Big Business This Week is a guided tour through the biggest market stories of the week, from winning stocks to brutal dips to the facts and forecasts generating buzz on Wall Street.
VEGAS PARTIES ON
Wynn, Caesars and MGM have all come to tentative deals with the hotel workers union. It's great news for the city days before it's scheduled to host 100,000 visitors for the Formula 1 race and months before it hosts the Super Bowl. The union could have hit the picket lines Friday. Still, investors weren't pleased; Wynn was the last to come to a deal and its stock dropped off nearly 6 percent on Friday.
MICROSOFT RECORD
Microsoft stock hit a new high on Tuesday. The catalyst appears to have been from Open AI's developer conference; the AI company works with Microsoft on artificial intelligence projects. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella joined OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on stage at the event where a new generation of chatbot technology was announced. Microsoft stock ended the week up nearly 5 percent.
ROBLOX'S "NEW PHASE"
Roblox shared jumped 15 percent when the gaming company released its earnings report on Wednesday. Not only did it beat revenue estimates, but investors were particularly happy to hear CFO Michael Guthrie say the platform is transitioning to a place where it can slow its growth expenses and open up more cash. The excitement waned slightly over the rest of the week, but the stock still closed the week up nearly 8 percent.
MEET ZEPBOUND
Eli Lilly got a boost this week when the FDA approved its new weight loss drug Zepbound. This is a version of the popular diabeted treatment Mounjaro, which has been shown to help patients lose 40-60 pounds. Now it enters a hot market to compete with Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, which has been expensive and hard to find for patients. Eli Lilly's stock jumped on the approval, ending the week up 4 percent.
WEWORK BANKRUPTCY
WeWork could no longer hold on to its grasp at the helm of the office-sharing industry. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. In 2019, the company founded by Adam Neumann came so close to going public with a valuation of $47 billion, but things quickly fell apart. Ultimately, Neumann was forced out with a sweet payout to go quietly and SoftBank took over a majority share that valued the company at $8 billion. In this week's filings, the company listed nearly $19 billion in debts and just $15 billion in assets. Now the company says it will try to restructure its debt and take a closer look at its office space leases.
