Good Morning! Bank earnings are starting to roll in, and Bank of America's profits shot up by 10%. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs surprised everyone by losing less money than expected. In other bank gossip, HSBC is blocking bankers from texting on work phones. 

Retail sales are on fire, keeping that summer vibe alive even in September. And Deloitte predicts holiday spending is gonna be up 14% this year.

AI has boosted tech giants’ market cap by $2.4 trillion so far in 2023. And the US is tightening the leash on AI chip exports to China, causing a serious rift with Nvidia and Intel.

You might know Choice Hotels from putting the mid in mid-range hotels. You’ve probably heard of some of the chains in their portfolio like Quality Inn, Sleep Inn, or Rodeway Inn. You know, those places that make you question your life choices when all the good ones in the Hamptons are booked.

But Choice Hotels decided to shoot their shot, trying to buy Wyndham, the self-proclaimed "biggest hotel franchisor in the world," for $7.8 billion. Wyndham operates Days Inn, La Quinta, and Super 8.

Choice's offer was like that unsolicited DM you never asked for, and by the end of the day, Wyndham was like, "Nah, we're good, thanks." 

Apparently, these two hotel hustlers were trying to seal the deal for nearly six months, but it seems like Wyndham ghosted them. 

As of yesterday, Wyndham was strutting around with a market cap of $6.4 billion, and this deal would've been a 30% premium from their Monday close.

Takeaway: Choice wants to create a budget hotel empire, and they're ready to make moves. And the $7.8 billion hostile takeover offer could be a last-ditch effort to do so. But don’t discount how the current regulatory environment poses obstacles to mega-mergers. 

And one thing’s for sure - if you’re the CEO of a company, you gotta be pretty offended when your rival publicly offers to buy you. A favorite retort of hostile takeover targets? We’re not for sale.

Stocks closed lower as rising yields overshadow quarterly earnings.

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When the painting by master Claude Monet (you may have heard of him) was bought for $6.8 million and sold for a cool $8 million just 631 days later, investors in shares of the offering received their share of the net proceeds. 

All thanks to Masterworks, the award-winning platform for investing in blue-chip art. Masterworks does all of the heavy lifting like finding the painting, buying it, storing it, and eventually selling it.

Masterworks files each offering with the SEC so that nearly anyone can invest in highly coveted artworks for just a fraction of the price of the entire piece. 

To date, every one of its 16 sales out of its portfolio has returned a profit to investors. 

With over 840,000 users, shares of offerings can sell out in just minutes. But Short Squeez readers can skip the waitlist to join with this exclusive link.

One night in 1967, twenty-six-year-old John Donohue—known as Chick—was out with friends, drinking in a New York City bar. The friends gathered there had lost loved ones in Vietnam. Now, they watched as anti-war protesters turned on the troops themselves.

One neighborhood patriot came up with an inspired—some would call it insane—idea. Someone should sneak into Vietnam, track down their buddies there, give them messages of support from back home, and share a few laughs over a can of beer.

It would be the Greatest Beer Run Ever.

But who’d be crazy enough to do it?

One man was up for the challenge—a U. S. Marine Corps veteran turned merchant mariner who wasn’t about to desert his buddies on the front lines when they needed him.

Chick volunteered.

A day later, he was on a cargo ship headed to Vietnam, armed with Irish luck and a backpack full of alcohol. Landing in Qui Nho’n, Chick set off on an adventure that would change his life forever—an odyssey that took him through a series of hilarious escapades and harrowing close calls, including the Tet Offensive.

But none of that mattered if he could bring some cheer to his pals and show them how much the folks back home appreciated them.

Change in S&P 500 year-over-year share earnings

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In 1964, Warren Buffett owned shares in an old industry company with fading prospects.

The company’s CEO viewed Buffett’s purchase as a threat to his job security, and offered to buy the shares back at a premium. Buffett was eager to sell, tired of watching the business struggle.

The two struck a deal: The company would buy all of Buffett’s stock at $11 1/2 per share.

Buffett received a letter shortly after formalizing the deal. The company would still buy all of his stock, but at $11 3/8 per share.

“It really burned me up,” Buffett recalled. “You know, this guy was trying to chisel an eighth of a point from having, in effect, shaken my hand saying this was the deal.”

Buffett confronted the CEO, who argued there was never a deal to begin with. That made him even more incensed.

So rather than selling, Buffett began buying as much of the stock as he could. 

He eventually purchased more than a third of the company.

Biographer Alice Schroeder writes that, above all, Buffett’s motivation for buying more of the company’s stock was to stick it to the CEO who tried to screw him out of twelve cents per share.

The company – Berkshire Hathaway – became Buffett’s masterpiece.

Source: Morgan Housel