Chain reaction
DuPont gets inventive
Good morning, lab legends. This is your Stock Market Rundown for June 17th, 2024. Thanks for joining me for another week of finance fun. Let’s dig in:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: DUPONT’S NEXT BREAKTHROUGH
Chemistry may not sound like the most exciting topic. But much of the stuff around you—from your kitchen utensils to your workout gear — was the brainchild of chemists trying to solve everyday problems.
Dupont, a $33-billion public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has been one of the biggest workshops for creating better living through chemistry. Example: in the 1930s, a DuPont chemist named Wallace Carothers revolutionized the modern textile industry by inventing nylon, the first synthetic fiber.
It was used in everything from parachutes, to carpets, to athletic clothing. (If it weren’t for the invention of nylon, you could be wearing wool garments at your pickup basketball games… very sweaty.)
A few years later, another DuPont chemist, Roy Plunkett, invented polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), better known as Teflon. This non-stick, heat-resistant material found a wide range of uses, from industrial applications to home cookware. Thanks to Teflon, your grilled-cheese sandwich slides right off your frying pan.
DuPont is in the headlines lately, as it just split into three publicly-traded companies. Spinoffs are super-trendy right now in Corporate America—Kellogg and General Electric have both recently done similar transactions.
The idea is that smaller, more focused organizations are better at “unlocking value” (to use investment-banker jargon). Hey, if it works for DuPont, maybe next they can invent a fabric that doesn’t wrinkle and repels dog hair… now, that would be a breakthrough.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
Adobe, the maker of Photoshop, raised its revenue forecast for the year. The company has added AI image-generation functionality to its products, doing its part to make sure you can’t believe anything you see on the internet.
Telsa is testing “Full Self Driving” in Shanghai, China, preparing to hit the streets with fully autonomous driving in its electric vehicles. Hurry up and roll this out globally, Elon—I can’t wait to never have to parallel-park again.
Video-game-addicted 18-year-olds will soon be asking mom to drive them to the local strip mall. Walmart is relaunching a fashion line directed at GenZ, and will be advertising it on TikTok and Roblox.
Wells Fargo just fired a dozen work-from-home employees for using devices that “simulated keyboard activity” so they could hit the beach. Not sure who should be more embarrassed—the employees for getting caught, or their managers for letting them get away with working two hours a day.
That's the end of today's briefing, pals; let’s reconvene bright and early tomorrow. Yours in capitalism, The Axe
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