What Moved The Markets This Week 📈
Elon Musk Sues OpenAI, Klarna & Webull To Go Public, FTC Blocks Kroger & Albertsons Merger, Snowflake's CEO Frank Slootman Retires, and CRM + SNOW + ZS Earnings
Sunday Morning Markets
Trading Week 9, covering Monday, Feb 26 through Friday, Mar 1. Your weekly financial markets update, in less than 5 minutes.
The Week In Review ⏪
US Markets 🇺🇸
PCE indicates inflation eased in January
Layoffs from Sony, EA, Bumble, Expedia
PMI shows industrial activity quickly deteriorating (ISM)
Merger of Kroger & Albertson gets blocked by FTC
Earnings from Salesforce, Snowflake, and Zscaler
Global Markets 🌏
TSMC opens first fab in Japan
Eurozone inflation cools to 2.6%
China’s factory activity shrinks for 5th month
Tech ⚡
Elon Musk sues Sam Altman and OpenAI
Mistral AI teams up with Microsoft
Apple cancels its plans to build an EV
Webull set to go public via SPAC ($SKGR)
US Markets 🇺🇸
Fed’s preferred inflation metric jumps by most in a year as core PCE climbed 0.4% in January. According to FedWatch, the market is now only pricing in three 25-basis-point rate cuts in 2024.
ISM reports economic activity deteriorated quickly in February as its manufacturing PMI fell to 47.8 from 49.1 last month. The reading missed the market’s estimate by a wide margin.
FTC sues to block the merger of Kroger and Albertsons saying that the deal would result in higher grocery prices and lower wages for workers. Combined, the grocers would have roughly 5,000 stores across the U.S.
NYCB stock plunges after finding ‘material weakness’ in its loan review process and the CEO’s resignation. Shares have come under pressure due to the company’s exposure to CRE, down almost 66% YTD.
Expedia plans to slash 1,500 jobs globally or about 9% of its total workforce. This restructuring follows Expedia’s warning that revenue is moderating due to declining airfares and weaker-than-expected travel demand.
US durable goods orders slump 6.1% amid a sharp drop in commercial aircraft bookings, the largest decline in nearly four years. Excluding transportation, orders fell 0.3% after dipping 0.1% in December.
New home sales rose less than expected due to a staggering 15.6% drop in the Southern region of the U.S. The median selling price of a new single-family home fell 2.6% from a year ago, to $420,700.
Ronna McDaniel and Mitch McConnell both step down in a major shift in the Republican party. McConnell leaves his position as Senate GOP leader after nearly two decades. McDaniel resigns from her position as RNC Chair.
Global Markets 🌏
Eurozone inflation cools to 2.6% in February from 2.8%, increasing the likelihood that the ECB will cut rates later this year. However, when excluding food & energy prices, core inflation remained well above target at 3.1%.
China's factory activity shrinks for 5th month, raising pressure on Beijing to roll out more stimulus as the parliament prepares for its meeting next week. The official manufacturing PMI fell to 49.1 in February.
Chip giant TSMC opens first factory in Japan as it diversifies its supply chains away from Taiwan amid U.S.-China tensions. A second plant is also in the offing, with construction set to begin by the end of 2024.
Japan’s consumer prices grew at slowest pace in two years but came in above expectations. According to the report, prices rose just 2.2% from a year earlier, led lower by falling energy prices.
Sony to lay off 900 workers from its PlayStation division after the Japanese gaming giant cut sales forecast for its flagship PlayStation 5 console due to softening demand. PlayStation’s London studio will close in its entirety.
Zealand Pharma stock soars 35% on strong trial results for its liver disease treatment Survodutide, which is also on trial as a drug to treat obesity. The Danish drugmaker aims to compete in the highly lucrative weight-loss market.
China’s Xiaomi launches high-end smartphone globally and will go toe-to-toe with the major incumbents, Apple and Samsung. The company also debuted its electric vehicle, the SU7, for the first time in Europe.
Tech ⚡
Mistral AI and Microsoft announce new partnership that will enable Mistral access to Azure’s cutting-edge AI infrastructure, while also making their premium models available to customers in the Azure AI Studio.
