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.
Wall Street had a lot to process this week. As expected, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points rather than 50 or 75 points, which markets liked. At the same time, Fed Chair Powell said more rate hikes were coming, which markets didn't like. For a minute there, it looked like the bulls might win the day. Then the latest federal jobs numbers showed the U.S. economy in January adding an extraordinary 517,000 jobs, more than double most estimates. While the report was good news for workers and the economy overall, investors saw it as more evidence that the Fed would in the short-term keep clobbering the economy with rate hikes.
META'S MEGA RALLY
The tech sector likewise had a weird week. Meta's stock was up around 23 percent on Thursday following an earnings report that showed earnings beating expectations. On top of that, a federal judge rejected a request from the Federal Trade Commission to halt its purchase of a virtual reality startup, putting some wind behind Meta's effort's to monetize the metaverse. The move helped spark a rally in tech stocks, which remain in bad shape from a brutal 2022. The bullish sentiment didn't last long, however, as other tech companies were about to report.
TECH STRUGGLES
Those tech companies happened to be some big names themselves. Apple, Amazon, and Google parent Alphabet all reported after the bell on Thursday, and it didn't paint a pretty picture. Shares of Alphabet were down around 3 percent after it reported a sizable drop in net income and plans to slow down hiring. Amazon's stock fell nearly 8 percent after the company reported its first ever unprofitable year since 2014 and its slowest ever quarter of growth. Apple, meanwhile, was actually up slightly on Friday, despite a 5 percent drop in sales from the same period last year.
BUZZFEED SELL-OFF
News that Buzzfeet planned to use AI chatbot ChatGPT for content sent its stock soaring last week, along with news that Meta planned to pay the media company millions to help get more creator content on Facebook and Instagram. This week, shares of Buzzfeed are down around 42 percent. What caused the shift? Well, one of its biggest investors pulled back on its commitment. Comcast disclosed that it sold 5,726,385 shares of Buzzfeed, of which it owned about 20 percent.
COINBASE GETS A BREAK
Shares of Coinbase, one of the last standing crypto exchanges, were up nearly 30 percent this week after a federal judge tossed out a class action lawsuit against its custody practices. The legal reprieve comes as other former rivals Gemini and crypto lender Genesis Trading undergo a crackdown from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
