Tesla’s First Profitable Year | The Memestock Revolt | The Avenger Investor

Plus: This $12 Billion Company Is Getting Rich Off Students Cheating Their Way Through Covid

Good morning.

With Reddit's day trading army apparently on a mission to make the Wall Street elite pay for their short bets, we look at which other stocks are in the eye of the storm. We also report on Tesla’s results and a Hollywood star’s latest mission.

In The News Today

The largest U.S. biltong producer Stryve Foods plans to launch on Nasdaq through a merger with SPAC Andina Acquisition Corp. III.

Two of the nation’s top infectious disease experts say it’s too early for Americans to be making travel plans.

Top Take-Aways

The GameStop rally fueled by Reddit users took the markets by storm, triggering the worst one-day sell-off for Dow Jones and the S&P 500 since late October. GameStop isn’t the only company included in the so-called “memestock” phenomenon—investors betting against struggling firms better beware.

Tesla reported a net income of $270 million in 2020’s final quarter, helping Elon Musk’s electric vehicle powerhouse notch its first profitable year. As usual, sales of pollution credits helped keep the company in the black.

With her nomination as Walgreens CEO, outgoing Starbucks COO Roz Brewer—whom Forbes recently ranked as the 48th most powerful woman in the world—will soon be the only Black woman running a S&P 500 company.

Robert Downey Jr. announced the launch of two new investment funds, part of the Hollywood star’s existing environmental initiative, which will support companies developing business models and technologies that help tackle climate change.

The little-known Sonesta International Hotels group went on a massive acquisition spree in 2020, taking advantage of the pandemic’s impact on the hospitality industry to end the tear with a larger portfolio than Hyatt’s.

Book club service Literati just raised $40 million, which founder and CEO Jessica Ewing intends to invest in data science and personalization for the kids-book-selection side of the business.

The popularity of the Shonda Rhimes-produced Regency-era series Bridgerton shows Netflix is enjoying the success of its “all things to all people” content strategy and its high-profile—and high cost—deals with creators.

Today's Must Read

In Case You Missed It

CIOs and individual consumers are set to make 2021 a banner year for many IT budget categories. A new report from Gartner predicts that tech spending will hit $3.9 trillion this year, a 6.2% increase over 2020, with purchases of hardware such as mobile devices and personal computers leading the way along with investment in business software.

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