you are looking fantastic today. For T-Boy Tuesday, we want to know, is March 19th too early to start Halloween this year? Is March 19th too early for this April Fool's joke that Home Depot is pulling us? Hit us up at T-Boy pot. We got a poll going. In the meantime, Jack, we've got a trick or treat for some overpriced chocolate right now. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Dibs on the butterfinger.

And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti, Christina Smoloski, who's taking the day all. from work to treat herself to a little treat yourself. A manny patty and a massage spa day. Perfect way to celebrate. And a happy birthday to bestie Caroline Carrotto, who's celebrating down in Houston, Texas. Happy birthday to Meredith Johnson in South Lake, Texas. And Levina and Avina,

a couple of twins in San Francisco have got a birthday together in San Francisco. Happy 42nd birthday to Bill Flynn in Palantine, Illinois. And Lizzie Spence of the famous fondue crew is celebrating the birthday in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. Congratulations to Sarah Moore, who just finished the rock and roll half marathon. And Christopher Williams and Stephanie Estrella just got engaged and get this, Jack. He proposed at an elephant sanctuary over in Thailand.

He got down on one trunk. Congratulations to Mike Atsuka and Maritza, who are legendary Yetis in New York City and just got engaged. A couple of that T-boys together who have been T-boying for years. We're so pumped for you, Mike and Maritza. This is Jack. Nick and I both on stock of Apple and Zillow. and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500.