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  • 🤔 Bill Ackman Has $2 Billion Of This Stock

🤔 Bill Ackman Has $2 Billion Of This Stock

+ Big Tech Is Spending $325 Billion On Ai

February 07, 2025

Good afternoon! Egg prices are soaring, but apparently, so are egg thieves. A staggering 100,000 eggs—worth around $40,000—vanished from a Pete & Gerry’s Organics distribution trailer in Pennsylvania, leaving police scrambling for leads. With no suspects and only a few surveillance clues, authorities are counting on community tips to crack the case before the stolen goods hatch a new mystery.

Egg heists aren’t exactly common, but neither are $4-per-dozen price tags. Bird flu has decimated poultry farms, driving supply shortages and sending costs skyward—just in time for Easter demand to make things worse. While grocery shoppers groan, the black-market brunch scene may be thriving, as law enforcement races to track down the omelet-loving culprits.

MARKETS

*Stock data as of market close*

  • Stocks stumbled into the weekend as fresh tariff threats and inflation worries spooked investors. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both fell for the second straight week, while the Dow shed over 400 points—its worst day in nearly a month. Traders were already on edge after consumer expectations for inflation ticked up, reinforcing fears that the Fed won’t be in a hurry to cut rates.

  • Markets took another hit after President Trump floated new reciprocal tariffs, signaling potential trade tensions ahead. Investors also parsed a mixed jobs report, which was overshadowed by rising concerns over price pressures. With inflation uncertainty mounting, gold gained traction as a safe-haven play while stocks ended the week in the red.

STOCKS
Winners & Losers

What’s up 📈

  • Doximity surged 36.0% after reporting a fiscal third-quarter revenue beat and issuing higher-than-expected guidance for the next quarter. ($DOCS)

  • Affirm Holdings jumped 21.8% after posting a strong fiscal second-quarter earnings beat and higher-than-expected revenue. ($AFRM)

  • Pinterest climbed 19.1% following strong fourth-quarter results, with revenue growing 18% year-over-year and monthly active users increasing 11%. ($PINS)

  • Cloudflare surged 17.8% after exceeding fourth-quarter earnings and revenue expectations, with a record number of new paying customers. ($NET)

  • Expedia gained 17.27% after reporting strong fourth-quarter results and reinstating its quarterly dividend. ($EXPE)

  • Take-Two Interactive rose 14.0% after confirming Grand Theft Auto VI will release in fall 2025, despite slightly missing net bookings estimates. ($TTWO)

  • Monolithic Power Systems advanced 9.0% following a strong fourth-quarter earnings report and better-than-expected revenue guidance. ($MPWR)

What’s down 📉

  • Bill Holdings dropped 35.5% after weaker-than-expected revenue guidance for the fiscal third quarter. ($BILL)

  • E.l.f. Beauty fell 19.6% after cutting its full-year guidance and missing earnings estimates for the third quarter. ($ELF)

  • Skechers declined 12.7% after fourth-quarter revenue and earnings missed expectations, with management citing foreign exchange headwinds and weakness in China. ($SKX)

  • Amazon slid 4.2% after issuing weaker-than-expected first-quarter sales guidance, despite beating fourth-quarter earnings and revenue estimates. ($AMZN)

STOCK
Bill Ackman Amasses Stake in Uber Worth $2 Billion

Bill Ackman is hitching a ride with Uber—at scale. The billionaire hedge fund manager revealed that his Pershing Square Capital Management now holds 30.3 million shares of the ride-hailing giant, worth roughly $2.3 billion. That makes Pershing the 12th-largest Uber shareholder, a position Ackman built up since early January. He’s convinced that Uber is one of the best-run businesses in the world and still trades at a “massive discount” to its intrinsic value.

Stock Jumps After Earnings Dip

Uber stock soared nearly 7% on Friday after Ackman’s disclosure, erasing losses from earlier in the week when weak Q1 guidance had sent shares down 7.5%. Wall Street had been spooked by Uber’s tempered outlook, but analysts at Wedbush and Bank of America called the selloff overdone, pointing to strong fundamentals and continued growth in ride-hailing and food delivery. Uber CFO Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah echoed the sentiment, saying the company is “undervalued” and plans to actively buy back its own stock.

A Long-Term Uber Fan

Ackman’s Uber enthusiasm isn’t new—he was a day-one investor through a venture fund and says he’s been an Uber customer since actor Edward Norton first showed him the app in its early days. He credits CEO Dara Khosrowshahifor transforming Uber from a cash-burning startup into a “highly profitable and cash-generative growth machine.”Under Khosrowshahi, Uber has cut costs, expanded margins, and pursued autonomous vehicle partnerships to position itself for long-term dominance.

What’s Next? Ackman teased that he’ll share more about his Uber thesis soon, but his track record of high-conviction bets suggests he’s in for the long haul. With Uber stock already up 25% in 2025, the big question is whether this latest vote of confidence will help drive shares even higher—or if investors will hit the brakes on the rally.

