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26,517.19
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Straits Times
3,131.26
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BMV IPC
47,582.11
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Dow Jones
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DAX 30
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FTSE 100
7,196.24
▲ +7.16 / +0.10%
JSE Top 40
62,107.37
▲ +335.93 / +0.54%
Last Week’s Highlights
Levi Strauss shares in their comfort zone
Levi Strauss & Co.’s results for the second quarter of the year exceeded expectations. During the quarantine imposed after the pandemic, the fashion for comfortable clothing for work, meetings and social events returned. This is the main reason why Levi Strauss branded products such as jeans and jackets were in high demand in the market. The company was forced to raise the price of its product catalog to counteract the rising costs of raw materials and labor; however, instead of hurting, this benefited the company. Levi’s was expected to close the quarter with earnings of $1.43 billion, but exceeded that figure and reached $1.47 billion. The company earned 29 cents per share, beating estimates of 23 cents.
GameStop looks to return to brighter days
Video game retailer GameStop Corp. was a very successful company in 2021, where its shares rose about 700%. However, in 2022, its performance has been quite the opposite. Their stock is down 23.2% so far. For this reason, GameStop is looking to reshape its management system to improve the outlook. The company reported that its chief financial officer, Mike Recupero, was fired because they plan to reduce costs and cut jobs. Chief accounting officer and former interim CFO, Diana Saadeh-Jajeh, will move into Recupero’s position. GameStop says that through these changes to trim its workforce, they are looking to “keep things simple and operate nimbly.” Along with this staffing change, the company is attracting new investors using a four-for-one stock split. Each eligible shareholder will receive a dividend in the form of three additional shares for each stock held.
Coming Up This Week
Musk’s reconsideration makes Twitter dip
The Elon Musk-Twitter deal was back in the spotlight in Friday’s trading session. Information was released claiming that the deal between the Tesla boss and the social network is in “serious jeopardy” of being finalized. This news impacted Twitter, causing it to drop 4% and fall to $37.28 per share, far from the $54.20 that was contemplated in Musk’s offer. Apparently, the billionaire had concerns about the number of “spam” accounts that exist on the platform; in response, Twitter stated that the number of such accounts remains below 5% of the social network’s users. Wedbush analyst, Dan Ives, predicts that there is close to a 35% probability that Elon Musk will end up abandoning this agreement completely.
GrubHub joins Amazon
Stocks of Uber and DoorDash suffered significant declines following the growth of GrubHub. The US food ordering and delivery platform received support from Amazon, which took a 2% of its stake, owned by Just Eat Takeaway. The e-commerce giant also has the option to buy another 13% if a recently launched promotional effort works out optimally. Now, all subscribers to Amazon’s Prime service have access to GrubHub, as long as GrubHub is available in their area. Uber and DoorDash were the main players affected by this news, and it was reflected in their stock during Wednesday’s trading session. Uber fell 4.4% and Dash fell 7.2%. If Amazon acquires the remaining part of GrubHub and enters the food delivery market, Uber and DoorDash will have a very challenging landscape ahead of them.