Elon Musk sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman alleging they abandoned the company’s founding mission to develop AI “for the benefit of humanity broadly” and that the company is focused on maximizing profits for Microsoft.
Snowflake’s CEO Frank Slootman to retire and former Google Ads chief, Sridhar Ramaswamy, will replace him. SNOW 0.00%↑ shares plunged 25% after the company announced the retirement and guided below estimates for 2024.
Apple cancels plans to build an electric car after 10 years of development. The company will wind down the team but will continue to work on automotive-related projects, including CarPlay, which is installed on 80% of new vehicles.
Microsoft introduces Copilot AI for Finance which can perform a variety of analyses inside of Excel and can speed up the collections process in Outlook. The tool will be able to pull information from SAP and Dynamics 365.
Buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna begins IPO talks with various investment banks. The Stockholm-based firm is reportedly targeting a $20 billion valuation. The company could IPO as early as the third quarter.
Thrasio files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it aims to erase $495 million of its existing debt. The company has raised more than $3 billion to buy up brands selling on Amazon, in a bid for better economies of scale.
Online trading platform Webull is set to go public via a $7.3 billion SPAC deal with $SKGR, pending regulatory approvals. The firm had $370 billion in equity trading volumes and 430 million option contracts traded in 2023.
Earnings Reports 💰
1. Salesforce ($CRM)
Results:
🟢 Revenue: $9.29B (est $9.22B)
🟢 EPS: $2.29 (est $2.27)
Guide:
🔴 FY Revenue: $37.7B - $38B (est $38.6B)
🟢 FY EPS: $9.68 - $9.76 (est $9.64)
—
2. Snowflake ($SNOW)
Results:
🟢 Revenue: $775M (est $761M)
🟢 EPS: $0.35 (est $0.18)
Guide:
🔴 Q1 Revenue: $745M - $750M (est $770M)
🔴 FY Revenue: $3.25B (est $3.5B)
—
3. ZScaler ($ZS)
Results:
🟢 Revenue: $525M (est $508M)
🟢 EPS: $0.76 (est $0.58)
Guide:
🟢 Q3 Revenue: $534M - $536M (est $531M)
🟢 Q3 EPS: $0.64 - $0.65 (est $0.59)
🟢 FY Revenue: $2.12B (est $2.1B)
🟢 FY EPS: $2.73 - $2.77 (est $2.49)
See other breakdowns on our Twitter page.
Weekly Poll 🗳️
SMM Product Hunt 🧠
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Week Ahead 📅
Monday
JP - Tokyo CPI (FEB)🇯🇵
CN - Caixin Services PMI (FEB)🇨🇳
Earnings: GitLab, Sea Ltd💰
Tuesday
US - S&P Services PMI (FEB)🇺🇸
US - ISM Services PMI (FEB)🇺🇸
UK - S&P Composite PMI (FEB)🇬🇧
EU - HCOB Composite PMI (FEB)🇪🇺
AU - GDP (Q4)🇦🇺
Earnings: Crowdstrike, Target, Nio, Chargepoint, Box💰
Wednesday
US - Powell Testifies 🇺🇸
US - JOLTs Job Openings (FEB)🇺🇸
US - ADP Payrolls (FEB)🇺🇸
CA - BoC Interest Rate Decision 🇨🇦
CA - Ivey PMI (FEB)🇨🇦
CN - Imports & Exports (FEB)🇨🇳
Earnings: JD.com, Yext💰
Thursday
US - Jobless Claims 🇺🇸
US - Consumer Credit (JAN)🇺🇸
EU - ECB Interest Rate Decision 🇪🇺
Earnings: Costco, Broadcom, Oracle, MongoDB, Marvell, Samsara, DocuSign💰
Friday
US - Nonfarm Payrolls (FEB)🇺🇸
DE - PPI Inflation (FEB)🇩🇪
CN - CPI Inflation (FEB)🇨🇳
CN - PPI Inflation (FEB)🇨🇳
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