Evgenia Parajanian
Listen below or on the go on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Retail blockbuster: Amazon Prime Day (AMZN) is expected to set a record as discounting ramps up. (00:32) Trump picks Ohio Senator Vance as running mate; Rumble (RUM) shares jump. (02:06) Starboard tells Match Group (MTCH) to fix Tinder issues and margins or go private. (03:07)
This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.
Amazon’s Prime Day event, which has already started and will end tomorrow, is expected to drive billions of dollars in online spending.
Adobe expects the first day to drive $7.1 billion in online sales, up 11.3% from a year ago. The second day is forecast to drive $6.9 billion online, up 9.2% Y/Y. The total forecast is for online spending to increase 10.5% Y/Y to $14 billion to set a new Prime Day record.
Notably, the strong spending is expected to be driven by steeper discounts this year, which could range as high as 22%. Adobe expects electronics to have the biggest discounts at 22% vs. a discounting level last year of 14%. Significant discounts are also anticipated with apparel (20% vs. 12% last year), home/furniture (17% vs. 9%), toys (15% vs. 12%), televisions (14% vs 5%), and sporting goods (11% vs. 6%). The shopping holiday is also anticipated to generate strong back-to-school spending online this year, due in part to the slightly later date on the calendar for Amazon Prime Day.
Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) level of discounting could have an impact on numerous companies in the retail sector, including Mattel (MAT), Hasbro (HAS), Best Buy (BBY), Gap (GPS), Macy's (M), Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS), and Target (TGT).
Former President Donald Trump has selected Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate as the Republican National Convention began Monday in Milwaukee.
Shares in conservative-focused media platform Rumble (NASDAQ:RUM) jumped as much as 29% on the news.
Vance is an investor in Rumble through his venture capital firm, Narya Capital, and has personally invested as much as $300,000 in the platform.
Rumble serves as a destination for conservative content by allowing unfettered speech, and securities filings show that the VP candidate's firm is among the top 10 shareholders of the company.
On Monday Rumble stock (RUM) closed 20% higher, while Trump Media (DJT) ended the day 31% higher.
For investors looking to track the elections through market instruments, here are some politically driven Republican and Democrat exchange-traded funds:
God Bless America ETF (YALL)
American Conservative Values ETF (ACVF)
Point Bridge America First ETF (MAGA)
Democratic Large Cap Core ETF (DEMZ)
Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic ETF (NANC)
Unusual Whales Subversive Republican ETF (KRUZ)
Activist investor Starboard Value disclosed in a filing that it has built about a 6.6% stake in Tinder owner Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH), and is pushing for a business turnaround or a potential sale.
MTCH is up more than 8% premarket.
Starboard said in a letter, "We believe Tinder's issues are driven by a lack of innovation at the product level after years of viral growth," adding that resolving these issues will drive improved results.
A spokesperson for Match (MTCH) said the company looks forward to "continuing open dialogue with all investors, including Starboard."
The hedge fund is the third activist investor to push for changes in Match (MTCH), after Elliott Investment and Anson Funds. Talks with Elliott led to two additions to Match's board.
More articles on Seeking Alpha:
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink calls bitcoin 'digital gold,' says he's no longer a skeptic
Back-to-school spending likely to remain unchanged this year
Elon Musk says the robotaxi team has extra time to update the design before the big reveal event
Catalyst watch:
Notable investor events include Charles Schwab's (SCHW) business update call, Rio Tinto's (RIO) Q2 operations review, Scotts Miracle-Gro's (SMG) Investor Day, and an extraordinary shareholder meeting for Alcoa Corporation (AA).
Zoox CEO Aicha Evans will speak at the Fortune Live Media conference at 9:50am. about how the Amazon (AMZN) autonomous vehicle subsidiary plans to make a robotaxi concept a practical reality.
Lucid Group (LCID) CEO Peter Rawlinson will speak at the Fortune Live Media Conference in Park City, Utah at 2:45pm.
Now let’s take a look at the markets as of 6 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is down 0.8% at $81 per barrel. Bitcoin is up 0.8% at $63,000.
In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is down 0.2% and the DAX is down 0.4%.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: After a 31.4% surge in the previous session, shares of Trump Media & Technology (NASDAQ:DJT) fell approximately 10% in early Tuesday trading after entering a standby equity purchase agreement with Yorkville, whereby Yorkville has agreed to purchase up to $2.5B of shares.
On today’s economic calendar:
8:30 a.m. Retail Sales
10:00 a.m. Housing Market Index
2:45 p.m. Fed's Adriana Kugler will speak on the Challenges Facing Economic Measurement and Creative Solutions at the Economic Measurement Seminar at the National Association for Business Economics in Washington D.C.
