❤ "Romantasy" Novels Are Flying Off the Shelves

MARKET UPDATE

Good Morning Investor! On Wednesday, shares of department store chain Macy’s ($M) saw its share price tumble over 12% after the company slashed its sales forecasts during its earnings call as store footfall remains a contentious issue.

Meanwhile, shares of supermarket chain Target ($TGT) saw its share price surge almost 13% after announcing its profit boomed 36% for the quarter. How was this achieved? The company slashed prices on 5,000 frequently bought items at stores to draw customers. That strategy worked, with foot traffic to Target’s stores increasing 3% during the quarter. Target’s CFO also announced that the company has hit a plateau when it comes to shrinkage — a financial term for theft.

In other news, spot gold prices surpassed an all-time high of $2,500, making a 400 troy oz London gold bar worth over $1 million. The rally follows record buying by central banks.

TODAY’S BIG HEADLINES

Readers are Falling Head Over Heels for “Romantasy” Novels

Sugar Prices Collapse to 2022 Lows

Call Her Daddy Podcast Acquired for $125M by SiriusXM

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SURE DIVIDEND

The Only 79 Dividend Stocks That Pay Every Month

Thousands of publicly traded companies have a dividend – that means they pay you just for owning their stock. However, only a select few pay out dividends monthly instead of quarterly. Sure Dividend has put together a list of all 79 individual stocks that pay dividends every month.

• Monthly dividend payments matter because they give investors cash every month instead of quarterly

• Monthly dividend payments show a company prioritizes paying shareholders

• Monthly dividends allow for faster reinvesting of dividends

You can instantly get your free list of all 79 monthly paying dividend stocks, by clicking the link below:

Get my free monthly dividend stocks list now

CONSUMER DISCRETIONARIES

Readers are Falling Head Over Heels for “Romantasy” Novels❤️

Romantasy Trends in the Literary Landscape: Believe it or not, the reading industry is experiencing a roaring boom right now, and two particular genres are leading the charge – Romance and Fantasy, or as we like to call them, the dynamic duo of "Romantasy" novels. (Winks suggestively)

• Between 2020 and 2023, sales of romance and fantasy novels in the US soared by 116% and 163%, respectively. This surge in popularity is partly due to the #Romantasy trend on TikTok, where bookworms are thirstier than a Vampire at a blood drive — which has significantly boosted interest.

Can't Get Enough of Love and Sorcery: Diving into the gripping data, As of last month, romantasy books comprised 18.3% of The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller List, up from 3.3% in January of 2019. But these heart-throbbing novels aren’t just popular, they’re cash printing assets! Romantasy novels are on track to generate $610 million in 2024 — an increase from a record $454 million last year, with over 11 million sold in the first five months of the year.

Bringing the Bedroom to the Big Screen: From Harry Potter to Bridgerton, book-to-movie adaptations have been a huge part of Hollywood. But despite this genre's meteoric jump, TV and movie executives have been slower than a Sloth in molasses to adapt romantasy for the screen. The few we have seen thus far, such as Colleen Hoover's "It Ends with Us" starring Blake Lively, have been box office sensations, collecting a stellar $50 million from 3,611 North American venues in its opening weekend.

• The film's global gross revenue stood at $80 million after its opening weekend, surpassing expectations for a movie that only cost a reported $25 million to produce faster than a rom-com protagonist falls in love. This led to many comparisons to the “Barbieheimer” event we saw take place in cinemas last year, with Deadpool & Wolverine also making its record-breaking debut the same weekend.

COMMODITIES

Sugar Prices Collapse to 2022 Lows🍩

The Sweet Plummet: Last week, we covered the sudden collapse in commodity prices, with the infamous Dr. Copper signaling economic concerns like a doctor delivering bad news. This new coincided with Bloomberg’s commodities index ($BCOM) being down significantly year-to-date. Well, now sugar prices have put on their ski boots and slid down the slopes, sinking to their lowest level since the great pandemic pantry raid of 2022.

The South American Sugar Rush: Brazil appears to be the big bad villain of this story, with the South American nation deciding out of the blue, to go full Willy Wonka, cranking out sugar like they’re hosting the world’s biggest bake sale. It seems that the three year sugar price rally that had traders glued to their desks with a pack on Zyn in hand is now well and truly over, as sugar prices are now down 29% from $0.24/lb in January, to the current $0.17/lb. Talk about a sour turn of events!

