From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
PELOTON INVESTIGATIONS
Peloton shares went off a cliff Friday, down more than 8 percent, after the fitness tech company acknowledged in its earnings report it was subpoenaed by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security in an investigation over treadmill injuries. Things didn't get better when the company also revealed it's under investigation by the SEC for how it handled disclosures about probes. If all that wasn't enough to shock investors, Peloton posted a loss last quarter, showed revenue growth slowed, and announced it'll slash the price on the Peloton Bike — its most popular line.
MARKETS HIGHS & LOWS
It was a roller-coaster week on the markets. Things were looking good on Tuesday with Nasdaq hitting the new golden number of 15,000 and the S&P also hitting a new record high. But on Thursday markets sank broadly after the terror attack in Kabul, which drew more attention to the chaos unfolding as the U.S. tries to pull its remaining troops out of Afghanistan. Then, Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke from the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, indicating that the Federal Reserve was on track to begin tapering bond purchases while leaving interest rates alone for the time being. Markets shot back up to record highs on the news to end the week.
BOOST FOR VACCINE-MAKERS
Pfizer's and BioNTech's stocks jumped Monday when their COVID-19 vaccine became the first to win full FDA approval. The approval also pulled up Moderna, which applied for its own full FDA approval this week. Now that there is a vaccine with official status, investors think travelers might be ready to take a vacay and boosted travel stocks for the week, like Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts, which were both up nearly 14 and 12 percent respectively, American and Delta Airlines, which were both up over 7 percent, and Norwegian and Carnival Cruise Lines, which were both up over 9 percent. The vax-makers slumped later in the week despite the market upturn.
SNACK STRIKE
Hold on to your Oreos, people! Mondelez stock sunk again with Nabisco workers on strike for a third week. It's down nearly 2.4 percent this month. Employees accuse the parent company of cutting back overtime pay, providing unsafe work conditions, and outsourcing jobs to Mexico. Mondelez says it's been negotiating in good faith, but demand is so high that it needs to move workers off of 9-5 shifts. Still, the production lines are pumping as Mondelez keeps churning out cookies and crackers with non-union workers.
URBAN OUTFITTERS GETS INTO RESALES
What's old is new for Urban Outfitters. The clothing chain known for trendy clothes for young people announced that it's getting into the resale game, taking on secondhand apps like Poshmark and Depop. The brand's clothing is already popular on the sites, so the company is going to try to keep some of those dollars in-house. The app called Nuuly Thrift is expected to go live for iPhone users this fall. Poshmark CEO and founder Manish Chandra told Cheddar, "Ten years back when we started the company if you told me the headline in Wall Street Journal would be that Urban Outfitters is about to take [on] Poshmark by opening a secondhand thrift store I would have laughed." Still, Urban Outfitters' stock dropped after reporting in-store traffic had slowed and sales growth dropped last quarter. It ended the week down nearly 10 percent.
