Drive-thru decisions
Supersized profits in the fast food industry
Good morning, french-fry enjoyers. This is your Stock Market Rundown for November 17th, 2023. Thanks for being here with me. Let’s bite in:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: FRIES VERSUS SLICES 🍟
Fears of a slowing economy have cooled traffic in the restaurant industry. But one segment that thrives even when consumers are tightening their belts, are the folks in the business of hawking cheap beef.
Wall Street analysts refer to them as “quick service restaurants.” You and I know them as fast food joints. Defying economic uncertainty, cash-strapped customers continued to line up in droves for McDonald’s, which reported quarterly earnings that beat estimates.
Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, beat estimates too, with budget-conscious diners snapping up the Volcano menu (even though the Lava Sauce might give you some seismic indigestion).
Yum Brands owns not only Taco Bell, but KFC and Pizza Hut too, and management cautioned that pizza is the most competitive category right now. They have to contend with not only national chains like Papa John’s and Papa Murphy’s, but also all the local mom-and-papas.
Of course, would-be pizza challengers can’t match the Hut’s creativity. After all, they invented the Stuffed Crust, the most staggering pizza innovation since grated mozzarella.
And they continue to make breakthroughs: Pizza Hut in Hong Kong now offers pies with shredded snake meat, a traditional delicacy. Can’t wait to try it at my local strip mall paired with a Mountain Dew Code Red.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
And you thought you overspent on those Bad Bunny floor seats: the US budget deficit for 2023 was $1.7 trillion. Interest payments spiked on higher rates, as the federal government continued to carry a gargantuan credit-card balance.
Would you believe your meatloaf mix might hail from Mexico? With the US cattle herd at its lowest levels in decades, the US is importing massive amounts of beef, from cow-raising countries like Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand.
A team of former Apple engineers is launching a new wearable AI pin that records everything you do. Divorce lawyers are gonna have a blast subpoenaing records from these things.
Anybody want to own a piece of Monday Night Football? Disney is looking for a partner to buy a chunk of ESPN and help create a streaming app. They’ll even throw in Troy Aikman for free.
That’s it for today and for the week, my friends. Have yourselves a terrific weekend, and I will see you first thing Monday morning. Yours in capitalism, The Axe