Good Evening! On Tuesday, September’s stock market slide continued, with Wall Street focusing on the growing probability of higher rates in the near future.
Another day, another down market with the NASDAQ Composite falling the most by 1.57%, the S&P 500 sliding by 1.47%, and the Dow Jones decreasing by 1.14%.
CHEAPER GAS HELPED!
Fourth quarter results for Costco (COST) surpassed expectations in terms of both revenue and profit, potentially due to the appeal of lower gas costs to customers who are concerned about inflation.
- Revenue: $78.94 Billion vs. $77.72 Billion Expected
- Same-store sales growth: 1.1% vs. 1.87% Expected
- E-commerce sales growth: (0.8%) vs. 5.0% Expected
- Earnings Per Share: $4.86 vs. $4.78 Expected
What to watch out for? Investors will carefully monitor any potential announcements by Costco on the implementation of membership fee increases in the foreseeable future, given the company’s historical pattern of raising prices at an average interval of around five years and seven months. The most recent adjustment to membership fees at Costco occurred in June 2017.
BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
The Danish Toy Manufacturer of Legos announced its decision to discontinue the intended production of its distinctive building blocks using recycled plastic bottles due to the anticipated rise in Lego’s energy use.
So what happened? When Lego first introduced the concept of transforming bottles into bricks, it provided an estimate that the material obtained from a 1-liter bottle would be able to create 10 bricks. However, the use of recycled materials would need significant modifications to the company’s existing brickmaking process, which now relies on oil-based plastic and would contribute to high carbon emissions. On top of that, the quality of the sample blocks was poor.
Not giving up yet! Lego has tried to develop bricks using many environmentally sustainable materials, such as corn and wheat, but so far they’ve made little progress.
Going forward! Lego has expressed its commitment to continuing its exploration of various materials in order to achieve the goal of producing sustainable bricks by 2032.