The Best One Yet - White Claw murdered beer, Knewz wants to replace Apple News, and the Trade War’s bloodiest day

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

Stocks plummeted at the end of last week on the biggest escalation in the US/China trade war yet (it got personal). White Claw by the Mark Anthony group is the spiked seltzer whose sales have quadrupled as it takes on beer. And News Corp announces Knewz, a new app trying to out-play tech in its top skill: aggregation.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. This is snacks. Daily, it is Monday, August 26. We are back from the weekend. What are you thinking about this one? Where were you this week? I was in Rhode Island. What four? I was back for what? Were you on Rhode Island? It was in Rhode Island. Were you Uncle Ned's kids? I was within Rhode Island. Great weekend by Martel. Great. We have the best podcast yet. You been working out, by the way? I'm looking good. It's the best one yet. Jack. What are our three stories? First story is the trade war. Nick, the USA and China, the relationship has never been dirtier. Jack, this one's worth. of being our first story. There is backstabbing. They just threw the suitcase out the window.

It's a tit for tat, tit for tat. Single day this happened Friday. We're going to break it down. Our second story, there has been a murder. It's beer. We have a suspect. It's Spike Seltzer. We think we have the specific culprit. I don't know if I should say the name, but it's White Claw from Mark Anfield Group. White Claw, Hot Girl, Summer. That's our second story. We jumped in snack style. Third and final story is news. Jack, can you spell this one for me? K-N-E-W-Z. It makes absolutely no sense, but it's a great scrub. Apple word. News Corp is like a totally old school news company trying to create its own tech news aggregator like Apple or Google News. Jack, I know this is begging a big question. Can media do tech better than tech?

We're going to hit that in our third story. In the meantime, we got to slow down and talk about what today is. Because Snackers, we missed you all weekend, but this is a big one. It is the 99th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. We're talking that happened in 1920. A lot of nines in there when women finally got the right to vote. It's crazy that we needed to pass a constitutional amendment to allow women the right to vote. America, fraught past, fraught present, but making progress. Jack, also crazy if this happened in my grandma marches a lifetime. Wow. Today is officially National Women's Equality Day. There's two things you got to do. You got to wear purple. Wear purple if you haven't left for work yet. This is great for like the Delta stewardesses and stewards out there. Second, if you have a woman who

inspires you, write her a note because today is National Women's Equality. And then third, we decided to jump into this one snack style and find an interesting character. Can we talk about Victoria Woodhull for a second? Impressive background. She opened up a stock brokerage firm in 1870, which was unheard of for women at the time. You think Wall Street's a boys club today? Imagine in 1870. She also was the first woman to run for president, again, in the 1870s, when women didn't even have the right to vote for her. It would take another half a century to get that. She would definitely be a snacks list. She would be such a snacker. Happy National Women's Equality. We'll get to our three stories. You're tuned in to snacks daily.

We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks about to hear ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robahood family. It's all informational just so. You know, we're not recommending any securities. Nope. It's not a research report or investment advice.

Not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robahood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, we're going to jump to you. to the Friday craziness that involved Trump's tweets and China and a trade war back and forth like we've never seen. A whole bunch of bickering. I thought it was like two WWE wrestlers and a spat

with each other. We couldn't actually believe this was happening. This was the biggest and worst escalation in the trade war we have seen yet, so we have to cover this as our first story. Snackers, this affects all of us as consumers. This affects the economy. It affects a lot. Jack's running out of words over here. So we're just going to go back to the clock and go through this chronologically. that happened was China retaliated from all of the tariffs in the past with another tariff specifically against U.S.-made cars that are coming to China. And then Trump sent this instigating tweet, who is a bigger enemy of the United States? Is it China's president or the chairman of the U.S. Fed?

Now, keep in mind, the Fed is the independent central bank within the United States. Its responsibility is to make tough decisions to keep the economy strong. And the chairman of the Fed was appointed by Trump. Yes. So it's awkward. just spoken earlier in the day that, you know, he didn't promise to cut interest rates, which is what President Trump was hoping for. All right.

So you had one thing happened. A second thing happened. And then things got kicked up another notch. Okay. That's when Trump said, I hereby order American companies to explore relocating their plants away from China because China's bad. Jack threw some air quotes in there for the exact quotes. Hereby order are the essential words.

Now, in case you're wondering, that's not something companies would do because they don't have to take that order from a president. It's also really hard to like just pick up your iPhone factory and put it somewhere else. You can't just plop that thing in Vietnam the next day. You really can't. You spent decades building that up. The last thing that happened happened after markets had already closed. So when the stock, when the down dropped 600 points on Friday, they hadn't even heard this last news.

So what did we got? President Trump increased all the tariffs that already exist against China in that he's threatened against China by another 5%. We've heard tit for tat. This was tit for tat for tit for tat in a way we had not seen before. We've never seen all of this in one day. Here's the thing, though, President Trump is not a dictator, so he can't order companies to move their plants either. So companies aren't going to move their plants not only because it isn't feasible, but because they don't have to. So that was alarming.

