From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Jobs Bust
The August jobs report turned out to be a total fail. Economists were expecting 725,000 but the actual number of jobs added last month was just 235,000. President Joe Biden blamed the COVID-19 delta variant outbreak for the blow to job growth, hitting sectors like travel and hospitality that tend to shut down when the pandemic flares up. Biden urged Congress to pass his economic plan, saying "Our country needs these investments." Markets opened slightly lower after the report came out and stayed that way to end the week.
Carnival Anchored
Speaking of hits to the travel market, Carnival had a particularly tough week. The cruise line sank to be the worst performer in the S&P 500 Friday after the jobs report was released. A day earlier it had to cancel the first four sailings on the iconic Queen Mary 2 flagship of the Cunard brand because it wants to keep trips closer to home when starting back up nearly two years after the pandemic began. Now the first sailing is scheduled for late November, and the first trips from U.S. shores will take off right before Christmas. Carnival ended the week down 6.8 percent.
Zoom Gloom
Zoom stock fell off a cliff after releasing its quarterly earnings report Monday. Not only is growth slowing as people return to real, live actual offices, but it's facing tougher competition from the likes of Microsoft and Google. Don't count the stock out yet, though. It's not like the video conferencing behemoth is losing money — revenue was still up 54 percent year-over-year. It's just a far cry from the triple-digit jumps investors got used to seeing. ARK Invest CEO Kathie Wood still appears to be a believer, buying more than $50 million worth of Zoom stock after it plunged.
Amazon-Affirm Boost
Affirm announced late last week that it is bringing its buy-now-pay-later Amazon. As you can imagine, placement on the world's largest ecommerce site sent Affirm's stock soaring more than 40 percent when markets opened on Monday, though the gains trailed off by the end of this week. Amazon also got a 2 percent bump on the news.
GameStop to the S&P 500?
Could GameStop — the original memestock — be headed back to the S&P 500? By value, it would make the grade, but it's unclear whether or not the anonymous committee that decides on how to rebalance the index will agree it deserves a place among the corporate elite. According to the Wall Street Journal, the committee has quite a bit of leeway in making these decisions, and some requirements, which GameStop may or may not meet, including positive earnings over the past four quarters. The video game retailer was dropped from the 500 back in 2016.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
