What’s News in Markets: FuboTV Scores, Vaccine Bets, Insurers Stumble
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Hey, listeners. It's Saturday, January 11th. I'm Francesca Bontana for The Wall Street Journal. And this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. We had another short trading week this week. with markets closed Thursday for our National Day of Mourning in honor of former President Jimmy Carter. But during the four trading sessions we did have, there was plenty of action. Primarily, we saw the markets react to the devastating wildfires that broke out on Tuesday in Los Angeles and have wreaked havoc across the region. In the case of this kind of natural disaster, we can see investors' concerns affecting stocks like the local utilities, such as Southern California electric company Edison International.
And there are the home and auto insurance stocks like Allstate, AIG, and others. And their shares fell on Friday as analysts estimate that the devastation will cost insurers billions of dollars. On Friday, we also got the December jobs report, which topped expectations. Way more jobs were created than anticipated, which suggests that the labor market has recovered and it might even be gaining steam. As we've discussed before on this podcast, the jobs report is an important consideration for the Federal Reserve and for traders' guesses as to where interest rates are headed. So now investors are pricing in just one rate cut this year. All three major indexes, the Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq, ended the week lower.
The Dow and the S&P each fell about 1.9%, and the Nasdaq lost more than 2%.
Now, first up, let's talk Fubo. That's F-U-B-O. Fubo TV, the sports streamer that announced a big deal with Disney at the start of the week.
How did the week's market backdrop shape stock moves after the LA wildfires and jobs report?
So Disney agreed to combine its Hulu Plus live TV streaming service with Fubo. It's a deal that will also end pending litigation between them. Now, full disclosure, I am not a big sports guy myself, though I do tune into some hockey now and again. But I have been keeping up on the Fubo Disney drama because there has been drama. Beef, even. Quick play-by-play. Last year, Disney, CSPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox Corp. say they're creating a joint streaming service, a supergroup of live sports, named V-E-N-U. V-E-N-U? Venu? No, it's pronounced Venu. Then, Fubo sued all three companies to try and block the venture. It alleges that Disney at all wouldn't let Fubo carry a small bundle of sports-focused channels that the big three partners wanted to include in Venu.
The judge comes in with a preliminary injunction blocking the launch. And now, Disney and Fubo are mending fences slash joining forces. And on Friday, Disney, Fox, and Warner Brothers called off their big venture. No more venue. Quick side note, Fox and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp. share common ownership. So, how big a win was this week for Fubo's stock? Well, it was huge. On Monday, FuboTV shares surged 251%. The stock then added a relatively modest 7.9% to that on Tuesday and made some smaller moves lower Wednesday and Friday. Next up, let's talk about vaccines. No, not for COVID like we're all used to hearing about. No, this time for the H5N1 bird flu.
Why did insurance stocks fall after the Los Angeles wildfires?
And we're going to talk about the biotech firms that are making these shots, like Moderna and Novavax. Specifically, they're developing experimental vaccines against pandemic influenza, including this avian strain that has infected more than 60 people in the U.S. in the past year. So on Monday, U.S. health officials confirmed the first American death caused by this flu, which put these stocks into focus because this death could spur more federal funding for the vaccine's development.
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3 chaptersSpeakers
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