Hello, dear readers!

Stocks are down again after a nine day run-up, cartoonists who quit are getting prizes for it, we’re still trying to break up Google, and Skype is dead. Long live Skype!

Here's today's News You Need2Know:

• Stocks sink again on trade war damage

• Cartoonist who quit Washington Post in protest win …

• US expands attempts to break up Google

• Alternatives to Skype now that Skype is dead

• Zelle thriving on small business transactions

—Matt Davis, Need2Know Chedditor

Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter

$SPX ( ▲ 1.36% ) .$PLTR ( ▲ 8.01% )  $CLX ( ▲ 0.92% )  $MAT ( ▼ 0.92% )  $F ( ▼ 0.05% )  $ADM ( ▼ 0.38% )  $GOOGL ( ▲ 2.39% )  $MSFT ( ▲ 1.11% )  

Stocks sink again on trade war damage

Another day, another series of bruises for U.S. stock markets yesterday courtesy of the recent tariff-driven trade wars with a bit of doubt about the future as a result. If you like volatility, uncertainty, and watching investors panic as companies cancel forecasts left, right, and center — 2025 might be your favorite year in the markets, yet.

The S&P 500 slipped by 0.6% $SPX ( ▲ 1.36% ) . Palantir Technologies $PLTR ( ▲ 8.01% ) fell 11.9% despite boasting robust profits and confidently hiking its revenue forecast for the year. When you leap from $20 to $110 per share in under 12 months, investors start clutching their pearls, worried that you might actually be doing too well.

Clorox $CLX ( ▲ 0.92% ) — once the pandemic MVP because, hey, you can drink it (don’t) — reported weaker-than-expected revenue and faltering profits, blaming shifting consumer habits and shrinking 2.6%. Mattel’s $MAT ( ▼ 0.92% ) quarterly numbers apparently thrilled investors enough to end on a 2.9% uptick, but let's not ignore Mattel’s dramatic decision to “pause” its full-year financial forecasts entirely because the “evolving U.S. tariff landscape” is making it difficult to predict how much U.S. shoppers will spend over the holiday season and the rest of this year.

Ford $F ( ▼ 0.05% ) , meanwhile, warned of taking a $1.5 billion hit from tariffs while joining the "We’re-Not-Giving-a-Forecast Club." Maybe they can save money by converting the F-150 into a Flintstones-style foot-powered car? Archer Daniels Midland $ADM ( ▼ 0.38% ) also lost 3.1% because agriculture doesn’t exactly thrive when tariffs send business costs skyrocketing. Markets will probably go up now. I’m done trying to predict their next move!

Cartoonist who quit Washington Post in protest wins Pulitzer

Ann Telnaes, a longtime editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post, picked up a Pulitzer Prize after quitting her job in protest.

Telnaes won for “delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity — and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years,” according to the Pulitzer announcement on Monday.

Telnaes had the gall to draw a cartoon insinuating that Post owner Jeff Bezos and other media executives were cozying up to then-President-elect Donald Trump, bags of money in hand, at Mar-a-Lago. Apparently, Bezos didn’t appreciate being called out for the small matter of lucrative government contracts and million-dollar inauguration fund donations. The Post killed her sketch and sparked her exit. Here’s a draft of the cartoon.

Bezos later narrowed the Post’s opinion section topics to “personal liberties and the free market.”

Congratulations, Ann.

Today on the ‘gram: Met Gala

Post of the day: “West Village Girls”

Y’all can hate if you want to, but I love living in the West Village and living out my “Sex and the City” fantasies in my mid-20s.

US expands attempts to break up Google

The Justice Department is back at it again, wielding its legal sledgehammer in its continuing bid to break up Google $GOOGL ( ▲ 2.39% ) . They’re asking a judge to rip apart Google’s digital ad network — AdX and DFP — and maybe even toss Chrome into the mix.

Google’s success isn’t just annoying to its competitors — it’s a crime. A federal judge recently decided their ad network was a monopoly, prompting calls for dramatic punishment. The Justice Department’s idea of justice includes cutting Google off from running a digital ad exchange for an entire decade. Naturally, Google has proposed a more “reasonable” punishment: A trustee to babysit them for three years.

So, will Google crumble? Probably not. Half of Silicon Valley seems ready to keep it standing and for now, Google remains Alphabet’s $2 trillion juggernaut. I mean what are you gonna do, switch to Bing?

Should you check your 401(k) today?

👎️ 

No no no no no.

Alternatives to Skype now that Skype is dead

The bell has officially tolled for Skype. After two decades of connecting friends, families, and slightly awkward work conference calls, Microsoft finally pulled the plug on Monday. Cue the collective scramble of bewildered users trying to figure out: “Wait... WHAT do I use now?”

WhatsApp. That’s what I use instead.

Microsoft $MSFT ( ▲ 1.11% ) is shifting loyal Skype users over to Teams, its shiny corporate videoconferencing platform, because nothing says “heartwarming family catch-up” like an app designed for quarterly earnings reviews.

For those who relied on Skype for its U.S. numbers — perfect for calling banks and toll-free lines while overseas — fear not! There are plenty of alternatives to pick from. Want to stick with Microsoft? Teams Phone is an option, but it’s geared toward businesses because, apparently, regular people don’t count. Google Voice offers free calls in the U.S. and Canada, while Viber remains loyal to its users, though it’s phone-number-dependent. Or there’s WhatsApp. I mentioned that, right?

Sure, you’ll miss the iconic Skype ringtone, but there’s no shortage of VoIP services to carry you into the future. So farewell, Skype. We’ll shed a single tear — via Zoom.

Quote of the Day: The Pulitzer Board

Zelle thriving on small business transactions

Zelle is experiencing remarkable growth, especially with small businesses. GM Denise Leonard joined us to talk about the platform's significant strides in 2024, with over 500 million transactions, a 32% increase from the previous year.

"We learned that small businesses on the Zelle network continue to grow really quickly," Leonard said. "What we saw is actually that the Zelle payments to small businesses actually tripled in the course of the past three years."

The total payment volume in 2024 reached an impressive trillion dollars. With approximately seven million small businesses and an additional three to four million individuals receiving gig economy payments, Zelle's reach is extensive.

Leonard also noted surprising use cases, from "the surf instructor in LA receiving their payments via Zelle" to "the livestock groomer from the Houston rodeo."

You can also use it to just send me money for no apparent reason, if you’d like.

Poll of the Day: WaPo: Yo-Yo or No-No?

Poll Results: Where do we stand on crypto?

We asked: “Crypto?”

You answered:

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yo, bro! (59)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 No, no. (778)

837 Votes— via @beehiiv polls