*By Conor White*
After losing $136 billion in market cap in less than a week, Facebook is looking for ways to reinvigorate its outlook at a time of slowing ad revenue growth, [continued fallout](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebook-stock-crushed-after-disappointing-earnings) from the Cambridge Analytical data privacy scandal, and the [latest revelation](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/us/politics/facebook-political-campaign-midterms.html) Tuesday that it's detected attempts to influence this November's midterm elections.
"It's been a long 2018 for Facebook," said Madison Malone Kircher, an associate editor at New York Magazine. "Which brings us to the one thing Facebook is doing right, and that's the Stories platform. It works really well on Instagram, which Facebook owns, and they've really been trying to push to make it work on Facebook."
Instagram Stories has 400 million daily users, double the number of users of rival Snapchat, and Facebook has been trying to lure advertisers to the Stories platform.
Kircher said in an interview Tuesday with Cheddar that neither of the social media companies has figured out how to make user-generated stories on their platforms profitable.
"Snapchat, which is the creator of this style of posting, has also struggled with it," Kircher said. "They rolled out a new platform called 'Commercials' this week, which is similarly trying to figure out how to sell ads against this style of content."
In the end, Kircher said Facebook can push Stories to advertisers all it wants, but it won't be successful until it's popular with users.
"It's a two-fold problem Facebook has," Kircher said. "One, trying to convince advertisers to buy ads in this space, but first they have to figure out how to get us to use it."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebook-pushing-stories-feature-to-advertisers).
Stocks rebounded at the market open Friday after a massive two-day sell-off. The Dow Industrials shot up by 400 points.
On Thursday the Dow closed down more than 500 points, just one day after a 800 point drop. The tech-heavy Nasdaq briefly fell more than 10 percent from its all-time highs, as the market's "fear index" hit its highest level since February. Eugene Yashin, CEO and CIO at Signet Financial
Management, discusses what's causing the volatility.
Anne Mahlum isn't mincing words: her start-up is for sale. The founder and CEO of Solidcore, the latest boutique fitness studio with an NYC flagship, says she's expanding the business with an eye on a sale within five years.
The markets looked to recover from a major sell-off on Wednesday. The Dow closed down more than 800 points. The Florida Panhandle is reeling after Hurricane Michael tore through the region causing catastrophic damage. And Razer launched a handful of new products, including the Razer Phone 2, to make gaming more accessible. Kevin Allen joins Cheddar to explain what makes the products stand out in the gaming world.
Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce site, is finding its place offline opening its first retail space ever in Los Angeles. Satish Kanwar, VP of product at Shopify, said that the company's goal is always to make entrepreneurship more accessible.
The competition is on for new medicinal marijuana licenses in New Jersey after Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy prioritized cannabis production when he took office. The CEO of one potential licensee, Moxie, thinks the state has "passed the tipping point" for accepting medical pot at the state level.
Chad Morganlander, portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors, and Daniel Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, urged caution and long-term thinking for investors not used to this kind of volatility.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
The Dow was back to session lows late Thursday morning after briefly entering the green following Wednesday's widespread sell-off.
Google's community-based traffic app epanded its carpool service to customers in the U.S. on Wednesday. Josh Fried, head of carpool at Waze, said the main goal is to reduce traffic and make it easier for its customers to carpool effectively.