The result is that managers and investment advisors, they aren't going to invest right now because of the uncertainty. If you're thinking about growth, are you going to build a plant in the USA or Mexico or China or Canada right now? And if you're an investor, are you going to put your money to work investing in companies like that? Really not. So we saw the evidence on Friday when stocks dropped big. 496 of the 500 biggest stocks in the United States fell on Friday. It was a red, red, red wedding. 496 out of 500.

Now, one in particular you might care about Apple. It makes practically everything in China. It stock dropped by 4.6% because of China. You guys aren't tricking us with the designing Cupertino thing. So, Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies in the United States and China? This is war, this is trade war, and markets are bracing themselves for a long, dirty, bad, costly war. Because it just hit a key inflection point, too. President Trump calling President Xi of China his enemy? Yeah, he's actually maintained like an air of friendliness so far, but he had that Twitter question, who's a bigger enemy to the United States?

That is instigating a little more personal. We hadn't seen that escalation yet. Both President Trump and President G are terrified of appearing to look weak. Neither side wants to back down, and we don't see how this ends. Well. In the meantime, Americans will pay taxes on things from China, which are tariffs. And Chinese will pay taxes on things from America, which are tariffs. It kind of reminds me what we've said before. Nobody wins with tariffs. For our second story, Jack, White Claw, its stats just revealed, Spike Seltzer, may be killing deer. This is the white out white claw summer. Has someone yelled to you, by the way, Hot Girl Summer, Jack? Only what I'm wearing my one piece. It's overdue.

Now, this story was catalyzed by a denison of Boston, Massachusetts, named Eric Cullum. It was a mouthful. Eric Cullum sent us this. It was a nice tip because we got a murder mystery in our hands, people. Well, he let us know that there's something whose sales have grown 320% since last year. Because the victim is beer. Beer has lost 10% of its market share to wine and spirits between 2006 and 2016. Now, I'm no detective, but I have a suspect.

Jacking you. Beyond a reasonable doubt, 12 ounces of fizzy, fruity-flavored seltzer alcohol. Perfect, because we have a few other suspects here. Who are they? Truly. Which is owned by Boston Beer Company, which makes Sam Adams, which has the ticker symbol S-A-M-S-A-M-Sam. And who else we got? White Claw, which is the Summer Sensation owned by Mark Anthony Beverages based in Chicago, Illinois. These are both Spike Seltzers. They own 85% of the Spike Seltzer market. And get this, spike-seltzer sales have tripled since last year. Nick said this about two months ago. I appreciate that.

If you're at the beach, look around, whatever is in people's hands, it's spiked, it's fruity, it's light, it's seltzer. And you're noticing it because every major beer company at this point has at least one. In fact, Budweiser dedicated one of its coveted Super Bowl ads to a spiked seltzer this year. You're even seeing like Natty Light Spike Seltzer and you're seeing two robbers like a craft spike seltzer coming from Philadelphia. with awesome two skull logos, two robbers. Fantastic. Now, can we talk about the culprit here? We think we know who is responsible for the murder of beer.

Jack, can you show me the mugshot for White Claw right now? White Claw has $71 million of annualized sales, and it sales this summer, compared to last summer, have quadrupled. In fact, if you put this in the category of beers, which like, it kind of is, I dare you to. It's in the top 25 in America right now. And I got the smoking gun for you, Jack. Get this stat.

53% of White Claw spike seltzer drinkers, they used to be beer drinkers. Converts. I remember there was a time where if I got caught with a spiked seltzer in my hand by my brothers, I'd get like a noogie. That's because Jack has three brothers and he didn't grow up on the mean street to New York. Meanwhile, Jack and I are actually trying White Claw right now because we had to jump in snacks. Nick has a white claw on his hand. Full disclosure, we've recorded the pod the night before, so we're not morning drinking here. This is true.

It's a mango flavor. It says spiked with sparkling water. and a hint of mango. It's more like a light slap. Snackers, quick disclosure about the ingredients of a white claw, by the way, purified carbonated water, alcohol, just alcohol. Didn't know you could just throw that in. Natural flavors, undescribed, and natural cane sugar. It's kind of wild. So, Jack, can you give me the takeaway for our buddies clawing away over a White Claw, hot girl summer? Is this a trend? Or is this a fad? It's a great question, and it's one that everyone tries to answer. Key fact here, Jack. Variety packs are 65% of the sales of White Claw. That means that people are

buying White Claw to try out different White Clause. They're getting to know it, trying to hang out. Now, this is aligned with a lot of the millennial wellness trends. It's lower alcohol, it's lighter, it's got a good looking can for Instagram. I'd be friends with this can. Now, Mark Anthony Beverages says White Claw is the new light beer. Is this a fad? Is this a trend? We'll have to wait till next summer to figure it. That's what investors try to nail it down. For our third and final story, News Corp is trying to replace tech companies by creating its own like news co-op kind of thing kind of. Yeah, we're talking about a news feed, but just for news. It doesn't exist in a social media app. This is purely like a separate news feed for news owned by a news company. We've never

seen it before. Right. So it's a news feed that doesn't have videos from a gender reveal party and doesn't have pictures of a wine glass like on the Riviera. Jack, the answer is pink and please can you drop newsfeed as a term one more time? So NewsCorp is a company based Based on the TV show, Succession. Okay, actually, it's the reverse. Technically, Succession is based on News Corp, its life-initating argument. All right.

