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.
BUDGET DRAMA
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has yet to secure the Republican votes for a bill that would raise the federal debt ceiling to avoid default until at least March 31, 2024. That means more uncertainty for the stock market next week, as the prospect of a default on the national debt hangs over the economy. The debt fight on Capitol Hill is also raising the cost of credit default swaps, which gauge the risk of a default on U.S. Treasury bills.
NETFLIX'S WILD RIDE
Shares of Netflix slipped on Tuesday after the company reported mixed earnings in the first quarter, including a lower-than-expected forecast for the coming quarter. The streaming giant also announced that it was ending its DVD mailing service. "We are growing, not as fast as we believe we can, not as fast as we would want to, but we are growing and we are profitable," co-CEO Ted Sarandos told investors during an earnings call. "We have a clear path to reaccelerate growth in both revenue and profit and we are executing on it."
AT&T DROPS
AT&T's stock saw its biggest sell-off since 2000 after reporting a miss on revenue and cash flow. The telecommunications company added 424,000 postpaid phone subscribers, but free cash flow was well below estimates. AT&T said it expects those factors to normalize next year. Rival companies Verizon and T-Mobile are set to report next week.
PROCTER & GAMBLE POPS
Finishing out the week, shares of Procter & Gamble popped nearly 4 percent after the company reported that it raised prices around 10 percent across its brands in the first quarter. P&G had raised prices roughly 10 percent the prior quarter as well, suggesting incredible pricing power, which investors rewarded
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!
