Good Evening! Rising stock prices on Thursday concluded a turbulent day that began when the Federal Reserve hinted on Wednesday that the central bank’s rate-rising campaign could be approaching an end in response to worries about the safety of the global banking system.
The S&P 500 closed up 0.30%, while the Dow Jones gained 0.23% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.01%.
ONE MAN'S FAILURE, IS ANOTHER MAN'S SUCCESS
After what one analyst described as a “disaster” of testimony by TikTok CEO Shou Chew before Congress on Thursday, social media stocks soared for Meta Platforms and Snapchat (shares rose as much as 4% and 10%, respectively).
A quick update on how TikTok got here… Chew tried to ease rising national security worries that ByteDance-owned TikTok is a Chinese resource capable of spying on its expanding user base of 150 million Americans, or has already been doing so. This is no joke, as President Biden and former President Trump have demanded that the social networking application be blocked or sold to a U.S.-based corporation.
What does this have to do with Meta or Snapchat? This would be a win for social media stocks such as Meta and Snapchat, since TikTok has been devouring digital advertising spend from American corporations, jeopardizing the profit results of many of the largest social media companies.
PSSH... PASS THE POPCORN
According to a recent report from Bloomberg, the tech giant Apple (AAPL) intends to spend $1 billion annually to develop movies that will be distributed in cinemas and have already contacted movie studios about cooperating on specific films for this year and future releases.
Coming to a theatre near you…Kinda. Plans are still being finalized, but the business intends to broadcast movies in hundreds of theaters for at least one month, which is making a departure from its traditional approach of streaming exclusives and limited box office releases.
Like minds think alike. Bloomberg reported in November that Apple competitor Amazon (AMZN) has similar ambitions to spend $1 billion annually to make 12 to 15 movies exclusively for cinemas. Amazon did not stop there by also acquiring MGM for $8.5 billion early last year.
And of course companies like AMC, IMAX, and Cinemark all increased on Thursday, ending the day off by 3.00%, 2.10%, and 5.75% respectively.