• Sugar, the fallen favorite child of commodities traders, made some sweet gains (pardon the pun) by rallying to $0.26/lb in October 2023, thanks to some rather convenient weather disasters in India and Thailand (aptly named "El Niño"). These factors, combined with supply chain drama and a strong US dollar, made traders grin wider than a fat kid in a candy store — or as the kids would say, a “high-calorie individual”.

The Master Plan: In steps Brazil, deciding to go full Popeye the sailorman, chugging a tin of spinach and cranking up production to a record-shattering 41.9 million tons of sugar this year, up from 38.8 million tons last year. I wonder if big bad Brazil is secretly in cahoots with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk on a mission to give the world diabetes (For legal reasons, this was purely satire). This sudden influx into the sugar market has been the direct cause of prices tumbling faster than a stack of pancakes - better go stock up while it's cheap, before the world runs out of sweetener!

MEDIA & STREAMING

Call Her Daddy Podcast Acquired for $125M by SiriusXM🎙️

Show Daddy the Money: Alex Cooper, the host of the insanely popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast appears to have hit the jackpot, signing on the dotted line in a multi-year deal worth up to $100 million with Sirius XM Holdings ($SIRI). This juicy arrangement would give the satellite radio company the exclusive right to sell ads on the audio and video versions of her show, as well as bonus content and events. The stock was up 6% in pre-market trading on Wednesday morning.

• This deal would allow Cooper’s exclusive distribution partnership to continue on with streaming giant Spotify ($SPOT) — the platform in which she’s amassed 4 million subscribers and is the 7th most streamed podcast in the US. Sirius will simply possess the exclusive right to sell ads on the audio and video versions of her show.

• The multi-year deal with Spotify was valued at around $60 million and brought the podcast out from under Barstool’s umbrella.

• The SiriusXM arrangement also covers podcasts on Cooper’s Unwell Network, including programming from influencers Alix Earle and Madeline Argy.

Podcast Shopping Spree: Sirius XM are making serious power plays in the autio streaming industry, having signed a three-year deal worth more than $100 million with SmartLess back in January, a podcast hosted by actors Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. It's like they're the audio version of the Avengers, assembling a podcast supergroup that'll have you glued to your earbuds. While this month, the company debuted a new subscription offering on Apple Podcasts that provides ad-free episodes for $5.99 a month. Call Her Daddy will be included in that bundle, like a cherry on top of this audio sundae.

• Content is key for Sirius, and it's clear that their goal is to reinvigorate subscriber growth through exclusivity agreements with popular shows and podcasts.

MORE NEWS

Additional market-moving events🌎

Shein vs Temu: In a civil complaint, the Chinese-linked fast-fashion Shein player accused Temu of routinely stealing its designs and alleged an employee stole confidential trade secrets. Shein is now suing its rival over copyright infringement. (The Verge)

Harley Ditches DEI: Motorcycle company Harley-Davidson drops diversity efforts after online pressure. The company also affirmed its rejection of hiring quotas, supplier diversity spend goals and “socially motivated content” included in training. (TheGuardian)

Valuable Blockchain Startup: Story raises $83 million at a $2.25 billion valuation to build a blockchain for the business of content IP in the age of AI. This blockchain will prevent copyright theft by AI. (TechCrunch)

Ford’s Electric Struggles: Ford Motor is delaying production of a new plant in Tennessee to produce a next-generation all-electric pickup truck and canceling plans for a three-row electric SUV. (CNBC)

Twitter-Sized Banking Disaster: Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter purchase ranks as worst deal for banks since the financial crisis. (WSJ)

FEEDBACK

OUR PICKS

Our selections performance👾

On Monday the 11th of March, we released our “superperformers” stock pick which we believe will provide significant outperformance compared to the S&P 500. Then on the 14th of June we released our next stock selection. Lastly, on August 6th, we initiated a position in Celsius holdings.

Here’s how the stocks have performed since:

• Hims & Hers Health: $16.67 (📈+15.20%)

• PayPal: $71.48 (📈+17.86%)

• Celsius: $40.64 (📈+0.67%)

Make sure that you’re subscribed so that you don’t miss our next stock picking research report!