MARKET MOVERS
- The latest home sales data points to a ‘Housing Recession’. More signs are pointing to a housing slowdown as existing-home sales—completed transactions fell 5.9% month over month and 20% year over year, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ latest housing report. “We’re witnessing a housing recession in terms of declining home sales and home building,” says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. However, it’s not a recession in home prices, says Yun.
- Roblox poaches a seasoned Meta executive as it chases growth in Asia. Steve Park, the longtime government relations head for South Korea and Japan at Facebook’s parent company, will join Roblox next week, a spokeswoman for the San Mateo, Calif.-based company said. Increasing usage in Asian countries would help Roblox drive growth beyond its core U.S. and European markets.
- Kohl’s cuts outlook blaming inflation. The department store revised its earnings per share outlook for the full fiscal year to the range of $2.80 to $3.20, down from an earlier range of $6.45 to $6.85. Analysts tracked by FactSet were looking for $4.04 for the year ending January 2023.
Read more here.
- Hong Kong’s GigaCloud Technology surges 57% in the US trading debut. The company is a string of smaller companies from Asia that are still tapping the US market to sell shares in spite of a crackdown from regulators in Washington and Beijing. GigaCloud opened at $19.20 on the Nasdaq in New York, up 57% from its original offer price of $12.25 per share, raising $36 million. E-commerce giant JD.com Inc. owns a 12% stake in the business.
- Snap scraps development on flying selfie Pixy drone. The company is sunsetting future development less than four months after launching the product publicly. Snap Chief Executive Evan Spiegel recently told staff during a regular question-and-answer session about the decision around the Pixy drone. The effort to halt further development of the project is part of a broader reprioritization of company resources, Mr. Spiegel told staff.
- Opendoor doubles its ad spend. Even in a slowing market, Opendoor's foot is firmly on the accelerator, growing the business and educating consumers at a scale never seen before. Opendoor's increased advertising spend is driving an increase in home purchases; it's already purchased nearly twice as many homes in the first six months of 2022 compared to the same time last year. Read more here.
- Mercedes and Ferrari’s edge in the electric age: High-End Motors. Axial motors are smaller, lighter, more efficient, and open up all sorts of possibilities for future performance cars. They will be crucial to brands like AMG and Ferrari as they race to electrify the high-performance vehicles that earn prestige and bumper profits.
WHAT TO WATCH
- Sell United Rentals ahead of construction slump, Bernstein says. The on-the-ground sentiment is deteriorating and construction equipment demand is showing signs of slowing. Demand destruction in construction, which constitutes roughly half of United Rentals' sales, is a major headwind. Though recent bills such as the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPs act could help, they likely won’t be enough to alleviate pressure on shares.
Read more here.
- Amazon seeks a top film executive amid an expansion of its entertainment arm. Amazon Studios has held conversations with several Hollywood leaders about the role, including Netflix Inc.’s film head, Scott Stuber, one of the streamer’s most powerful and visible executives, according to people familiar with the matter. The company also held discussions with former Paramount Pictures executive Emma Watts about a position, the people said.
- GM to reinstate quarterly dividends and increase share buyback. The company is reinstating a quarterly cash dividend and increasing the size of its opportunistic share repurchases to $5 billion of common stock, up from $3.3 billion. The quarterly dividend will be at a rate of 9 cents per share. The first dividend will be paid on Sept. 15 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Aug. 31, according to the company.
