“If you are joining the company in your 20s, unlike when I joined, you’re going to learn to code. You may not end up being a programmer, but you will know how to code” — General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt wrote in a LinkedIn post yesterday. Better brush up on those comp sci skills.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Big Picture
- U.S. markets finished mostly flat, with the Dow finishing negative for eight out of the last nine sessions, as investors eagerly await today’s important jobs report
Alternatives to Watch
- The Bank of England slashed interest rates and restarted its quantitative easing program, which led the pound to plummet against a handful of currencies (more on that below)
Market Movers
- SeaWorld stock plunged to its all-time low yesterday after its earnings report showed that attendance had fallen by 7.7%, knocking more than $16 million off the controversial entertainment company’s earnings
CORPORATE PRIMER
Facebook Won’t Rest
…Until your newsfeed is perfect. The social media hegemon introduced changes to its news feed formula yesterday to reduce cases of “clickbait.” We’ve all experienced it: you see an interesting headline on your feed such as “woman falls from hot air balloon—you won’t believe what happens next,” only to click on it and find out it’s something completely different. If you’ve been there, you’ve been clickbaited. With the changes, this annoyance will apparently happen a lot less often. Thanks, Zuck.
Don’t Let The Door Hit You on Your Way Out
…Literally—mind the door. Ford is recalling 830,000 vehicles. What’s the deal? Apparently, side doors can unlatch unexpectedly due to faulty spring parts in some Ford cars. That’s not good. Want us to name names? The Escape, Focus and Mustang models are the main culprits. The recall will cost the Detroit-based automaker around $270 million, and local dealers will replace doors at no cost (to car owners, at least). Ford also has a theory for the cause—high levels of heat and sunlight exposure, as the majority of incidents are occurring in southern states and Mexico.
LinkedIn Gets an Endorsement
…From Wall Street. The business-oriented social networking service absolutely crushed it yesterday, beating both earnings and revenue expectations for the second quarter. Revenue jumped 31% from a year ago and earnings beat projections by an impressive $0.35 per share. Respect. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. This very well could be LinkedIn’s last earnings report as an independent company, as Microsoft bought the company for $26 billion last June in a deal expected to close this year. All in all, not a bad connection for LinkedIn to have.
WORLD MACRO
BoE Brings in the Sledgehammer
…Cuts interest rates to their lowest mark in the bank’s history. Still coping with the aftershocks of Brexit, the Bank of England reduced interest rates from 0.50% to 0.25%, marking the first rate cut since 2009. Along with the rate cut, the BOE promises to buy both government and corporate bonds, and also issue a new term-funding program for banks. The future has to be brighter, right? Well, not exactly. The BOE sharply downgraded its growth forecasts for next year. This looks promising.
OTHER STORIES
- Apple gains approval to sell energy
- Chevron to sell assets in Asia worth up to $5 billion
- Walmart rolls out a new worker scheduling system
- Golfsmith is considering filing for bankruptcy
ECONOMIC CALENDAR
- Monday: AMC (-), Carmike Cinemas (-) Earnings
- Tuesday: Ferrari (+), Fitbit (+), Pfizer (+), Procter & Gamble (+) Earnings; Motor Vehicle Sales (+); Personal Income and Outlays (+)
- Wednesday: Square (+), Tesla Earnings (-); ADP Employment Report (+)
- Thursday: Kellogg (+/-), LinkedIn (+), Kraft Heinz (+) Earnings; Weekly Jobless Claims (-); Factory Orders (-)
- Friday: Employment Situation; International Trade
LODGING WOES
You just won a trip to Brazil for the Olympics, which kicks off today with the Opening Ceremony. Hooray! Looking for a cheap place to stay in Rio? Not to be cynical, but you’re out of luck, and for the first time since its creation, the answer is probably not Airbnb. Anywhere you go, it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg:
- Rio lodging costs an average of $206 per day on Airbnb, even beating out averages in ridiculously expensive cities like Miami and San Francisco. Remember, this isn’t even including the tickets to the games.
- Airbnb prices are a 15% discount to hotels. Not terrible, right? Well, considering the average discount is 42% in Latin American cities (and a whopping 75% in Mexico City), 15% isn’t looking too great.
- How about a hotel then? We hate to break the news (or the bank) to you but at over $240 a night, Rio is the world’s seventh most expensive place to stay in a hotel. Looks like you’re sleeping on the beach.
INTERVIEW QUESTION OF THE DAY
What constitutes a negative write-off? (Answer)
BUSINESS TERM OF THE DAY
Leveraged Buyout (LBO) — The acquisition of company using a significant amount of borrowed money to meet the cost of acquisition. Assets of the company being acquired is often used as collateral, which assists in allowing companies to make large acquisitions without having to commit a lot of their own capital.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
London’s nearly three-year reign as the most expensive city to live and work in has ended. Who’s to thank? Brexit, of course. The U.K.’s infamous adieu to the EU has left the English metropolis behind the Big Apple (NYC) and Hong Kong.
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