October 16, 2022

The Weekend Rip: October 16, 2022

We hope you’re enjoying the weekend. 👍

Let’s recap and prepare you for the week ahead.

What Happened?

📉 It was another volatile week, with stocks falling for the fifth straight Friday.

🤩 This week’s Stocktwits Top 25 report showed similar performance relative to the indexes.

🥵 Both producer and consumer prices showed that inflation is sticking around. However, positioning into the reports was very negative and led to a short squeeze. Speaking of inflation, Cathie Wood penned an open letter to the Federal Reserve warning against deflation.

🏦 Banks kicked off earnings season on Friday. Consumer banking was strong due to higher rates and loan balances. Meanwhile, mortgage, investment banking, and trading businesses struggled in the current environment.

🥫 Food companies continue to deliver in a challenging environment, with Pepsi and Domino’s beating expectations. Well, most food companies. Beyond Meat fell to new all-time lows after it cut its revenue forecast and workforce again.

⚖️ Gig economy stocks fell on news that the Biden administration is considering reforms that would reclassify most gig workers as employees.

✈️ Several airlines reported strong revenues due to summer travel demand and high prices but continue to struggle operationally.

🦵 At Meta Connect, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new feature set to change the Metaverse game as we know it…avatars with legs.

☢️ Shares of uranium miner Cameco imploded on reports that it’s acquiring Westinghouse Electric.

🔥 Several names were on the Stocktwits trending tab for a good portion of the week, including $MMTLP, $MULN, $MMAT, $AVCT, $DWAC, and $RLMD.

Those are the major stories from the week. And here are the final prints:

S&P 500	3,583	-1.55%
Nasdaq	10,321	-3.11%
Russell 2000	1,682	-1.16%
Dow Jones	29,635	-0.98%

Bullets

Bullets From The Weekend

🤝 The unionization trend continues. Apple workers in Oklahoma voted in favor of becoming the company’s second U.S. union. Once the votes are certified by the National Labor Relations Board, Apple will be required to bargain with the union over working conditions. As onshoring and a tight labor market continue, the trend of workers unionizing remains strong. CNBC has more.

🩳 Internal documents show the metaverse is falling short of goals. After spending more than $10 billion on its Metaverse bet, Meta documents indicate it’s losing users and falling short of goals. Horizon Worlds, its flagship consumer metaverse, has less than 200,000 monthly active users, but the company had hoped to reach 500,000 by the end of 2022. Instead, most users didn’t return after the first month on the platform, and the number of users has steadily declined since the spring. Only 9% of its worlds are visited by at least 50 people, and most are never visited. More from CNBC.

📝 Student loan forgiveness applications are now open in beta mode. The Biden administration opened the student loan forgiveness application in a beta period on Friday. Applicants can begin signing up before the website is formally released later in the month. However, they should expect the site to be down intermittently as they resolve issues. Those who apply will receive a confirmation email, but no applications will be processed until the site formally launches. CNN has more.

The Brief

Need a concise summary of what’s going on this week? Look no further. Here’s an overview of important earnings and economic data for the trading week ahead.

Economic Calendar

It’s a slower week on the economic front, though eyes will be on September’s housing market data. In addition to the above, check out this week’s complete list of economic releases.

Earnings This Week

Earnings season is ramping up again, with 182 companies reporting this week. Several tickers you may recognize are $BAC, $GS, $NFLX, $TSLA, $FCX, $SNAP, and $UAL.