Plus: Inside Stiiizy, The World’s Best-Selling Weed Brand |
Good morning,
The nation’s largest health insurer went 0-for-3 on its latest earnings report, and Wall Street responded accordingly.UnitedHealth stock fell 22.4% Thursday after reporting it missed targets for revenue, earnings per share and future earnings outlook. It was otherwise a mild day for stocks, but UnitedHealth’s historic loss (its worst since 1998) weighed heavily on the Dow, which fell by 1.3%. We want to thank everyone who took the time to weigh in on our reader survey, your feedback is truly helpful. If you’d still like to share your thoughts on the Forbes Daily newsletter, the survey will be open through the weekend.
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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| A federal judge ruled Thursday that Google violated antitrust laws to maintain a monopoly in the publishing ad server and ad exchange markets, a decision that comes after a separate August ruling that found the tech giant illegally maintained a monopoly with its search engine. Thursday’s ruling could allow prosecutors to request Google break up its advertising products, though the company says it will appeal. While fears of a sharp economic downturn due to President Donald Trump’s tariff policies are pervading Wall Street, the head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the border-spanning organization does not project a recession this year. Still, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the United Nations agency IMF, said the fund made “notable markdowns” to its global economic growth forecasts due to trade disruptions, warning that “high uncertainty raises the risk of financial market stress.” |
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|  | | “A lot of people are threatened by us because they don't understand how we are doing it,” says James Kim, Stiiizy's CEO. “That's the missing piece from the corporate guys—they don't know the consumer.” Ethan Pines for Forbes |
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When Stiiizy was founded in 2017, it launched in California’s gray market days before the state legalized recreational marijuana. Today, the once-scrappy startup has grown into a legal unicorn worth $1.5 billion—and it’s not only California’s biggest cannabis retailer, it’s the best-selling weed brand in the U.S. The early start is what set Stiiizy apart, according to Daniel Yi, their former chief marketing officer. “They had the advantage of huge momentum, and seemingly endless cash reserves.” But with success, came legal troubles and rumors of black-market operations. Stiiizy vapes began showing up in New York’s unlicensed market, and were even spotted south of the border in Mexico City. Cannabis investors and executives who have worked in California’s industry for over a decade say the rumors of Stiiizy diverting products into the illicit market are so pervasive that it has become an “open secret.” “They are not the best rule followers in the world,” says one cannabis executive who asked to remain anonymous. Tak Sato, Stiiizy’s president, denies the allegations and says that the company “100%” does not operate illegally, adding that when Stiiizy products are found in unlicensed stores or on the black market that they are either counterfeits or smuggled from California by people who buy them in licensed dispensaries. All of the notoriety has not hurt Stiiizy’s sales. In fact, its outlaw reputation seems to have had the opposite effect. Stiiizy is for stoners, not soccer moms and the so-called “canna-curious.” While many weed brands have been developed in boardrooms, or by former corporate consultants, and look like something sold at Whole Foods, Stiiizy came of age in the unregulated weed world of Downtown LA, giving the company just the right amount of outlaw attitude. “I think a lot of people are threatened by us because they don’t understand how we are doing it,” says CEO and cofounder James Kim. “I don’t even know how we’re doing it, but I think I just know the consumer. That’s the missing piece from the corporate guys—they don’t know the consumer.
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With nearly $400 million in sales in California alone last year, Stiiizy controls about 7% of the Golden State’s $5 billion legal cannabis industry. “They are an insane brand, the consumer passion for them is just mind-blowing,” says Kyle Sherman, the CEO and founder of cannabis dispensary software company Flowhub. “They have executed better than any other brand in the industry.”
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President Donald Trump notably escalated his long-running feud with Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Thursday, calling for his “termination” in a Truth Social post, which suggests a faster timeline for the end of the top-ranking central banker’s term than its scheduled conclusion in May 2026. While Trump originally tapped Powell for the Fed chief role in 2017, he quickly soured on him, and wanted to remove him as early as 2018. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has reportedly advised Trump that firing Powell risks upending financial markets, according to Politico. In a move historically reserved for travel to China, some international business travelers are bringing burner phones to the U.S. to protect their information from surveillance by a hostile country—which, in the view of some Europeans, is what the U.S. has become under the second Trump Administration. Many countries have issued new travel advisories for their citizens traveling to the U.S., including Canada, China, France, Germany and Denmark. |
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President Donald Trump’s embrace of cryptocurrency is setting the stage for the U.S. to become the first G7 economy that’s all-in on crypto: from the national Bitcoin Reserve, to new tax policies and regulatory restraint. Minimal regulation, after all, is how Singapore earned its reputation as a crypto hub, though it’s also worth noting that the UAE has attracted crypto investment through clear, deliberate regulation. |
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Precision Neuroscience, a company created by a cofounder of Elon Musk’s Neuralink, cleared an important hurdle Thursday as the FDA approved a core component of the company’s brain implant. Precision says it will now expand its research program for the implant—which the company claims could assist patients with severe paralysis—and a spokesperson told Bloomberg the company expects to bring its device to market in 2026. |
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In just the past month, the Trump Administration has revoked more than 1,300 student visas, and it appears poised to restrict new visa approvals. And while a drop in foreign student enrollment on U.S. campuses will impact colleges’ cash flow, it also endangers a large ecosystem of businesses that bring those students to the country—including recruiting firms, travel services, insurance providers and businesses that evaluate international academic credentials. MORE: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the department would terminate $2.7 million in grant funding for Harvard University on Wednesday, and also wrote to the university demanding “detailed records” on known illegal or violent activity by Harvard’s foreign student visa holders. Noem also threatened to pull the school’s certification to enroll international students. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the Trump Administration is prepared to abandon efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine if no significant progress is made in the next few days. Meeting with European and Ukrainian leaders in Paris, Rubio said that the president has “dedicated a lot of time and energy to this,” but there were other “really important things” which deserve “just as much, if not more attention.” |
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16 lbs
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Study participants who had the highest dosage lost this much weight on average, over the 40-week trial
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14%
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The increase to Lilly’s share price Thursday
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8%
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The decrease to competitor Novo Nordisk’s share price Thursday
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The “Great Wealth Transfer” is underway, sort of. Broadly, it is estimated that the Baby Boomer generation will transfer more than $53 trillion to its heirs through 2045, but generational dynamics will certainly play out differently in every family. Some Boomers subscribe to a “Die With Zero” philosophy, while others want to stay prepared for rising healthcare costs, living expenses and longer lifespans. And of course, not all Boomers are flush—26% have less than $50,000 saved. |
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