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.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