NEWS
Market Movements

  • 🏎️ Netflix Considers Bidding for Formula 1 TV Rights: Netflix is weighing a bid for Formula 1’s U.S. TV rights starting in 2026, as ESPN’s current deal expires at the end of 2025. F1’s rising U.S. popularity, fueled by Netflix’s Drive to Survive, has also attracted interest from Amazon. ($NFLX)

  • 📹 YouTube Runs Ads on TikTok to Lure Creators: YouTube is targeting content creators with ads on TikTok, aiming to draw them to its platform amid uncertainty over a potential U.S. TikTok ban. ($GOOGL)

  • 🖥️ OpenAI Explores Data Center Expansion in the U.S.: OpenAI is evaluating U.S. states for data centers under its $500B Stargate AI project, with Texas as a flagship site. The initiative, backed by SoftBank and Oracle, aims to bolster U.S. AI infrastructure. ($ORCL)

  • 🎵 Spotify and Warner Music Ink Multi-Year Deal: Spotify signed a multi-year deal with Warner Music Group to expand audio and visual content and introduce new subscription tiers, potentially including a HiFi "Super-Premium" option. ($SPOT)

  • 🛠️ Trump Meets U.S. Steel CEO Over Nippon Steel Bid: President Trump hosted U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt at the White House to discuss Nippon Steel’s $14.9B takeover bid, previously blocked by the Biden Administration. ($X)

  • 💄 Beauty Stocks Tumble on Weak Guidance and Tariff Worries: E.l.f. Beauty plunged 19%—its worst week since 2018—after cutting its sales forecast, while Estee Lauder sank 22% on weak demand and plans to cut up to 7,000 jobs. Ulta and Coty also fell as China’s new tariffs added pressure. ($EL)

  • 🔥 Allstate Faces $1.1B Loss From California Wildfires: Allstate expects a $1.1B loss from January's California wildfires, contributing to an estimated $35B-$45B in total industry claims. ($ALL)

  • 🚗 Tesla's China Sales Drop as BYD Gains Market Share: Tesla’s China-made EV sales declined 11.5% YoY in January to 63,238 units, with Model 3 and Model Y deliveries down 32.6% from December. Meanwhile, rival BYD saw a 47.5% YoY sales increase. Tesla also raised U.S. prices of its Model X by $5,000. ($TSLA)

  • 🏦 Bank Stocks Rally on Softer Fed Stress Test: Bank stocks surged as the Fed unveiled its 2025 stress test with smaller economic shocks, easing regulatory pressure. Citigroup rose 2.9%, while Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America also gained over 1.5%. ($C)

TECH
Big Tech Is Spending $325 Billion On Ai

If anyone thought DeepSeek—the Chinese AI startup that built a ChatGPT rival on a shoestring budget—would scare Silicon Valley into rethinking its AI spending, think again. Instead of scaling back, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta are going all-in, collectively dropping $325 billion on AI infrastructure this year. That’s dot-com boom levels of spending, except this time it’s all about GPUs, data centers, and enough electricity to power a small country.

Amazon’s Silent $100B Flex

Amazon didn’t even bother formally announcing its capital expenditures for 2025. Instead, during its earnings call, the company casually noted that it spent $26.3 billion in Q4 and that this pace would be “reasonably representative” for the rest of the year. Quick math? That’s over $100 billion, most of it aimed at AI. CEO Andy Jassy called AI a “once-in-a-lifetime” business opportunity, predicting that “virtually every application we know today will be reinvented.” But while the spending is loud, the returns are quiet—AWS growth is stuck at 19% for the third straight quarter, and Amazon warned that AI investments will weigh on operating margins for the foreseeable future.

More Cash, Less Growth

Amazon isn’t alone in its blank-check approach to AI. Google is jacking up capital expenditures to $75 billion, blowing past the $60 billion analysts expected. Microsoft is poised to cross $90 billion, while Meta is boosting AI spending by 75%, despite revenue only projected to grow 15%. Meanwhile, cloud computing—the supposed backbone of AI monetization—isn’t delivering the growth Wall Street expected. Microsoft and Google both whiffed on cloud revenue last quarter, while AWS growth remains stubbornly flat.

DeepSeek Didn’t Kill the Party, It Raised the Stakes

Despite the market freakout over DeepSeek’s budget AI breakthrough, Big Tech isn’t backing down. Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft all dismissed concerns, arguing that AI success isn’t just about building models—it’s about scaling them with secure, high-performance infrastructure. In other words, even if China’s AI is cheaper to build, it won’t be cheaper to run. So for now, Silicon Valley’s biggest players are sticking to their favorite game plan: spend now, profit… eventually.

Calendar
On The Horizon

Next Week

The wild ride in the markets takes a brief pause as investors shift focus to wings, commercials, and maybe some football on Sunday. But don’t get too comfortable—next week is stacked with major economic data.

