The Week's Top Stories is a guided tour through the biggest market stories of the week, from winning stocks to brutal dips to the facts and forecasts generating buzz on Wall Street.
CYBERATTACKS
The September cyberattack on MGM Resorts may have cost the company $100 million, but the company reportedly refused to pay the hackers. Caesars was also hit with an online attack, but reports at the time said the company paid the hackers $15 million. The stock was down for the week until Friday, when it announced the company had enough insurance to cover the damages.
Meanwhile, Clorox announced it was the target of a recent cybersecurity attack that caused widespread disruption to its systems. The result will be a 23-28 percent hit to net sales in Q1 of 2024. Clorox stock closed the week down 5 percent.
GOOGLE IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The ups and downs of Google's week: On the upside, the tech giant started presales of the new Pixel 8 line, which has gotten positive reviews. On the downside, the tech giant has been accused of being too giant, and the anti-trust case against it opened this week. The star witness against Google was Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who testified that Google's dominance in the world of search engines has stymied Bing from gaining market share. Google stock closed the week up almost 5 percent.
UNITED ORDERS
Boeing and Airbus received big orders from United Airlines this week. The airline will add 110 new aircraft to its fleet by 2031. The new order includes 50 Boeing 787-9s and 60 Airbus A321neos. This comes on top of 100 Boeing 787s it ordered last December and 270 other aircraft ordered in July 2021. "The new planes will hold more passengers than one aircraft that will be retired and it's all part of the company's plan to take full advantage of our growing flying opportunities both internationally and domestically," said CEO Scott Kirby. United Airlines stock closed the week down 1 percent and Boeing and Airbus closed down about 2 percent.
HP HAD A WEEK
HP shares jumped on Tuesday after Bank of America gave it a double upgrade, moving from an underperforming stock to a buy rating. Warren Buffett seemed to pay no mind, though. That day, he sold off shares in a move that was closely watched by investors who like to see what the Oracle of Omaha is doing. He now owns less than 10 percent of the company, so he will no longer need to report his investments as frequently. HP stock ended the week up 1 percent.
JOBS SAVE THE DAY
An unexpectedly strong jobs report pulled up the markets on Friday. The September stats show 336,000 jobs we added last month. It's the largest number we've seen since the beginning of 2023, but even the August number was stronger than expected - it was revised up to 266,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remains at 3.8 percent. Of course, a strong jobs market indicates a strong economy…and that is behind inflation. So the takeaway for the Federal Reserve may be that it's time to raise interest rates.
