Stock Market News & Updates

Demographic changes are one of the dynamics that lead to secular trends. At any time there are numerous demographic shifts occurring around the world and most of them affect local and regional economies. There are also a few major demographic changes occurring across the globe.

Coca-Cola is one of the world's most recognizable brands as well as one of the oldest listed companies. Its core business is very mature and operates in a market that's growing very slowly - however, the company has divested itself of low-margin bottling assets and is diversifying into new product segments which could help it keep EPS growing.

Visa (NYSE: V) operates the world’s biggest payment network, authorizing and facilitating payments between credit and debit card issuers and a merchant’s bank. If you use a Visa card to make a payment, Visa connects your bank to the merchant bank and processes the transaction.

Netflix is a well-known business and most people have a fairly good idea of its business model. To give you a quick summary though, the platform provides a movie and TV streaming service to consumers for a monthly subscription fee.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) will be reporting 2nd quarter financial results on Tuesday after the market closes. The company has seen a marked slowdown in revenue and earnings growth which culminated in quarterly earnings declining year-on-year for the quarter that ended September 2022. The consensus estimate for EPS for the quarter ending December is $2.32. This would reflect a decline of 6.5% from the $2.48 reported a year earlier and a small sequential decline from the first quarter.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) reported an excellent set of fourth-quarter results, which resulted in the stock rallying as much as 9% on Thursday. Sales were lower than expected, but still 26.7% higher than a year ago. Earning per share rose 58% to $1.82 which was 7 cents ahead of consensus estimates.

The amount Avatar ultimately brings in could have a very meaningful impact on Disney's EPS for the current quarter, and the stock price is likely to be very sensitive to the success of the movie over the next few weeks.

We had a look at companies in the US consumer cyclical sector to see which ones stood out in each industry. We looked specifically at gross margins (revenue - the cost of goods sold) and operating margins which reflect the effect of other operating expenses on the bottom line. If a company can maintain or improve its margins in an inflationary environment it may have pricing power - i.e. the ability to raise prices without losing sales to competitors. This is a distinct competitive advantage.

OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, has captured the world’s attention since being released two weeks ago. The chatbot uses OpenAI’s GPT-3 model to answer questions and perform tasks using natural language. The platform gained a million users within five days of its launch, no doubt aided by users sharing their interactions with the chatbot on social media platforms. Is it a threat to Alphabet's search business?

Beyond Meat’s (Nasdaq: BYND) share price rose 14% in the last two sessions while the rest of the market fell. It’s also up nearly 30% since late November. With no notable news flow, It seems the stock, which has a short float of about 42%, has been caught up in a short squeeze.

The market is punishing Crowdtrike (Nasdaq:CRWD) after the company reported slightly better-than-expected third-quarter numbers, but issued cautious guidance. Revenue and EPS were both slightly better than expected, but also reflected rapidly decelerating revenue growth. The bearish aspect of the results was the commentary. CEO George Kurtz said that customers were taking longer to close deals and adding extra layers of required approvals.

Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) share price has risen nearly 8% on the news that former CEO Robert Iger is replacing Bob Chapek as CEO. Disney’s share price has collapsed over the last few months as spending at Disney+ offset the recovery in the parks and experiences division. The chart below shows the share price performance under Bob Iger and then Bob Chapek, along with the performance of the S&P 500 index. It’s easy to see why bringing Iger back should restore investor confidence.

On the face of it, Nvidia’s (Nasdaq: NVDA) third-quarter results were mixed with revenue down 17% year-on-year but ahead of consensus estimates. EPS were lower than expected, while guidance was encouraging.

Disney has been a major disappointment for investors. In 2020 and 2021 the share became the leading ‘reopening play’ as investors bet that the reopening of amusement parks, cinemas, and tourism combined with strong growth from Disney+ would drive profit growth. The reality is that spending at Disney+ is acting as a drag on margins.

Roku’s (Nasdaq: ROKU) share price fell to a new 52-week low after the company warned that revenue will be sharply lower than previously expected during the current quarter. The share price has now given up all its gains since February 2019, which at one point amounted to 775%. Here's our lukewarm take.