Monday gives markets a breather with no big reports, but things get real on Tuesday with the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index. The main event? Wednesday’s CPI report—a potential market mover—followed by Thursday’s PPI data to keep inflation watchers on edge. The week closes out with Friday’s retail sales and industrial production reports, giving us a clearer look at consumer spending and economic momentum.

Earnings season is cooling off, but there are still plenty of names to watch.

Earnings:

  • Monday: McDonald’s ($MCD), ON Semiconductor ($ON), Vertex Pharmaceuticals ($VRTX), and Monday. com ($MNDY) (yes, really).

  • Tuesday: Coca-Cola ($KO), Shopify ($SHOP), Super Micro Computer ($SMCI), DoorDash ($DASH), BP plc ($BP), Lyft ($LYFT), Marriott International ($MAR), Zillow ($Z), AutoNation ($AN), Sunoco ($SUN), and Kellogg ($K).

  • Wednesday: CVS Health ($CVS), Robinhood Markets ($HOOD), Reddit ($RDDT), Vertiv Holdings ($VRT), Kraft Heinz ($KHC), Barrick Gold ($GOLD), Dominion Energy ($D), CME Group ($CME), and Dutch Bros ($BROS).

  • Thursday: Sony Group ($SONY), Coinbase ($COIN), Datadog ($DDOG), Crocs ($CROX), DraftKings ($DKNG), Palo Alto Networks ($PANW), Airbnb ($ABNB), Honda Motor Co. ($HMC), Hertz ($HTZ), Hyatt Hotels ($H), Wendy’s ($WEN), US Foods ($USFD), Molson Coors ($TAP), Barclays ($BCS), Wynn Resorts ($WYNN), and Roku ($ROKU).

  • Friday: Moderna ($MRNA), Enbridge ($ENB), and Fortis ($FTS).

    Enjoy the Super Bowl while you can—markets are back in play soon enough.

NEWS
The Daily Rundown

  • ☕ Starbucks Cracks Down on Mobile Orders: In an effort to streamline operations, Starbucks is reducing the number of items allowed per mobile order and cutting 30% of its menu by September. CEO Brian Niccol said mobile orders have hurt efficiency and led to customer frustration. The changes aim to speed up service and improve the in-store experience.

  • 📦 Amazon Set to Surpass Walmart in Quarterly Revenue: Amazon is on track to overtake Walmart in revenue for the first time, reporting $187.8 billion in Q4 sales compared to the $180 billion analysts expect Walmart to post in two weeks. While Walmart has held the top spot for 12 years, Amazon's dominance in cloud computing and digital advertising has fueled its rapid growth. Walmart is countering by expanding its digital ad business, while Amazon is pushing deeper into groceries.

  • 🏛️ Judge Blocks Deadline for Trump’s Federal Worker Buyout: A federal judge has temporarily paused the deadline for federal employees to accept Trump’s resignation buyout, with a final ruling expected Monday. So far, more than 60,000 workers have accepted, but unions have challenged the legality of the offer. The buyout, part of Trump’s effort to slash government spending, has raised concerns about its impact on federal agencies.

  • ✈️ Honeywell to Split into Three Independent Companies: Honeywell announced it will divide into three standalone businesses focusing on aerospace, automation, and advanced materials. The move follows pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management and mirrors GE’s recent split, which significantly increased shareholder value. The breakup leaves the U.S. with fewer large industrial conglomerates.

  • 📵 Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Ban DeepSeek on Government Devices: Lawmakers have introduced a bill to prohibit the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek on government-issued devices, citing concerns over national security and data access by the Chinese Communist Party. The move follows similar restrictions placed on TikTok in 2022.

  • 🚢 Panama Canal Fee Dispute Escalates: Panama’s president denied reports that U.S. Navy vessels would be allowed free passage through the Panama Canal, contradicting a statement from the U.S. State Department. The dispute comes amid rising tensions over U.S. claims that China has too much influence over the canal, fueling speculation about Trump’s campaign promise to “take it back.”

  • 🎤 TED Founder Opens Bidding for New Leadership: TED curator Chris Anderson is seeking a new leader to take over the iconic conference and media empire. Candidates must have a vision for TED’s future, a commitment to keeping it nonpartisan, and the financial resources to fund its operations. Universities, tech companies, and philanthropists are expected to bid for control.

  • 🍻 Anheuser-Busch Pushes for 'American' Label on Beers: Anheuser-Busch’s CEO is advocating for U.S.-produced beers to be labeled as “American” instead of “domestic.” The move aims to highlight the quality and origin of U.S.-made beers, potentially reshaping marketing strategies and consumer perception in the highly competitive beer industry.

  • 🏄 Quiksilver, Billabong, and Volcom Stores Shutter as Parent Company Declares Bankruptcy: The parent company of Quiksilver, Billabong, and Volcom has filed for bankruptcy, leading to the closure of all its U.S. retail locations. The move marks the end of an era for these iconic surf and skate brands, which have been staples in youth culture for decades.

RESOURCES
The Federal Reserve Resource

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