GLOBAL MACRO | CONSUMER ETF PERFORMANCE
MCD France
McDonald's Corporation (MCD) said it has agreed to pay roughly $1.3B in fines and back taxes to settle a long-running tax dispute in France and avoid a lengthy trial. The deal's details will be described at a court hearing, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. The tax case in France dates back to 2014, when tax officials first started to investigate if McDonald's was diverting fees paid by its franchise restaurants to units in other countries in a tax-avoidance scheme. McDonald's (MCD) claimed it had a series of corporations set up in Europe to hold real estate and restaurants with royalty payments sometimes paid across borders. MCD has around 1,500 restaurants, with the majority operating under a licensing arrangement.
Open Table Trends
U.S. & Global Monthly Average Seated Diners Vs. 2019 | U.S. Worse Than ROW & Going In Wrong Direction
Weekends & Weekdays Are Inverting
BYND Short Interest remains elevated
BYND is down 82% over the past year and 41% in the last three months, and the short are not giving up? Why?
Since coming public, the company could not land a major restaurant chain to sell its core burger product. This is likely because only about 5% of Americans are vegetarian, and 3% are vegan, per Gallup, and that cohort is not going to McDonald's for a meal. The company's "North Star" is to manufacture a product that is an indistinguishable build of meat from plants, but that product does not exist today and may never become a reality. Yet the company spends aggressively to try to position the company to capture the long-term opportunity and run a profitable business on a global scale—all for a product that may never generate a gross margin that justifies the company's investments.
The cash burn and balance sheet suggest there is much more trouble ahead for the company. Another 50% downside or is it a zero?
