BWIB Finance Newsletter

Wednesday, May 26 to Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Meatpacking giant JBS hit by Cyberattack

Source: WSJ

• JBS, the world’s biggest meat company by sales, fell victim to a ransomware attack Tuesday, sending most of its US operations offline. JBS operations in Canada and Australia were affected by the attack as well.
• JBS says it will most likely be able to resume operations Wednesday. The attack was suspected to originate from a Russian criminal group.
• Plant closures resulting from this JBS hack could lead to higher consumer prices.

AMC Entertainment bets its retail investors will stick with the company

Source: CNBC

• Ever since the stock price rose in January, some retail investors have attacked those who share negative opinions on AMC on social media.
• The company believes that its retail investors will stay with the company for the long-term for it to recover from losses during the pandemic.
• The stock price of the company surged more than 1,100% since January 2021, and the stock price went up by more than 116% last week.

McDonald’s tests automated drive-thru ordering at few locations

Source: CNBC

• CEO of McDonald’s, Chris Kempczinski, announced that ten Chicago locations are testing the automated ordering system using artificial intelligence.
• The test results presented that the technology was 85% accurate and was able to take 80% of orders.
• McDonald’s is able to utilize this technology from its acquisition of artificial intelligence speech company Apprente in 2019.

Deals

• Private equity firms KKR & Co. and Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC have agreed to buy Cloudera Inc., a software company founded in 2008 for about $5.3B. This deal will take Cloudera private. (Source: WSJ)
• Acorns Grow Inc, a fintech company that automatically helps users invest small contributions into stocks and bonds, plans to go public in a $2B SPAC deal with Pioneer Merger Corp. (Source: WSJ)

Retail Earnings

• Ulta Beauty, the cosmetics retailer, reported earnings of $4.10 per share compared to last year’s Q1 loss of $1.39. This was more than double analysts’ expectations of $1.99 a share. (Source: Barron’s)
• Best Buy reported earnings of $595M and revenues of $11.64B in its Q1 earnings report. It exceeded analysts’ estimates of $10.4B in revenues, and its shares are up 53% in the last 12 months. (Source: Barron’s)
• Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock surged more than 60% due to the meme stocks rallied. The retailer’s announcement to launch three new store brands also contributed to the rise. (Source: CNBC)
• Fashion rental platform Rent the Runway enters the $33B fashion resale market as it hopes to recover from pandemic losses. (Source: CNBC)

International News

• China introduced incentives to encourage families to have more children, allowing all families to have as many as 3 children as the country faces a declining birth rate. (Source: Bloomberg)
• Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other OPEC members agreed to boost output as oil prices rise to 2-year highs. (Source: WSJ)
• According to Elvira Nabiullina, Russia’s central bank governor, digital currencies will be the future of financial systems. She says “there is a need for fast, cheap payment systems, and central bank digital currencies can fill that gap.” (Source: CNBC)

Written By:

Director: Jacquline Ruan

Managers: Vaibhavi Bamane, Melissa Chen, Stacy Kim