Netflix Eyes $7-to-$9 for New Ad-Supported Plan

MARKET MOVERS

• Netflix eyes a $7-to-$9 price for its new ad-supported plan. It's half as much as its current, most-popular plan, which costs $15.49 monthly with no commercials. The goal is to attract subscribers who are willing to watch some ads in exchange for a lower monthly rate. It's trying to strike a careful balance between reaching a more cost-conscious consumer while still offering a pleasant experience.

• Twitter adds podcasting to "Spaces". The social media giant has officially announced it will be adding podcasts to the platform as part of the recently redesigned Spaces tab. The company is going to start importing RSS feeds. The redesigned Spaces tab opens with stations which are topic-based playlists combining podcast episodes pulled from RSS with Twitter's social audio events and recordings. Source(2:43)

• TotalEnergies sells stake in Russian gas field. The French oil giant said it sold its 49% interest in a joint venture operating the Termokarstovoye gas field to its Russian partner PAO Novatek. It said it expects the deal to close next month. The announcement of the deal comes after TotalEnergies had spent the better part of the week defending its participation in the project.

• A key leader for Meta’s metaverse software is leaving the company. Vivek Sharma has been with Meta for six years and was most recently its vice president of Horizon. Sharma’s team will now report directly to Meta’s VP of the metaverse, Vishal Shah. Meanwhile, Facebook parent Meta plans to debut a new VR headset in October.

• Energy was the big winner of the week. Higher oil prices helped propel the stocks higher. West Texas Intermediate crude is up 1.7% this week. APA Corp was the biggest winner in the sector, jumping almost 11% week to date. Marathon Oil followed, seeing a 6.8% increase in its stock so far this week. Analysts believe energy has the greatest upside in the event of some continuation of inflation but also gives you some downside protection in the event that there is a market that really craves yield. Read more here.

• There’s a Carbon Dioxide shortage, and food and drink makers are scrambling. Supplies of carbon dioxide, a byproduct of industrial processes such as ethanol and fertilizer production, have been tight since early 2020, when many Americans stopped driving due to the Covid-19 pandemic, slashing ethanol demand. Now, shortages of gas have grown acute in parts of the country.

• Sony hikes the price of its PlayStation 5 console because of soaring inflation. The Japanese gaming giant said that the price hikes are effective immediately except in Japan where they will begin on Sep. 15. Sony is not raising the price of the PS5 in the U.S. The company is seeing high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries. Read more here.
  

WHAT TO WATCH

• Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech over its mRNA vaccine technology. Moderna accused Pfizer and BioNTech of illegally using the mRNA technology it developed. Moderna is asking the companies to pay damages on most mRNA vaccines they’ve sold since early March of this year, claiming they copied Moderna’s groundbreaking tech for their own vaccine without getting the proper licenses to do so.

• 3M is denied bankruptcy shield against mass earplug claims. On Friday afternoon, The Wall Street Journal reported that Judge Jeffrey Graham of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis denied a 3M attempt to move legal liabilities associated with faulty earplugs sold to the military by a 3M subsidiary into bankruptcy court. 3M didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the ruling. Read more here.

• Wallstreet is starting to embrace blockchain technology. Banks are starting to actually build things on the blockchain. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are starting to process some trades using the same technology that's behind cryptocurrency markets. Goldman Sachs is already trading some bonds and other debt securities for clients on blockchain-based networks while JPMorgan has a platform in place already called Onyx. Source(33:24)