Happy Sunday from the Super Bowl. Here are the top business stories to learn in the week ahead. – Charlotte Cowles
What’s up? (January 31 to February 6)
Curving Bezos
Twenty-seven years after founding Amazon, Jeff Bezos is shifting his job as chief executive to one of his protégés, Andy Jassy, who heads the company’s lucrative cloud computing division. Mr. Bezos will become the chief executive of Amazon and participate in high-level decisions, but it is still the end of an era for the country’s largest e-commerce retailer. He’s coming out on a very high note: Amazon’s most recent quarterly sales exceeded $ 100 billion for the first time, and the company’s value ($ 1.7 trillion) has made Bezos one of the richest people in the world. But there are challenges ahead, as the business faces increasing scrutiny by antitrust lawmakers and regulators as to whether it exerted its influence illegally.
The beginning of the end
Well, here’s something that isn’t surprising: the shares of GameStop – the company that attracted an online stock-buying frenzy that launched the markets into turmoil – fell back to earth again, withering to a small fraction of the value they held only some days before. The same army of retail investors that spurred GameStop’s boom and bust cycle also snapped up shares of losers like AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry, whose prices plunged last week. The rapid devaluation of so-called meme stocks, named for their instant popularity on social media, left investors wondering who to blame for their losses. As the market stabilized, however, it had its biggest recovery in months.
Protecting investors
Will the GameStop saga change the way stock trading is regulated? Possibly. The recently confirmed Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, held a meeting with key regulators on Thursday to discuss the growing prevalence of retail investments, that is, the trading of facilitated (and free) shares in apps like Robinhood and E -Trade. The advantage of these platforms is that they make investment more accessible to ordinary people (read: not for Wall Street). But if the past few weeks have taught us anything, the whims of these individual stock brokers can also lead to volatility that hurts investors of all stripes.
What is the next? (February 7 to 13)
En route stimulus
The Biden government and Congressional Democrats are moving forward with their $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and will work out the final details this week. To avoid potential blockades, Senate Democrats have approved a budget structure that will allow the aid package to be approved by a simple majority and without Republican support. President Biden said he still hopes to find some compromises with Republicans, who refuse to see the scope and price of the project. But he is not willing to waste time courting their votes, or indulging in fundamental provisions, such as aid for schools or direct payments of $ 1,400 to qualified Americans. And considering the dismal job report for January, he says there is not a moment to lose.
The Business of Elections
Voting technology company Smartmatic filed a $ 2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, three of its anchors and lawyers Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The company is accusing the defendants of damaging its business and reputation by selling false theories about its services as part of its discredited allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 elections. In its complaint, Smartmatic argues that Mr. Giuliani and Mrs. Powell, who represented former President Donald J. Trump, “created a story about Smartmatic” and that “Fox joined the conspiracy to defame and discredit Smartmatic and its election technology and software. “
A strange year for ads
The cost of Super Bowl ads remained similar to last year – about $ 5.6 million for a 30-second commercial. It is the first time that the rate has not increased significantly in over a decade and it took much longer than usual for CBS to sell all slots. After all, it is a strange time for marketing, and advertisers face a dilemma: alluding to the pandemic and reminding viewers of a nightmare they were hoping to escape for a few precious hours? Or ignore him and risk looking deaf? The ads will be dominated by popular pandemic companies such as the DoorDash delivery service app, the Mexican takeout chain Chipotle and the recently beleaguered investment platform Robinhood.