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.
MEMESTOCK: TUPPERWARE
Something funny happened on the way to the kitchen this week. Stock for legacy brand Tupperware, which had been struggling mightily to remain on the New York Stock Exchange as it dipped below a dollar, started to rise. And up it went, climbing more than 260% in the last month. It seems memestock investors have made it the new golden child. Even with the meteoric rise from where it had been, the stock is still down 33 percent since the beginning of the year.
BIG TECH
One of these things is not like the other…Meta and Alphabet stocks shot up after the companies released their earning reports this week. Ad dollars are flowing once again to the biggest tech companies and it's showing in their profits. On the other hand, Microsoft tumbled despite a strong quarter as investors were concerned about a slower ramp-up in artificial intelligence than expected. Next week, we'll round out the Big 4 tech giants when Apple releases its report. At the end of the week Meta was up 10 percent, Alphabet was up 9 percent, and Microsoft was down 2 percent.
HIGH SEAS, LOW SKIES
The dichotomy was also seen in the travel industry. Royal Caribbean stock shot up after crushing expections in its earnings report; investors were expecting earnings of $1.58 per share but the actual number was $1.70 ($1.82 adjusted). The cruise liner says people are turning their spending from goods to experiences, and that has helped the vacation company immensely. Up in the air, worries about domestic air travel hit Alaska Airlines and Southwest with both reporting that travel is slowing, especially within the U.S. Royal Caribbean stock ended the week up 6 percent, but Alaska Air and Southwest were both down almost 9 percent.
FORD SLOWS DOWN
One of the big announcements coming out of Ford's earnings report is that the auto giant is pulling back on plans to crank out 600,000 electric vehicles this year. Now it says 2024 is when it expects to hit that annual number, but that also changes its plan to hit 2 million EVs by the end of 2026. Investors took note, sending the stock 4 percent for the week.
LOWER WAGE INCREASES = GOOD NEWS
A true Catch-22: a new report shows wage growth is slowing, which isn't great if you were hoping for a big raise this year, but is very good news for the economy because it could curb inflation. There was other good news on the inflation front this week (despite the Fed raising rates a quarter of a percent). In June, consumer prices rose at the slowest rate that we've seen in two years. During his press conference on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said experts at the central bank are no longer forecasting a recession.
Wealthfront’s CFO Alan Iberman talks the $2.05B IPO and the major moment for robo banking as the company bets on AI, automation, and “self-driving money."
A rare magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne that was specially produced for the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana has failed to sell during an auction. Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen handled the bidding Thursday. The auction's house website lists the bottle as not sold. It was expected to fetch up to around $93,000. It is one of 12 bottles made to celebrate the royal wedding. Little was revealed about the seller. The auction house says the bids did not receive the desired minimum price.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
