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A Russian law firm is suing Apple for $1.3 million over the withdrawal of Apple Pay from the country following Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Chernyshov, Lukoyanov & Partners claims the decision violates consumers' rights and decreases the value of their devices, since they now have fewer uses. Apple has not responded to the lawsuit. We say Crimea River is the most apt reply. | | | • | | Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway returns to its big-spending ways with $51 billion in stock purchases. | | • | | Think gas prices are bad? Diesel is even worse. | | • | | Amazon again goes toe-to-toe with Staten Island union organizers today. | | | | |  | Investing | Berkshire Poured $51 Billion Into Stocks in the First Three Months of 2022 | | Warren Buffett is back at the stock market buffet. Dairy Queen, after all, only offers so much sustenance.
After complaining for years that the stock market offered few high-returning assets in a sea of overvaluation, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO used this weekend to announce his investment firm spent $51 billion on stocks in the first three months of 2021. | Warren Walks into a Gambling Parlor... | | Buffett’s biggest enemies in recent years have been private equity firms and a booming stock market, both of which have made private acquisitions and stock purchases equally off-putting to the value-conscious Oracle of Omaha. As usual at his company’s annual general meeting, Buffett had heated words this weekend for Wall Street, which he accused of turning the stock market into a "gambling parlor" and companies into "poker chips."
Then he went on to talk about how great the casino turned out for Berkshire. With the stock market turning downward this year, and many of the frenetic retail traders who poured into the market last year in the red, "Berkshire gets a chance to do something,” Buffett said. He placed two major bets: | • | | First up, oil. Berkshire sharply boosted its stake in Chevron. Now at $25.9 billion, it’s one of the five biggest holdings in Berkshire’s $390 billion portfolio. Factoring in a $10 billion stake in Occidental and other investments, Berkshire has taken a $40 billion bet on the oil sector, according to Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan. | | • | | Second up, the regulatory environment. Buffett revealed a 9.5%, $5.6 billion stake in video game maker Activision, now in the midst of a merger with Microsoft. Many on Wall Street are betting the deal will fail if challenged by a newly emboldened Federal Trade Commission. "If the deal goes through we make some money, and if it doesn't go through, who knows," Buffett said. Talk about treating companies like poker chips. | | | | Piling Off: Berkshire’s cash pile ended the first quarter at $106 billion, the lowest since 2018, while Buffett hasn’t been this active as a stock buyer since 2008, according to Bloomberg data.
Mammon the Just: Buffett’s deputy Charlie Munger, renowned for his financial trash-talking game, did not disappoint. "God is getting just," is what Munger had to say about the 88% decline in the price of Robinhood, the popular trading app, since an August 2021 high. Last year, Munger alleged the app encouraged risky trading and wasn't up-front about fees. We will have to wait until Berkshire's next quarterly meeting to see what he thinks of Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, which raised $320 million worth of cryptocurrency this weekend by selling virtual real estate. | | | | | | Fuel | Diesel Tops Gas Prices By Widest Margin on Record | | If trips to gas stations have afforded one shimmer of consolation this year, it's seeing the price of diesel creep just a bit higher than the regular gas most of us pump into our regular-sized cars. At least I’m not driving a truck, one could say with relief.
Diesel prices are outstripping consumer gas prices by record margins, but what’s bad for truckers is bad for, well, just about everyone else. | Prices Rising Fast & Furiously | | The logic is painfully simple. Rising diesel costs beget higher shipping costs, which beget rising product costs. All those extra expenses are typically passed on to the consumer — just check your grocery bill.
