Five interesting things that Hodges Capital research analysts discovered this week...

#1 WORLD BANK EXPECTS GLOBAL GROWTH TO SLUMP: Global growth is expected to drop from 5.7% in 2021 to 2.9% in 2022 and is significantly lower than 4.1% that was anticipated in January. It is expected to hover around that pace over 2023-24, as the war in Ukraine disrupts activity, investment, trade in the near term, pent-up demand fades, and fiscal and monetary policy accommodation is withdrawn.   

#2 MORTGAGE DEMAND CONTINUES TO DROP: After a momentary decline in May, mortgage rates are climbing back up, and the housing market continues to suffer from a lack of listings. As a result, mortgage demand continues to drop. Total mortgage application volume fell 6.5% last week versus the previous week, and demand hit the lowest level in 22 years.

#3 EUROPEAN UNION PASSES LEGISLATION THAT COULD STIFLE APPLE’S ECOSYSTEM: Earlier this week, the EU passed legislation banning the sale of Apple’s lightning charger in the EU. Lawmakers are expected to formally approve the agreement later this year. New rules for the chargers would apply to companies in the fall of 2024.

#4 ELON MUSK WINS A BATTLE IN HIS CAMPAIGN FOR TWITTER: Twitter board agreed to give Elon Musk full access to its massive data stream including its 500M tweets posted daily. Musk was uneasy about completing the $44M deal and mentioned pulling out unless given access to the company’s data to ferret out the fake accounts from the real accounts.

#5 TACO BELL OF THE FUTURE: Taco Bell is testing a new drive through concept called Taco Bell Defy. It will have four lanes and vertical drops for food. Despite having one of the fastest drive-through ordering times in the industry, Taco Bell aims to bring the ordering time down and further improve it to 2 minutes or less. Currently, 1 out of 7 drive-through orders at Taco Bell have a problem or a mistake, so Defy will have to improve accuracy in addition to balancing speed. Taco Bell’s first Defy concept is being tested in Minnesota.

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