Investing Notes -- May 18, 2023

Locator: 44706BUDCENTRAL.
Locator: 44677BUD. 

Updates

May 21, 2023: The WSJ has long front page article on Bud-Mulvaney -- link here.

This wasn’t the first time an Anheuser-Busch brand had supported transgender rights in a marketing effort: In 2021, Michelob Ultra featured transgender track star Cecé Telfer in an ad campaign supporting gender equality in sports. Last year, Bud Light Canada released a limited-edition can for pride month displaying pronouns such as she, he and they. “Celebrate everyone’s identity,” the can said.

But senior executives said they were caught off-guard by the Mulvaney promotion and the personalized beer can. AB InBev’s leaders were uncomfortable with a marketing initiative that thrust one of its biggest brands into the middle of a divisive political issue, according to people familiar with the matter. [Translation: CEO could be out.]

The company’s response made matters worse.

Anheuser-Busch stayed mostly silent for two weeks, then released a general statement about bringing people together, prompting criticism from all sides for both waiting too long to respond and also not taking a clear stand.

When the furor continued, the company placed Heinerscheid and her boss, Daniel Blake, on leave. Heinerscheid was replaced in the role of head marketer for Bud Light by a seasoned beer executive and Blake’s role was eliminated to give senior marketers closer oversight on brand decisions.

Heinerscheid and Blake remain on leave. Anheuser-Busch declined to comment on their future at the company, citing the executives’ privacy and safety.

Original Post

BUD: at our upscale grocer down the road from us, about 30 minutes by bike, the beer aisle doesn't seem to have any specials going into the weekend, except for one: Bud Lite, 12-can 16-ounce, normally sells for $21 is being sold for $13.99, a savings of $4.00 off each 16-ounce, 6-pack.  

Not only does this story have legs, there has to be a huge concern how long this could last, and/or whether anything will reverse the debacle.

It would be interesting to see what the "internals" show. Something tells me "we" would be surprised.

Investing:

• NVDA: holy mackerel. A proxy for ChatGPT.
• TSM: also doing well. Think AAPL. Which is also having an incredible day.
• AMD: even better than TSM.

AAPL:

• kind of interesting; AAPL paid its dividend today; would have expected AAPL shares to reflect that and drop a bit in price; in fact, AAPL is up $2 / share today, up a bit over 1%.

Oil:

• struggling. Headline writers say it's due to risk of default
• House speaker says vote to raid debt limit could be as early as next week
• two thoughts:
• an early vote to let disgruntled conservatives kill the first bill and force a second vote; or,
• disgruntled conservatives are looking at Memorial Day vacation and their investment portfolio.