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.
STARBUCKS SHAKE-UP
Starbucks is in the middle of a leadership shake-up, and investors seem okay with that. The stock jumped this week on the news that founder Howard Schultz will once again serve as chief executive, despite current CEO Kevin Johnson's success in steering the company through the pandemic. Some analysts said Schultz's return is a bid for stability, as the company faces plenty of negative press around a wave of unionizations. Eight stores have successfully unionized, and 100 have filed for union elections. The National Labor Relations Board is also looking into a complaint that Starbucks penalized a worker for union activity. So good luck, Schultz.
GAMESTOP DROP AND POP
GameStop investors are no strangers to volatility, but the stock was especially jumpy Friday after the company posted its fourth-quarter earnings. It plunged as much as 10 percent in the morning, surged back into the green in the afternoon, and ended the day up about 3.5 percent. The initial drop was a response to the company reporting a net loss during the holiday quarter and CEO Matt Furlong citing supply chain issues and the omicron variant for the ding. Why the stock then reversed course is unclear, but it looks like a case of meme-stock momentum.
AMC'S GOLD GAMBIT
So AMC (a movie theater company) bought a large stake in Hycroft (a Nevada-based gold and silver mine), and many are wondering what exactly inspired such a random investment. The company said it's a diversification move. Others speculate it's AMC playing "meme-stock kingmaker" in an industry that might not be as responsive to the whims of retail investors. Whatever their motivation, investors approved: The stock is up 10 percent this week.
FEDEX FUMBLES
FedEx's latest quarterly earnings beat revenue expectations but showed a slight miss on earnings per share, causing the stock to slide Friday. The fuel-dependent logistics company didn't, however, blame high energy costs or supply chain issues for its troubles. Most of those costs are passed onto customers in the form of surcharges anyway. Instead, the company pointed to severe labor shortages as the main challenge cutting into its bottom-line.
MORE NICKEL NONSENSE
We mostly cover stocks in this weekly roundup, but nickel is having quite the week, and the impact could ripple across financial markets. The London Metal Exchange reopened on Wednesday after shutting down last week due to an unprecedented surge in nickel prices, spurred by fears of the war in Ukraine cutting off Russian supply. Commodities traders are still working through what happened, but in the meantime, nickel dropped 12 percent on Friday, which once again hit up against the exchange's trading limits. It's all very confusing, but one thing that is clear: This is the most anyone has talked about metals in a long time.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
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.
