😳 The 'largest IT outage in human history'

Today’s market performance🏆️

S&P 500: -0.71% 📉
Nasdaq: -0.81% 📉
Dow 30: -0.93% 📉
Russell 2000: -0.63% 📉

In partnership with

TOP STORY
😳 The ‘largest IT outage in human history’

While you were taking a well-deserved pre-weekend power nap, the world experienced the largest IT outage in history.

Financial services, doctors' offices, and TV broadcasters went offline; planes were grounded; services were delayed; even the Las Vegas Sphere was put out of commission.

Some of the companies affected include:

• Microsoft Cloud

• London Stock Exchange

• Sky News and other broadcast channels

• Delta, United, and American Airlines (flights grounded)

• Health services and hospitals in Israel and the UK

• Banks in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Britain

Who? How? Why?

CrowdStrike, one of the world's biggest cybersecurity firms, had a costly defect in one of its updates for computers running the Windows operating system.

So, the company trying to protect companies from cyberattacks just fried their clients' systems in hopes of preventing more cyberattacks?

Nice.

And we’re sure it wasn’t a hacker or something?

Okay, so this was literally just a company screwup. Damn, heads are about to roll.

Is the issue at least fixed now? Kurtz says a fix has been issued, but outages are still being resolved, with the mishap expected to delay the global supply chain and air freight facing days or weeks to recover.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I NEVER update my phone voluntarily.

FROM OUR FRIENDS @ HUNGRYROOT

Goodbye Meal Kits, Hello Hungryroot

Hungryroot is a grocery and recipe delivery service that supports any health needs you and your family might have. Whether you’re looking to incorporate a gut-friendly diet, just trying to eat healthy, or anything in between, Hungryroot makes achieving your goals on your terms easy.

Browse the thousands of groceries and recipes available each week, or have Hungryroot curate a delivery made just for you and your family based on your preferences. Save hours planning, shopping, and cooking each week. Plus pick one free item for life.

Take the quiz and get 30% off your 1st order!

RETAIL
👀 This year’s Summer Olympics could be the most important ever for Nike

Nike is investing more in this year's Olympics than in any previous games.

And Nike isn’t just talking the talk with trying to make the most of these Paris Olympics; they’re also walking the walk.

In Nike's Q3, total marketing expenses were $1 billion, up 10% from the same period last year.

Sheesh, that’s a lotta billboards.

When asked if the massive spending would continue to ramp up, O'Neill said that marketing was "the number one priority investment" for the company.

While Nike is loosening the purse strings, one of its biggest competitors, Adidas, has been cutting back on marketing spend. Adidas spent $2.7 billion on marketing in 2023, down 8.5% from the previous year.

Not "The Swoosh," though. Nike has spent $4.3 billion over its last four quarters, an increase of 6%.

While we don’t have the exact numbers of how much Nike actually makes from the Olympics, the exposure they get is Astronomical.

The past two Summer Olympic games, taking place in Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2020), each attracted over 3 billion viewers worldwide.

That's a hell of a lot more views than any ad, billboard, or social media post can get, and it's catered right to an audience who would love some new Nike apparel.

TECHNOLOGY
🔻 The Semiconductor index lost over $500B earlier this week

Wall Street’s semiconductor index lost over $500 billion earlier this week after some comments from President Biden and Donald Trump.

First, the Biden administration is thinking about using the “foreign direct product rule” to restrict China's chip industry even further.

This would let the U.S. limit other nations from exporting goods to China if the product uses any American technology, which many of the chip sector’s top dogs currently do.

Not being able ability to sell products to a major market like China is infuriating the sector’s players and the investors behind these companies as well.

And after this aggravating news, Donald Trump added some extra salt to the wound.

Trump told Bloomberg in an interview on Tuesday that “Taiwan should pay us (America) for defense,” which made some worry that the U.S. might add conditions to its aid for Taiwan if China invades.

Here were some of the biggest losers this week:

• ASML, the world’s largest supplier of chipmaking equipment, is down 14% this week.

• TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, is down over 10% this week.

• Micron Technology, which owns around 5% of the semiconductor market, is down nearly 14% this week.

• Nvidia is also down over 10% this week.

While Uncle Joe enjoys squeezing China, U.S. chipmakers have lost around $130 billion in market cap due to export controls, according to the Federal Reserve (in April), meaning he might need to cool it a bit.