A specialist trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, October 17, 2022.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Let’s see if this holds
Stocks jumped again Tuesday, cementing a strong start to the week, although futures didn’t look too bright Wednesday morning. The tech-heavy Nasdaq looked set to be buoyed by Netflix and its strong earnings report (more on that below). Overall, even though its early in earnings season, companies’ reports have been pretty solid so far, even though fears of a Fed-driven recession linger. Investors will have more earnings to chew on Wednesday, with Procter & Gamble reporting before the bell and IBM and Tesla set for after the close. Read live market updates here.
2. Netflix changes things up
The Netflix logo is seen on a TV remote controller, in this illustration taken January 20, 2022.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
Netflix came through with a strong earnings report Tuesday, easily beating expectations on its top and bottom lines. But its strongest metric was the number of subscribers it added in the third quarter. The stock surged in off-hours trading, as it appeared that Netflix had managed to turn things around after losing subscribers for consecutive quarters. There was a plot twist, though: Netflix said it would no longer provide quarterly forecasts for subscriber additions. Instead, as the company moves toward selling a new ad-supported tier, and its competitors bulk up, Netflix wants to put more emphasis on profit and revenue. “Focusing on subscribers in our early days was helpful, but now that we have such a wide range of price points and different partnerships all over the world, the economic impact of any given subscriber can be quite different,” Netflix executive Spencer Wang said during the company’s earnings call.
3. Turning back the clock
Seinfeld
Carin Baer | NBCU
You want to feel old? The last time mortgage demand was this low, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, was 1997. “Seinfeld” was the top TV show, and Jewel dominated the music charts with “You Were Meant for Me.” Also that year, mortgage rates were consistently above 7%. This time, depending on which organization is keeping track, rates are now hovering near or above 7%. Affordability in the housing market was a concern even before rates started surging this year, but builders and sellers remained bullish since demand was so robust. Now sellers are getting a little warier, and homebuilder sentiment is well into negative territory, as buyers are in no rush to lock in a high mortgage age rate.
4. Flying high again
A United Airlines Boeing 777-200 lands at San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California.
Louis Nastro | Reuters
United Airlines is bullish on fourth quarter air travel, as people shake off two years of Covid restrictions and head out for the holidays. Even with inflation at four-decade highs and Wall Street warning of a recession. “Looking forward through the end of the year, the airline expects the strong Covid recovery trends to continue to overcome the recessionary pressures in the macroeconomic environment,” the company said in its earnings release Tuesday. United’s outlook follows a similar rosy report from rival Delta Air Lines, which projected a profit during the fourth quarter. American Airlines is set to report before the bell Thursday.
5. P&G’s forex warning
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods giant known for producing Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste, said it expects foreign exchange to weigh on its results during the fiscal year. The U.S. dollar has strengthened considerably against other nations’ currency in recent months as the Federal Reserve has jacked up interest rates to fight surging inflation. The company’s earnings and revenue, by the way, topped expectations in the most recent quarter, as price increases offset a decline in sales volumes.
– CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel, Sarah Whitten, Alex Sherman, Diana Olick, Leslie Josephs and Amelia Lucas contributed to this report.
— Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer’s every stock move. Follow the broader market action like a pro on CNBC Pro.
Artificial intelligence chipmaker Cerebras Systems said on Friday that it’s withdrawing plans for an IPO, days after announcing that it raised over $1 billion in a fundraising round.
In a filing with the SEC, Cerebras said it does not intend to conduct a proposed offering “at this time,” but didn’t provide a reason. A spokesperson told CNBC on Friday that the company still hopes to go public as soon as possible.
Cerebras filed for an IPO just over a year ago, as it was ramping up to take on Nvidia in an effort to create processors for running generative AI models. The filing revealed a heavy reliance on a single customer in the United Arab Emirates, Microsoft-backed G42, which is also a Cerebras investor.
In its prospectus, Cerebras said it had given voluntary notice to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States about selling shares to G42. In March, the company announced that the committee had provided clearance.
Since its initial filing to go public on the Nasdaq, Cerebras has shifted its focus away from selling systems and more toward providing a cloud service for accepting incoming queries to models that use its chips underneath.
The announced withdrawal comes three days into a U.S. government shutdown that’s left agencies like the SEC operating with a small staff. In a plan for a shutdown published in August, the SEC said its electronic system EDGAR “is operated pursuant to a contract and thus will remain fully functional as long as funding for the contractor remains available through permitted means.”
