Disney reported earnings Tuesday and the most notable part of the report was the announcement that its new streaming service will be $5 a month. Rich Greenfield, Media Analyst at BTIG, joins Your Cheddar to discuss his thoughts on the announcement.
Greenfield says this new streaming service is an additional add-on for ESPN. It's going to be for super fans who want an extra college football or NHL game, not their local market or high profile games. To Greenfield, this feels like a niche product that will not take ESPN over the top, which is what consumers are begging for. He says Disney refuses to go all-in on streaming and it's a big reason he's bearish on it.
Plus, Snap surprised the street and beat estimated earnings on Tuesday. Greenfield says the surprise is definitely an encouraging sign for investors. However, they still don't have guidance on where this young company will be in the future and that concerns some.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
