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.
OMICRON DOWNTURN
Another wave means another downturn as economists adjust their forecasts for GDP growth in 2022 over growing concerns that the omicron variant will be a drag on the recovery. Already over the holiday weekend, airlines canceled thousands of flights, and hospitals are feeling the strain as daily case counts hit record highs. The latest wave is expected to curb growth in the first quarter of 2022 and shift widely anticipated gains later into the year. Some economists have pointed out, however, that this wave is expected to cause less economic damage than prior ones, including the delta variant, with longer-term predictions currently a mixed bag.
SANTA CLAUS RALLY
Despite emerging omicron woes, the stock market pulled off a so-called "Santa Claus rally" this week, as stocks rose steadily from their December 20 low. The last week of the year often brings a slight rally, so markets aren't necessarily banking on continued gains. While the Dow and S&P 500 finished at all-time highs on Wednesday, analysts expect the rally to fade going into the new year, especially as the latest wave takes its toll on industries such as airlines and cruise ships. While markets were up big for 2021, they nonetheless saw slight losses on the last, thinly-traded day of the year.
CRUISE STOCKS DIVE
One sector that is taking omicron on the chin is the embattled cruise industry. After a disastrous 2020, the industry held up relatively well through 2021 and into December. That changed as familiar reports of outbreaks on cruise ships returned this week, and the CDC announced that even vaccinated people should stay away. Shares of Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian were down 1 to 2 percent on Friday.
JETBLUE LEADS
Meanwhile, in the skies, shares of JetBlue Airways whipsawed this week amid uncertainty around omicron and new CDC guidelines on quarantining. The stock was up 7.5 percent earlier in the week, even as the airline industry canceled thousands of flights. The company announced that it plans to cancel flights through mid-January due to crew shortages, and shares eventually slid along with other airline stocks. However, JetBlue shares finished the week just slightly down as it leads the pack in laying out plans for 2022.
DIDI LOSSES
Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Global saw its shares tumble on Monday after a report from the Financial Times that current and former employees were banned from selling their stock, even as the company's 180-day, post-IPO lock-up period ended. The stock dropped more than 8 percent on the week. The scandal comes as Didi moves forward with plans to delist from U.S. exchanges amid a broader regulatory crackdown in both the U.S. and China.
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
