Here is a rundown of Cheddar News' top trending market stories of the day.
TECH EARNINGS AHEAD
It's going to be a busy week for Wall Street. The Federal Reserve is announcing its next rate hike on Wednesday, and Big Tech is dropping a slew of quarterly results. Meta is releasing earnings on Wednesday, and Amazon, Apple, and Google parent Alphabet are all releasing on Thursday. Traders are betting that the Fed delivers a modest 25 basis point hike, marking a deceleration of this tightening cycle. As for the earnings, investors will be tuned in for signs of how the tech sector might fare in the coming year after several high-profile rounds of layoffs.
MICROSOFT COPYRIGHT SUIT
Microsoft and OpenAI requested that a San Francisco court toss out a class-action lawsuit accusing the firms of improperly monetizing open-source code in their artificial-intelligence systems. The companies said the anonymous copyright owners who filed the complaint were not specific enough in their allegations. The plaintiffs maintain that they used the open source code in a program called Copilot without complying with licensing terms.
AMAZON ADD GROCERY FEES
Amazon is adding a fee to Fresh grocery orders that cost less than $150. It said the extra charge is designed to keep prices down across its services. The delivery fee is $9.95 for orders under $50, $6.95 for orders between $50 and $100, and $3.95 for orders between $100 and $150. “This service fee will help keep prices low in our online and physical grocery stores as we better cover grocery delivery costs and continue to enable offering a consistent, fast, and high-quality delivery experience,” the company said.
Seth Schachner, Managing Director at StratAmericas, weighs in on Spotify earnings and why that headline-grabbing deal with Joe Rogan could be worth that $250 million.
Mitch Roschelle, Managing Director at Madison Ventures, shares why investors may be waiting longer than expected for those interest rate cuts, and why he’s watching tech, oil, and homebuilder stocks.
Amazon saw 24% growth in their Thursday Night Football audience in 2023. Subscribers will be rewarded with even more sports, but not without enduring more ads — unless they pay extra, of course.
Low unemployment + 350 thousand new jobs in January = ...more layoffs? A bunch of tech and retail companies have laid and are laying off employees after a nationwide hiring surge during the pandemic.
The most magical place on Earth wants a protective order to keep Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointees from knowing how the magic happens. A federal judge dismissed a separate Disney lawsuit last week.
Just days before the 49ers and Chiefs play in Las Vegas, Joe Pompliano, Investor at Pomp Investments and author of the Huddle Up Newsletter, discusses why he thinks this could be the most-watched Super Bowl in history.
