Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, May 10, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. More muddling
Wednesday was another mixed day for stocks. The Dow closed slightly down, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 finished a little higher as investors chewed over April’s consumer price index. That data showed inflation is indeed slowing down, but at the expected pace, which means we’re like a ways off from the Federal Reserve cutting rates after hiking them 10 times since last year. On Thursday, markets were processing the April producer price index, which measures inflation at the wholesale level. It rose 0.2% since March, just shy of economists’ estimates. Follow live market updates.
2. The new frontier
The Disney+ website on a laptop computer in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Monday, July 18, 2022.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Investors didn’t care for what they saw out of Disney earnings Wednesday, sending the stock down more than 5% in off-hours trading. The company’s streaming operations posted a loss, albeit a smaller one than expected, as Disney pushes to make that business profitable. Disney+ actually lost subscribers during the most recent quarter, but revenue per user was higher thanks in large part to recent price increases. Taking all of that together, along with other media companies’ recent results, it’s clear the streaming wars are over, at least in the sense of a growth narrative, according to CNBC’s Alex Sherman. That means the industry needs to look elsewhere for growth – and gaming might be the way.
3. ‘Unthinkable’
Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, during a news conference at the Group of Seven (G-7) finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Niigata, Japan, on Thursday, May 11, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Japan for meetings with fellow finance…
Read the full article here