Diamonds and Dogs

11/13/19

Disney (DIS) surges the day after the launch of Disney +. Disney is up 4% to a five-month high after disclosing they added 10 million subs in the U.S., Canada and The Netherlands just one day after launch. In comparison, Netflix has been doing this for several years and they have 61 million subs in the U.S. While Disney's bottom line will be weighed down by its streaming investments in the coming years, the strong launch invigorates investors' faith in a strategy that stands to leverage the company's strengths, including its unrivaled intellectual property, over the long term.

Nike (NKE) making news splitting ways with Amazon. The athletic giant and online marketplace behemoth announced on Wednesday that they are parting ways with Amazon after spending two years in a retail-selling partnership together. The decision comes just before the critical shopping holiday season. The split is taking place under new CEO and former Ebay CEO as Nike recalibrates its retail strategy to focus more on selling directly to consumers rather than via third parties like Amazon. 

SmileDirectClub (SDC) not smiling today. The teeth alignment company is down 17% to a new low following a big quarterly loss, their first earnings report since coming public in September.  The primary issues plaguing SDC are mounting regulatory concerns and how new legislation might affect its business model. SDC essentially allows customers to cut out visits to orthodontists and dentists by sending in teeth impressions to its centers. Once analyzed by an orthodontist, the customer can then visit one of SDC's many offices around the country to receive their aligners or retainers. Management said it was a good quarter and overall their business is better positioned than ever to capitalize on the massive market opportunity in front of them. Investors seem to disagree as the stock is down over 50% in the last two months. There is also a lawsuit SmileDirectClub alleging the company violated federal securities laws.