Tesla vehicles line a parking lot at the company's Fremont, Calif., factory, on Sept. 18, 2023. Tesla is recalling more than 2 million vehicles across its model lineup to fix a defective system that's supposed to ensure drivers are paying attention when they use Autopilot. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
LAYOFFS
Big Business This Week 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.
LAYOFFS
Many people are damning the Grinch who stole their jobs this holiday season. This year has been brutal in a number of sectors, and concerns over waning consumer spending is driving even more pink slips as the end of 2023 approaches. This week, e-commerce site ETSY, toymaker Hasbro, and GM announced thousands of layoffs collectively. SmileDirectClub completely closed up shop, after declaring bankruptcy in September. ETSY stock ended the week up 1 percent. Hasbro stock initially dropped then rose back up, ending the week up nearly 3 percent, GM stock rose more than 6 percent. SmileDirect was already a penny stock when it shut its doors.
FED RATE HOLDS
Investors got a new pep in their steps when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced Wednesday that the agency will hold a key interest rate steady for now. Next year, he said, there could be three cuts. As inflation rates rose at a record pace during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fed began raising rates from near-zero to the current rate of 5.4 percent. The goal is to use interest rate to get inflation down to 2 percent. It's currently about 3 percent, and the final 1 percent drop is expected to come more slowly than earlier drops.
TESLA AUTOPILOT RECALL
Tesla recalled nearly all of the vehicles it has sold in the U.S. over concerns about the Autopilot feature. Updates to the system are meant to stop sometimes deadly crashes we have seen when the self-driving technology was engaged. Critics say the updates still put too much of the onus on humans and don't address problems with the technology responsible for preventing accidents. It didn't deter investors, though. The stock ended the week 4 percent.
EPIC WIN
Video game maker Epic Games beat the big boss this week when a federal jury decided that Google's Android app store has been illegally quashing competition. Jurors unanimously found that Google has been using its outsized power in the tech industry to prevent real competition for Google Play. The fallout of the verdict could cost Google billions and the company plans to appeal. Google's parent company Alphabet ended the week about even and Epic Games ended the week up nearly 2 percent.
HOSTILE HOTEL BID
Choice Hotels is not taking no for an answer. The parent company of chains like Radisson, Quality Inn and Econolodge had been negotiating a potential purchase of Wyndham Hotels, which owns brands including Ramada, LaQuinta Inn and Super 8, but failed to come to an agreement. The board of Wyndham rejected an $8 billion deal that Choice made public in November. Now, Choice is going the route of a hostile takeover by appealing directly to stockholders. The board of Wyndham earlier claimed the offer was opportunistic. Choice stock ended the week down 2 percent and Wyndham ended the week down almost 1 percent.
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.