Gas prices barrelled up some 47% in the first quarter, while diesel prices careened skyward by over 60%. On Friday, the average price of diesel hit $5.16, according to the fuel savings app GasBuddy, while consumer gas prices were over a dollar cheaper. That marks the largest delta in diesel-gas prices since 2005, according to auto club AAA, narrowly beating the record 98-cent gap from November 2008. But don’t blame (just) Vladimir Putin. The troubling trend began well before the war in Ukraine, and may last longer, too: | • | | Diesel refining capacity has shrunk in both the US and Europe due to pandemic closures and permanent shutdowns of refinery plants, while the rise in trucking volume during the pandemic (think of all the deliveries) has only increased demand for diesel. | | • | | What’s more, demand for diesel tends to be less elastic than that for gasoline, energy economist Philip Verleger said in a report cited by supply-chain trade publication Freight Waves. While rising prices at the pump may move some commuters to opt for the train or for work-from-home, demand for diesel doesn’t decrease in line with rising prices. | | | | Farm to Wallet: While trucks account for roughly 70% of diesel consumption in the US, according to trucking association ATA, diesel fuel is also what powers most farming equipment. The US agricultural sector is due to have its largest corn and soy planting season since 2017, reports Bloomberg. Consumers can expect to feel the double-whammy of rising production and shipping costs. | | | | | | SPONSORED BY LOOP MEDIA | Calling All Business Owners and Managers | In business, killing two birds with one stone is the name of the game. If you’ve got a consumer facing business — think bar, restaurant, hotel, dental office, or really anything with customers coming in the front door — Loop Media will revolutionize how you think about digital signage. With the Loop Player, your business can access a deep library of digital content including music videos, live performances, sports highlights — at absolutely zero cost to you. Better yet, it integrates directly into your existing screens and is highly customizable to serve your business needs: | | | • | | Keep customers engaged and entertained | | | | | | | | | | Labor | Amazon Faces Its Second New York Union Vote Tally Today |  | | Every heavyweight title fight needs a rematch, or at least it did back when boxing didn’t trail the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in ratings — in other words, when Rocky and Sweet Pea were sooner the names of prize fighters than prize pooches.
Today, a humbled Amazon will face off in a rematch against The Amazon Labor Union (ALU), the group that organized the first-ever US-based union at the company. Win or lose, the second vote on New York’s Staten Island has Wall Street’s attention. | Union Pride vs. Corporate Greed | | Last month’s historic pro-union vote at JFK8, an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island, was seen by many as a shocking upset, especially after Amazon successfully defeated union drives in Alabama by the more established Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union.
The ALU opted not to move on to bigger things, aiming instead to persuade workers at a smaller nearby warehouse, called LDJ5, to turn union. LDJ5, then, is where the National Labor Relations Board will be counting votes today. Organizers are making the same promises to workers — more and longer breaks, better job security, and an hourly wage of $30 (up from $18) — that earned enough YES ballots last time. Still, unionization at LDJ5 is anything but a shoo-in: | • | | There are just 1,500 workers at the LDJ5 facility, compared to 8,300 at JFK8; and only 10 union organizers, compared to the 30 at the last union drive. They must contend with Amazon’s vast resources as well as the mandatory company meetings on the subject of why they should vote against the union. “It’s a much more personal, aggressive fight over here,” Connor Spence, an Amazon employee, and union VP, told the Associated Press. | | • | | According to company filings, Amazon spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants in 2021. If the e-commerce giant wins today, that expense may turn out to be a bargain, considering what’s happening over at Starbucks. | | | | Bitter Joe: Starbucks executives have failed to tame a nascent labor movement, with at least 40 locations voting to unionize and 250 petitioning to hold votes. Since anti-union former-CEO-turned-CEO-again Howard Schulz took over earlier this month, the company’s stock is down 15% and the labor quandary has become one spicy latte. Researchers at Citi warned growing unionization could hurt the stock, but other analysts have suggested pushing back against unions could turn off investors who care about environmental, social, and governance issues. | | | | | | Extra Upside | | | • | | The European Union is piloting its own social networks as alternatives to the likes of Youtube and Facebook. | | • | | Would you call today’s jumble of grid-tied solar systems a clean energy “paradigm shift”? We certainly wouldn’t. But one startup has developed a solar + battery system that functions as the primary source of power for a home or business, allowing people to reliably power their lives with clean solar energy. YouSolar’s PowerBloc is a fully-integrated nano-grid and true utility power replacement that’s about to upend the trillion-dollar utility industry. Learn more about YouSolar and become an early investor here.* *Partner | | | | | | |  | Just For Fun | | | | | Written by Sean Craig and Brian Boyle. | Disclaimer | | | | The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between The Daily Upside’s in-house sponsored content team. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. The Daily Upside may receive monetary compensation from the issuer, or its agency, for publicizing the offering of the issuer’s securities. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice. This is a paid ad. Please see 17b disclosure linked in the campaign page for more information. | | | | | No longer want to receive these emails? Unsubscribe here. Copyright © 2022 The Daily Upside, LLC., All rights reserved. 1230 York Avenue, Box 154, New York, NY 10065 | | | | |
