MARKET SNAPSHOT
Big Picture
- Friday was plagued by drops across each major index after huge a selloff in the tech sector caused the Nasdaq to fall sharply, partially fueled by LinkedIn’s abysmal earnings
Alternatives to Watch
- Oil finished negative amid an extremely volatile end of the week, as investors speculate over Sunday’s big meeting between Saudi Arabia and Venezuela regarding possible cutbacks in oil production
Market Movers
- A disappointing showing for the final “Hunger Games” movie last fall hit Lionsgate’s earnings hard and left its shares fighting to survive after falling 27%
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U.S. MACRO
Fewer New Jobs, More New Money
Friday brought January’s big old jobs report, with mixed results. Here’s what we mean: starting with the bad, the rapid job creation we saw to end 2015 slowed to just 151,000 jobs added (the slowest pace in four months). The good? The employment rate still managed to fall a tick to 4.9%, and for those of us with jobs already, hourly wages rose 0.5%—the last six months have led to the most significant wage increases since the financial crisis.
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CORPORATE PRIMER
Chinese Investors Buy Chicago Stock Exchange
You read that right. Over the weekend, a Chinese investor group purchased the Chicago Stock Exchange for around $100 million. Although the exchange only accounts for 0.5% of U.S. stock trading, access to a piece of that $22 trillion U.S. equity pie and the ability to bring Chinese growth stocks to American investors surely piqued China’s interest. In the past, a power move like this would usually get blocked by political vetoes, but the Chicago Exchange isn’t exactly the New York Stock Exchange, so politicians played nice.
Volkswagen Delays Earnings
If we had a dollar for all the bad news that has hit Volkswagen, we might have more money than Volkswagen. The Brew earned another buck this weekend, as Volkswagen announced it would delay reporting its annual earnings—just about the last thing any investor wants to hear. Volkswagen doesn’t know the magic number at the bottom of that ever-building litigation fee, and fears any financial statement will carry no credibility. Big four accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers has already expressed reservations on its last statement, and Volkswagen is once again walking dangerous waters for its shareholders.
Twitter Users Chirp Their Discontent
Hear that? It’s the deafening uproar over news that Twitter will be changing to a timeline algorithm rather than its typical reverse chronological setup. What the fancy words mean: as opposed to showing you the most recent tweets in order, a timeline algorithm will show you only what the algorithm thinks you want to see. Some say it will be “opt in” only, others say it might not be launched at all (CEO Jack Dorsey dispelled rumors it would launch next week), but just the thought of making the change has sparked a #RIPTwitter campaign among users (irony, anyone?).
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OTHER STORIES
- BlackBerry confirms it’s laying off 200 workers
- GoPro and Microsoft ink patent licensing deal
- Yogurt maker Chobani rejects PepsiCo’s offer for stake in company
- J.C. Penney wants to sell its headquarters to raise cash
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ECONOMIC CALENDAR
- Monday: Twenty-First Century Fox, Hasbro, Yelp Earnings
- Tuesday: Disney, Baidu, Coca-Cola, CVS, Panera, Spirit Airlines, Viacom, Wendy’s Earnings; Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
- Wednesday: Tesla, Twitter, Time Warner, Cisco, Whole Foods, Zynga, Expedia, Sketchers Earnings
- Thursday: CBS, PepsiCo, Pandora, Time, Kellogg, TripAdvisor, Activision Blizzard, Groupon, Zillow Earnings; Weekly Jobless Claims
- Friday: January Retail Sales
SUPER BOWL 50: MORNING BREW’S 50 CENTS
You’ve heard the score from yesterday’s big game (24-10 Broncos over Panthers), but did you know that just 30 seconds of commercial time cost a Super Bowl-record $5 million? Indeed, during the big game a lot of other big things are going on—here are some more Super Bowl-themed facts:
- Last year, 47% of the 114 million viewers were women—meaning advertisers have a wide audience to work with.
- Plus, over 10% of those asked said Super Bowl ads affect their buying habits. Practically speaking, that means a lot more than just 10% are likely affected in some way.
- And even though nearly 35% of people say they watch the game for the game, 17% said the main draw was the ads. So today, 17% of people who say they watched the Super Bowl might not even know that the Broncos won, but surely they have an opinion on whether PuppyMonkeyBaby was genius or absolutely horrifying.
INTERVIEW QUESTION OF THE DAY
What’s the angle between the hour-hand and minute-hand of a clock at 3:15? (Answer)
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BUSINESS PERSON OF THE DAY
Jessica Alba — What’s the first thing that comes to mind? You might think “actress,” but “businesswoman” is a more accurate descriptor nowadays. In fact, over the weekend it was announced that Alba is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to take Honest Co., an online shopping startup she co-founded in 2012, public. Props to her!
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
125,000: the number of accounts that Twitter has shut down due to terrorism-related threats.