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.
WALGREENS CEO OUT
After just 2 years, Rosalind Brewer resigned as the head of Walgreens Boots Alliance, parent company of the eponymous pharmacy chain. During Brewer's tenure, the company acquired preventative care providers, like VillageMD, expanding its focus from just providing medications to more medical care also. Now it sounds like Walgreens is seeking a new CEO with deeper healthcare experience. Prior to Walgreens, Brewer held high-ranking roles at Starbucks, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Walgreens stock was down 7 percent on the news and 37 percent for the year so far.
3M EARPLUG SETTLEMENT
3M has agreed to pay $6 billion for earplugs that service members say did not protect their hearing. People who used the devices to mitigate incredibly loud noises, like those of close-range gunfire, say the design actually made them come loose. 3M does not have to admit liability as part of the deal. The settlement seemed to be a pro for investors - the company's stock actually rose with this issue seemingly settled, although it has not been finalized and could end up reaching as much as $12.5 billion. It ended the week up 1 percent.
BEST BUY TRIMS FORECAST
Best Buy says Americans are not spending as much on its electronics these days as prices have risen, but even their drops in sales and profits last quarter were okay with investors. The stock rose as the company's earnings report beat expectations. The rest of the year isn't shaping up to be a slam dunk, though. Best Buy expects the slow-down to continue until 2024, when CEO Corie Barry says she expects the market to stabilize. Best Buy ended the week up 2 percent.
UBS' BILLIONS
UBS announced this week that it will save $10 billion as it integrates Credit Suisse's operation into its own and that will mean losing 3,000 staff members. This cost saving will come on top of the megabank's $29 billion profit last quarter, thanks to a fancy accounting move called negative goodwill. UBS stock ended the week up 7 percent.
JOBS REPORT
The August jobs report, which the Labor Department released on Friday, shows the labor market is still strong. While that has, at times, been bad news for investors, this time it seems to be giving them hope. Hiring is still growing - but at a slower rate - and the unemployment rate is rising - because people who had stopped looking for work are jumping back in. Stock markets rose after the report was released because signs that the labor market is stabilizing is providing hope that the Federal Reserve will rethink the future rate hikes Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned of in Jackson Hole last week.
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.
