The following are the key news items that investors should be aware of before beginning their trading day:
1. Technological boom
Tech stocks helped the S&P 500 end last week at a fresh high. The index closed at 4,958.61 on Friday, up 1.1% from Monday’s previous record. After declaring its first-ever dividend, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, saw its shares soar more than 20%, leading tech stocks.
2. Will the enchantment last?
The largest tech businesses have finished reporting their seasonally-ending profits, but many more have not. The good news for investors is that the earnings season has started off well thus far: Slightly more than usual, about 80% of S&P 500 companies’ quarterly results have surpassed estimates. This week, investors will be keeping a close eye on whether the big players—Disney, McDonald’s, and Ford, among others—will continue that pattern.
3. Tech Titan of the East?
After ten years at the top, Satya Nadella has left his stamp on Microsoft. The corporation was stuck in mediocrity when he took charge, with a market valuation of slightly over $300 billion. Since then, Nadella’s deal-making, product integrations, and push into cloud computing have helped Microsoft grow to become the most valuable public business in the world, with a $3.06 trillion market cap.
4. New merchant eyes
The 166-year-old retailer has a new manager. On Sunday, Tony Spring, a former CEO of Bloomingdale’s, assumed leadership of Macy’s amid an increasingly challenging business environment. With a market value of just $5.11 billion, Macy’s stock has dropped by around 24% in the past year. It has lost over 45% of its workforce and closed almost a third of its namesake stores in the last ten years.
5. The scent of new caravana
Carvana claims that its reorganisation, which occurred during the previous 18 months when the massive online seller of old cars faced bankruptcy threats, is now in the past. Over 4,000 positions were eliminated, over $1 billion in annualised expenses were eliminated, and a proprietary software platform for processing automobiles was introduced by the corporation during that period.
Source (CNBC)
