It’s Freaky Friday 👻 🎃

American Express posted its Q3 2021 earnings today, besting analysts’ estimates. Along with the beefy beat are some signs that consumer spending is normalizing post-pandemic. 🙌

The company posted revenues of $10.93 billion (analysts expected $10.55 billion.) However, the real surprise was the company”s beefy profit beat: AmEx’s profits ballooned over 70% last quarter, coming in at $1.83 billion (EPS of $2.27/share, a 27% beat). 🎈

The majority of AmEx’s big bucks came from discount revenue and net card fees, which refer to the fees that AmEx charges merchants for using its payment network. These revenues — along with other fees, commissions, and the very imaginatively-named ‘other’ segments — represented $8.93 billion (81.7% of revenue) in Q3 2021.

A smaller sum came from interest income, which (as you’ve probably already figured out) refers to the money that AmEx cardholders paid on their unpaid balances. It represented $2.26 billion (20.7% of revenue) in the quarter.

AmEx cardmembers spent over $330 billion on their cards in the quarter, which was up from $225.5 billion this time last year. AmEx said that its consumer card spending was 98% of pre-pandemic spend. Those robust figures are a sign that COVID’s worst might be behind us. 🙏

American Express’s CEO, Stephen Squeri, credited the return to normal for the company’s strong performance. He also credited millennials and Gen Z cardholders (who spent 38% in Q3 2021 compared to Q3 2019.) 

$AXP rose 5.4% today. 

Digital World Acquisition Corp blew investors’ minds on Wednesday when it unexpectedly announced it would acquire Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). Since then, $DWAC has soared over 846%. Today, as TRUTH Social’s beta went live, it did a double.

Trump commented on the launch of TRUTH Social’s beta: “I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon. TMTG was founded with a mission to give a voice to all. I’m excited to soon begin sharing my thoughts on TRUTH Social and to fight back against Big Tech. Everyone asks me why doesn’t someone stand up to Big Tech? Well, we will be soon!”

However, while the stock continued to rally today, TRUTH Social was hit with a legal warning from Mastodon. The open-source social media platform claims TRUTH violated its software licensing agreement. The company plans to give TRUTH 30 days to comply with the license’s terms before moving forward with legal action.

In the last few hours, things took an even weirder turn: TRUTH was hacked by a group claiming to be the hacker group Anonymous. The group trolled the site, posting explicit images and content, claiming they did it as an “online war against hate.” 

Between TRUTH Social’s licensing issues and today’s hack, this is shaping up to be quite the explosive drama. 💥

$DWAC is down 13.46% in AH. 

Portillo’s investors’ wallets are fatter and their stomachs are full from gains and hot dogs. 🌭 🤑

$PTLO sizzled 45.5% on Thursday for its stock market debut. This freshman followed up its impressive debut with a 28.6% gain today. Here’s the powerful intraday chart:

In 2014, the company was bought by Berkshire Partners for nearly $1 billion. Since then, Portillo’s has been on a growth mission. The 58-year-old Chicago-founded company currently runs 67 restaurants, but expects to operate over 600 in the coming 25 years. 

With the proceeds from IPO, and the pandemic behind them, the company hopes to open new locations in Arizona, Florida, and Texas. They’re supposedly mulling breakfast options too. 

Portillo’s CEO Michael Osanloo said: “While we are a 58-year-old company, we are still infants when it comes to our growth inflection point.”

You love to hear it. 😋