Good morning. As we celebrate National Donut Day, who takes the silver medal behind Lil’ Orbits: Krispy Kreme or J.Co?

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Stocks

Stocks: Today, the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) exhibited positive performance, closing at 6,494.78 points, marking a rise of 53.46 points or 0.83%. This upward movement indicates investor optimism and a healthy market sentiment. The trading volume was notable, with approximately 31.75 million shares changing hands. Over the past year, the PSEi has experienced a modest gain of 0.23%, fluctuating within a 52-week range of 5,920.47 to 7,070.72 points​.

Local News

🥇 Puregold: Adding Value to Ever Juan

By Titus Bautista

Puregold Price Club, Inc., a local Filipino supermarket chain, has once again received recognition from London-based brand valuation and strategy agency Brand Finance in their annual Global 500 ranking. For a second straight year, Puregold maintained its 9th spot in the Most Valuable Filipino Brands list (https://static.brandirectory.com/reports/brand-finance-philippines-30-2024-preview.pdf), and even increased its brand value by 16% from 2023! Just in 2023 alone, the company opened 37 new stores and four S&R Warehouse Clubs.

With nearly 500 stores all over the Philippines, they continue to offer cost-saving initiatives and sustainability practices to ensure every Juan wins!

Taking the Burden off the Filipinos

Every first day of the month, they offer huge discounts as a way to help Filipinos cope with the growing concerns of high prices of goods through its Hakot Every1 initiative. Talk about making the most of your end of the month salary! They too have rolled out the Tindahan ni Along Puring (TNAP) membership program to give more sari-sari stores (small local retail businesses) access to lower-cost merchandise and fresh items.

Thinking Green for the Environment

Majority of Puregold stores have already cut out single-use plastic bags. If you haven’t tried shopping in their stores yet, you’ll notice that they opt to use recycled cardboard boxes and eco-bags. Their targeting to achieve 100% LED main lighting in all of their stores too.

Puregold also has its own Walang Plastik (no plastic) Grocery Days, which are every Monday and Wednesday. TNAP members are awarded with a P1 cash back for every ecobag used and up to P5 savings for every transaction.

It may not seem like a lot, but this has been Puregold’s keys to success! Valuing what their Filipino consumers value has definitely added to their own brand value.

Here’s to Puregold! 🥂

Tech

🤖 Sh*t Chip Happens: Nvidia Zooms Past Apple in Valuation

By Tobias Bautista

Looking to invest some money? Nvidia is probably the answer.

Nvidia just did a mic drop, hitting record highs on June 5 and zooming past Apple to become the world's second most valuable company. Move over iPhone, AI chips are the new rockstars!

Nvidia’s stock soared 5.2%, closing at $1,224.40, boosting its market value to a whopping $3.012 trillion. Meanwhile, Apple’s valuation was a smidge behind at $3.003 trillion after a modest 0.8% gain.

In a move that screams "we're just getting started," Nvidia is gearing up for a ten-for-one stock split on June 7. This could make its shares more appealing to individual investors, because who doesn’t love a bargain?

Adding some spice to the tech soap opera, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang became the star of Taiwanese TV and was mobbed at Computex in Taipei. Meanwhile, Apple is wrestling with waning iPhone demand and fierce competition in China, and some investors think it's trailing in the AI race.

Nvidia is on fire, and it's not just a flash in the pan. Watch out, Microsoft—you might be next!

Sports

🏆 Choose blue or bleed green? The 2024 NBA Finals between the Mavs versus the Celtics start today

By Koby del Rosario

Blue vs. Green but it’s not Ateneo and La Salle.

Later at 8:30 am PH time, Game 1 of the Finals series for all the marbles begins.

Eastern Conference champions Boston Celtics will host the Western Conference champions Dallas Mavericks for the first meeting of a highly-anticipated 2024 NBA Finals that’ll crown a new champion for the sixth time in a row.

The Celtics had a somewhat easy route as what the NBA community would say since they went through their Playoff opponents who were without their best player. Nevertheless, Boston has consistently shown that they’ll dominate whoever’s in front of them—going for a 12-2 W-L record thus far heading into their second Finals appearance in 3 years.

Meanwhile for the Mavericks, the loaded Western Conference has given much of a fight to the surging team as after a couple of 4-2 series wins, they dismantled the team that beat the defending champions in the WCF, 4-1. With Dallas peaking at the right time, the team has all the momentum in the world as they go on to their first Finals appearance in 13 years.

Kyrie’s return to Boston. KP going against his former team. Potentially Luka’s first ring. Or even, the J’s first ring. The storylines going into this are endless.

Grab your popcorn, it’s NBA Finals time.

⚡️ Bolts surprise the Beermen in Game 1, take a 1-0 lead in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals

By Koby del Rosario

After a neck-in-neck affair in the SMART Araneta Coliseum, the retribution-minded Meralco Bolts pull through and get the Game 1 victory over the San Miguel Beermen, 93-86. 

Veteran playmaker Chris Newsome was named the Player of the Game as he put up 18 points, six rebounds, and five assists while Chris Banchero also pitched in 18 markers of his own en route to the win.

For SMB, seven-time MVP Junemar Fajardo was his usual efficient self with a double-double of 23 points and 10 boards on 7-out-of-10 shooting while slasher Cjay Perez had 20 markers to go along with seven caroms.

The 48th PBA Philippine Cup Finals continue with Game 2 today, June 7th, at the same venue.

News Roundup

• Israeli strike kills at least 33 people — 23 women and children — at a Gaza school Israel was claiming to be used by Hamas

• Ouch. A hail stone the size of a pineapple was found in Texas!

• April Unemployment rate up from March

• Sofitel, home of one of the best buffet’s in the country — Spiral — closed down. DOLE is seeking clarification if it’s permanent or temporary.

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Games

🎯 Fun Brain Teasers

• Wordle: guess the random five letter word

• Connections: match four words of the same category

• Strands: word search but it depends on the category

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