P.M. Edition for May 7. Despite political pressure from President Trump, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady today. WSJ chief economics commentator Greg Ip explains how tariff uncertainty factored into their decision. And Disney seeks a foothold in the Middle East with an upcoming theme park in Abu Dhabi. WSJ entertainment reporter Ben Fritz has details on the company’s ambitions. Plus, investigations reporter Katherine Long tells us what U.S. spy agencies are after in Greenland. Victoria Craig hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Why did the Fed decide to keep interest rates steady?
Disney is licensing its IP to them, and then Disney is going to do the actual design of the rides and attractions, and it's going to consult on how to operate the park. Working with a local company in a foreign country where Disney has done very little business kind of helps it to navigate things there.
And then also, Disney has a big but limited amount of capital, and they're making a lot of other investments.
Now, Disney CEO Bob Iger says we could be as many as seven years away from the opening of this new Abu Dhabi theme park. But we did learn today through the company's earnings that the experience part of its business, which include theme parks and cruises, is a big part of the company's revenue stream. Walk us through how those did last quarter, given all of the global uncertainty for consumers.
So the Experiences division of Disney, which is primarily parks as well as consumer products, has a growing share of its operating income especially. And Disney said that last quarter, despite some economic uncertainty that we're all familiar with, the domestic parks attracted more guests and higher spending from the visitors who came.
So the operating income for the Experiences business rose 9% to $2.5 billion, which is some of the best growth for any business within the company. And the entertainment streaming business outside of sports reported a profit. It was $336 million last quarter compared to $47 million a year ago. But the big streaming question for Disney this year is going to be what happens to ESPN.
Disney is planning to launch ESPN. A standalone ESPN streaming service that has everything you can get from ESPN on TV. Currently, ESPN Plus basically just has the sports that don't make the cut for ESPN cable. Bob Iger said on the earnings call today that Disney is going to announce the official name for it and announce the price for it next week.
Entertainment industry reporter Ben Fritz. Thanks so much, Ben.
Sure. My pleasure.
Some other corporate news to tell you about. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says it's slashing about 500 jobs or 5% of its global workforce. That's as the company tries to make its business more efficient.
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Chapter 3: How is Disney expanding its presence in the Middle East?
You can listen to what's news in earnings for the latest quarterly reports from the automotive sector, including how car companies are reacting to President Trump's tariff plans and whether and when consumers might see higher prices passed along to them. And that's what's news for this Wednesday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi. Our supervising producer was Pierre Bien-Aimé.
I'm Victoria Craig for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.
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