News Corp has got a huge building on 6th Avenue in New York City. It owns the Wall Street Journal. It owns Barrens, the New York Post, Dow Jones, and Fox News. So if you're trying to envision what's happening right now, get this image in your head. Mel Gibson in the movie Patriot. He's charging up the hill, and that's exactly what News Corp's trying to do,

getting all the news publishers to unite and make a single news app to include all their news and articles. It wants to make a news app that will include the Washington Post. Very nice. The Wall Street Journal. Okay. The New York Times. That's great. And then lots and lots of other news organizations and all of their headlines get aggregated into one app. So it would be like Apple News or Google News or Facebook's upcoming news tab exists owned by the news and not by a tech company. Now, the fundamental problem here that News Corp is trying to solve is that tech aggregators are where people are going these days. That's where they're going to get the news, and they're taking a big cut of the revenue

generated by people consuming the news. So News Corp's trying to take the lead here, demonstrate what it can do, and say, hey, we've got a solution. Let's replace those tech companies that are aggregating stuff as Apple News or Google News and just do our own aggregator. It's trying to cut out the tech man. It said, you know what? I don't want to pay for this. I'm going to do it myself. Now, Jack, I got to quote my favorite history teacher, Mr. Colin from high school. History doesn't repeat itself. It just rhymes. Rhyming is a good lead. into Jay-Z. Jay-Z tried to do what News Corp is doing, but for music. He tried to create a music streaming app owned by the musicians, not owned by a tech company like Spotify or Apple. Just like the

news companies, Jay-Z didn't want Apple to take like 50% of the cut for music with Apple Music, which was a tech middleman. And that's when he created Title, which was joint-owned by a bunch of musicians. NewsCorp doesn't want Apple to take 50% of the cut for News with Apple News Plus. And that's why it's creating this new app, which has a really funny name, news. Can you spell it again? With a K. And a Z. K and a Z. K-N-E-W-Z. And it's hoping the other news teams team team up with it, Anchorman style. Like the New York Times, like the Washington. So, Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over in the news industry? Here's the thing. Aggregation is the secret sauce of tech companies. Jack, picture yourself lying back. You got a mango white claw in your mouth and

your hand, whatever you're doing on a Saturday night. And you're scrolling through Facebook, clicking here, liking there, Facebook is analyzing all that data, knowing that you really like Spike Seltzers. News feeds are tough, and to make a newsfeed good, you need to analyze those clicks, analyze those scrolls, analyze those gazes upon that Roseanne on the Riviera, and then feed more beautiful Riviera-Seltzer kind of situations to whoever the user is. So for News, which is the name of this new app, to succeed, it has to have a beautifully customized, beautifully optimized news feed with just the headlines that interest you,

And that is a tough thing to do. Jack, you set this up perfectly. I don't even want to say it, but I'm going to... That is the big question. Can media do what tech does best? Better than tech. TBD. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for all this?

This latest trade war battle had so many casualties. 496 of the 500 biggest U.S. stocks were wounded. Get this. J.P. Morgan thinks every American household will pay $1,000 in tariff taxes this year. On a lighter note, White Claw is the suspect of murder of beer. It's a private company with very public bubbles. You are noticing everyone in the beach. They're all over you.

Third and final story, News Corp is a publicly traded company. It's trying to build a better news aggregator app than tech. And that lets news keep all the revenues about news. So, Jack, time for the snack fact of the day. This one everyone's been waiting for. Can you tell me a little about our buddy Zuck? Mark Zuckerberg has sold $296 million worth of Facebook shares just this month. He's sold half a billion dollars worth of Facebook shares this year so far.

Now, to be fair, he is selling these shares so that he has cash to inject in his charity called the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It's actually a really nice thing. It's actually a pretty philanthropic thing. It's charming. They're just very big numbers. But he has wild amounts of his own stock. Snackers, loved having with us to start the week. You guys look fantastic, by the way, from the weekend.

Happy National Women's Equality Day. Remember, wear purple, and you might want to write a note to a woman who inspired. fires you today and tell her why. And tweet us a good snack fact of the day at Robin Hood Snacks. We'll catch you tomorrow. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets Inc or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not

intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.