From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
CRYPTO STRUGGLES
Another week, another wild ride for the biggest cryptocurrencies. The price of Bitcoin continued to plunge Monday, trading below $49,000 after a weekend of heavy losses. The leading cryptocurrency pushed back up mid-week, but has since dropped back down to $48,000. Ether and other altcoins also slipped, along with leading meme coins such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. At first, the crypto sell-off appeared to be tracking with a broader dip in the stock market, but the major indexes have since recovered from what looks like an omicron-induded wobble. The latest CPI numbers showed a 6.8 percent jump in inflation from a year ago, but given that the numbers were close to expectations, markets plowed ahead with gains for the week on Friday.
HONG KONG EXODUS
Multiple China-based publicly traded companies have announced plans to list on the Hong Kong stock market, as the Securities and Exchange Commission moves forward with new rules allowing it to delist foreign companies that don't comply with audit requirements. But the transition is proving painful for some outgoing firms. Social media giant Weibo saw its shares slide 7 percent during its Hong Kong debut this week. The drop came on the heels of ride-hailing company Didi's stock tumbling 20 percent after it announced plans to delist in the U.S. and move to Hong Kong. Alibaba, meanwhile, which already lists in both markets, had one of its best days in months after announcing plans to shake up its commercial division.
EUROPE VS BIG TECH
Europe is on an antitrust warpath. Just a week after a UK regulator ordered Meta (formerly Facebook) to sell the GIF database Giphy, on the grounds that the acquisition hurt consumers, Italy's antitrust authority on Thursday fined Amazon a whopping $1.3 billion for leveraging its market dominance against independent sellers. Despite coming on the heels of a massive outage at Amazon Web Services, however, the tech stock, worth nearly $3,500, held up.
ROKU + GOOGLE MAKE AMENDS
In a last-ditch effort to mend their relationship before a major split, Google and Roku struck a multi-year deal to keep YouTube and YouTube TV apps on the streaming platform. The beef started when Roku complained that Google's distribution terms were anticompetitive. Google shot back, saying the claims were baseless. It's unclear at the moment if either side got its way, but apparently, someone decided it was worth burying the hatchet to keep customers happy. Roku's stock popped 18 percent on the news this Wednesday and closed nearly 14 percent for the week.
GAMESTOPPED
GameStop, everyone's favorite brick-and-mortar video game retailer/meme stock, is struggling to execute the turnaround strategy promised by its newly hired executives. The company's stock fell 4 percent on Wednesday after a third-quarter earnings report showed that its losses widened to $105.4 million from $18.8 million a year earlier. Lackluster earnings aside, the retailer bolstered its inventory last quarter to avoid supply chain issues this holiday season. The stock remained down by Friday.
LUCID LOSSES
Lucid Motors, which is considered by many to be the most viable challenger to Tesla in the electric vehicle market, had a rough start to the week as shares plunged nearly 20 percent on the news that the SEC had subpoenaed the company as part of an investigation into the SPAC deal that brought it public earlier this year. The luxury EV maker said it's cooperating with the agency, but investors were still spooked with the stock down nearly 6 percent for the week. This isn't the first time an EV company has been investigated by the SEC for its SPAC dealings. Others include Nikola, Canoo, and Lordstown Motors.
A rare magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne that was specially produced for the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana has failed to sell during an auction. Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen handled the bidding Thursday. The auction's house website lists the bottle as not sold. It was expected to fetch up to around $93,000. It is one of 12 bottles made to celebrate the royal wedding. Little was revealed about the seller. The auction house says the bids did not receive the desired minimum price.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
U.S. sports betting is booming as NFL and college football fuel massive activity. BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt breaks down trends, growth, and what’s next.
President Donald Trump says a deal struck by Netflix last week to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share. The Republican president says he will be involved in the decision about whether federal regulators should approve the deal. Trump commented Sunday when he was asked about the deal as he walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. The $72 billion deal would bring together two of the biggest players in television and film and potentially reshape the entertainment industry.
Disney's changes to a program for disabled visitors are facing challenges in federal court and through a shareholder proposal. The Disability Access Service program, which allows disabled visitors to skip long lines, was overhauled last year. Disney now mostly limits the program to those with developmental disabilities like autism who have difficulty waiting in lines. The changes have sparked criticism from some disability advocates. A shareholder proposal submitted by disability advocates calls for an independent review of Disney's disability policies. Disney plans to block this proposal, claiming it's misleading. It's the latest struggle by Disney to accommodate disabled visitors while stopping past abuses by some theme park guests.