On Tuesday, Cerebras said it had raised $1.1 billion at a valuation of $8.1 billion in a private funding round. At the time, CEO Andrew Feldman said that the company still wanted to go public, rather than continue to raise venture capital.
“I don’t think this is an indication of a preference for one or the other,” he told CNBC in an interview. “I think we have tremendous opportunities in front of us, and I think it’s good practice, when you have enormous opportunities, not to let them fall by the wayside for lack of capital.”
Feldman thought the original prospectus from last year was out of date, especially considering developments in AI, the spokesperson said on Friday.
Well heeled technology companies have been quickly signing up for additional infrastructure to handle demand. On Tuesday CoreWeave, which rents out Nvidia chips through a cloud service, said it had signed a $14.2 billion agreement with Meta. ChatGPT operator OpenAI said last week that it had committed to spending $300 billion on cloud services from Oracle.
The government shutdown did not factor into Cerebras’ decision, the spokesperson said.
An employee arranges a salad dressing display at an Amazon Fresh grocery store on December 12, 2024 in Federal Way, Washington.
David Ryder | Getty Images
Amazon is closing four more Fresh supermarkets in Southern California as the e-commerce giant continues to focus its grocery strategy around Whole Foods and delivery.
The closures will take place in the coming weeks, Amazon confirmed to CNBC. They follow the shuttering of four other U.S. locations in recent months, in Washington, Virginia, New York and a Los Angeles suburb.
“Certain locations work better than others, and after an assessment, we’ve made the decision to close these Amazon Fresh locations,” Amazon spokesperson Griffin Buch said in a statement. “We’re working closely with affected employees to help them find new roles within Amazon wherever possible.”
At one Fresh supermarket in La Verne, California, employees were told to gather for an all-hands meeting on Wednesday, according to an internal message viewed by CNBC. They learned at the meeting that the store would close in mid-November, and that employees would receive a severance package, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the details were confidential.
The other three stores that are closing are in cities of Mission Viejo, La Habra and Whittier.
Last week, Amazon said it intends to close 14 Fresh grocery stores in the U.K. and convert its five other locations there into Whole Foods markets.
Amazon said it regularly evaluates its store portfolio, which can lead to opening, reopening, relocating or closing certain locations. In the U.S., the company has more than 60 remaining Fresh stores. Last year, the company removed its “Just Walk Out” cashierless technology from the stores. It’s also been culling its footprint of Go cashierless convenience stores.
Amazon has been determined to become a major grocery player for nearly two decades. The company launched Amazon Fresh in 2007, then a pilot project for fresh food delivery, before acquiring upscale chain Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017, its biggest purchase on record.
Amazon debuted its Fresh grocery chain in 2020, with an eye toward mass-market shoppers. The rollout has been turbulent since its early days.
The company opened a flurry of Fresh locations by 2022, but the expansion plans ran into CEO Andy Jassy’s widespread cost-cutting efforts as the company reckoned with the impact of rising interest rates and soaring inflation. In 2023, Amazon announced it would shut some Fresh stores and halt further openings temporarily as it evaluated how to make the chain stand out for shoppers.
While it’s closing Fresh stores, Amazon continues to “innovate and invest in making grocery shopping easier, faster, and more affordable,” Buch said. The company still maintains 500 Whole Foods locations and has opened mini “daily shop” Whole Foods stores in New York City.
On Wednesday, Amazon also launched a new “price-conscious” grocery brand that will be offered online and in its physical stores. And last month, Amazon expanded same-day delivery of fresh foods to more pockets of the U.S.
Jassy and other company executives have touted the success of sales of “everyday essentials” within its online grocery business, which refers to items such as canned goods, paper towels, dish soap and snacks. Jassy told investors at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in May that he remains “bullish” on grocery, calling it a “significant business” for Amazon.
Inside Google’s quantum computing lab in Santa Barbara, California.
CNBC
Quantum computing stocks are wrapping up a big week of double-digit gains.
Shares of Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum and Quantum Computing have surged more than 20%. Rigetti and D-Wave Quantum have more than doubled and tripled, respectively, since the start of the year. Arqit Quantum skyrocketed more than 32% this week.
The jump in shares followed a wave of positive news in the quantum space.
Rigetti said it had purchase orders totalling $5.7 million for two of its 9-qubit Novera quantum computing systems. The owner of drugmaker Novo Nordisk and the Danish government also invested 300 million euros in a quantum venture fund.
In a blog post earlier this week, Nvidia also highlighted accelerated computing, which it argues can make “quantum computing breakthroughs of today and tomorrow possible.”