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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images News
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Philip Morris' (PM) Zyn pouches hit with lawsuit. (00:25) Elon Musk dethroned as world's richest person after Tesla (TSLA) slump. (01:34) RealReal (REAL) is up more than 80% since earnings last week as liquidity fears fade. (02:49)
This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.
Shares of Altria (MO) were under pressure Monday as a nicotine substitute from rival Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) was accused of being addictive and harmful to young people.
Although the lawsuit named Philip Morris' Zyn, Altria (MO) shares were taking the brunt of the negative reaction to the lawsuit. Altria has a portfolio of smoke-free and tobacco products.
The lawsuit alleges that Philip Morris' (PM) Zyn nicotine pouch contains more nicotine than cigarettes, causes gum disease, cognitive issues, cardiovascular injuries, and gastrointestinal problems, and is more addictive than traditional nicotine products, according to Bloomberg.
The lawsuit also includes Swedish Match as a defendant. Swedish Match was the original manufacturer of Zyn pouches and was acquired by a Philip Morris affiliate for $16B in 2022.
Zyn nicotine pouches do not contain tobacco and since their introduction in 2014 in the U.S., the brand achieved a 67% market share by 2023 while sales swelled by 600% to 140M pouches in just three years.
Along with the vape products, Zyn was marketed by Philip Morris International (PM) as a part of its “smoke-free-future” campaign, and figured prominently with influencers and celebrities. The company employed a slogan of “Can’t smoke? Can’t vape? Can Zyn” to endorse the product as an alternative to smoking and vaping.
PM closed Monday +0.53% and MO closed -2.77%.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has been dethroned as the world's richest person.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos is now in the top spot after Tesla slumped 7.2% on Monday as shipments from its Shanghai factory dropped to their lowest in over a year, impacted by the Chinese New Year holiday.
According to China's Passenger Car Association, the EV maker shipped 60,365 vehicles from the factory in February, down 19% Y/Y.
Tesla (TSLA) has also been grappling with fierce competition in the EV space.
On the other hand, Amazon (AMZN) has been seeing consistently strong sales growth across its businesses, and its market capitalization stands at a whopping $1.85T.
Musk's net worth now stands at $198B, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Bezos' fortune is valued at $200B. This is the first time that Bezos has topped the index since 2021; he'd first overtaken Bill Gates to be the world's richest person in 2017.
While the Magnificent Seven stocks - including Tesla (TSLA) and Amazon (AMZN) - have helped push U.S. market averages to record highs this year, Tesla shares have fallen 2.9% over the past year, while Amazon gained 89.4%.
The RealReal (NASDAQ:REAL) shot up nearly 16% Monday and is now up more than 80% since reporting Q4 earnings last week.
While RealReal (REAL) topped revenue expectations for the holiday quarter and narrowed its quarterly loss from a year ago, UBS believes the most important pullout from earnings day was that the retailer reduced its total indebtedness by more than $17M and extended a significant portion of its 2025 maturities to 2029.
That balance sheet improvement is seen alleviating the most pressing investor concerns around liquidity. Other positives called out from the RealReal (REAL) report were the much better than expected Q4 EBITDA profit and positive free cash flow for the holiday quarter.
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The major market averages closed out Monday’s trading session to the downside.
The Dow (DJI) closed out Monday lower by 0.2%, the S&P 500 (SP500) ended in the red by 0.1%, and the Nasdaq (COMP:IND) finished lower by 0.4%.
Seven of the 11 S&P sectors were in the green led by Utilities. The two worst performing areas on the day were Communication Services and Consumer Discretionary.
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 red. Crude oil is down 0.05% at more than $78 per barrel. Bitcoin is up 2.4% at more than $66,000.
In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 0.03% and the DAX is down 0.08%.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: Stitch Fix (NASDAQ:SFIX) is down 13% following the FQ2 earnings miss and disappointing outlook.
On today’s economic calendar:
10:00 Factory Orders
