JPMorgan Chase, Netflix, Gannett: Stocks That Defined The Week
20 July 2019 - 12:14AM
Dow Jones News
By Francesca Fontana
Major stock indexes ended lower this past week as investors
weighed signals of an interest-rate cut and mixed earnings results
from some of America's biggest companies.
Strong consumer businesses drove some banks' quarterly profits
higher; Netflix Inc. says its number of U.S. subscribers declined
for the first time in nearly a decade; and Gannett Co. soared after
The Wall Street Journal reported that the newspaper publisher is
nearing a deal to combine with rival GateHouse Media.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
U.S. consumers are taking advantage of low interest rates to
borrow and spend, lifting results this week for a number of the
nation's biggest banks. Strong Main Street businesses drove
quarterly profits higher at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other
banks with a large consumer presence. Morgan Stanley and Goldman
Sachs Group Inc., which rely more heavily on Wall Street, reported
lower quarterly profits compared to a year ago. Bank stocks ended
the week lower after central-bank officials signaled they are
likely to cut interest rates by a quarter-percentage point at their
upcoming meeting.
Alphabet Inc.
Google's ties to China attracted the attention of President
Trump, who said in a tweet that his administration would examine
national-security concerns raised by billionaire investor and
Facebook Inc. board member Peter Thiel. In a Sunday speech, Mr.
Thiel claimed that Alphabet Inc.'s Google is working with China's
government instead of the U.S. military. President Trump sent a
tweet Tuesday saying the U.S. government would look into Mr.
Thiel's concerns, and hours later at a Senate hearing, Google
confirmed for the first time that it had killed its controversial
plans for a censored search engine in China dubbed "Dragonfly."
Alphabet shares lost 1.2% this week.
Amazon.com Inc.
The e-commerce company faces a new regulatory threat to its
growing market power. The European Union said Wednesday it is
investigating Amazon.com Inc.'s dealings with third-party merchants
on its site, the latest development in the antitrust scrutiny of
tech giants such as Facebook and Alphabet Inc.'s Google in the U.S.
and abroad. The European Commission, the EU's top antitrust
enforcer, said it will look into whether Amazon is abusing its dual
role as the provider of a marketplace for independent sellers and a
retailer of products in its own right. The probe will also examine
whether Amazon has an unfair advantage to be designated as the
default option for products it sells. Amazon.com shares fell 2.3%
this week.
Netflix Inc.
The number of people subscribing to Netflix in the U.S. has
declined for the first time in nearly a decade, the company said in
its most recent quarterly report late Wednesday. The company said
it had 130,000 fewer domestic subscribers at the end of the second
quarter compared to the end of the first quarter. The streaming
giant will also soon face a range of new rival services from Walt
Disney Co., Apple Inc., AT&T Inc.'s WarnerMedia and Comcast
Corp.'s NBCUniversal. These competitors are also starting to pull
their content from Netflix as NBC did to "The Office" and
WarnerMedia did to "Friends." Netflix shares fell 10% Thursday.
Charles Schwab Corp.
A push by Charles Schwab Corp. deeper into the field of
financial advice boosted the money manager's shares 3.3% Tuesday.
The Journal reported late Monday that the company is in talks to
buy brokerage and wealth-management operations from USAA for
roughly $2 billion. The deal could bring Schwab roughly $100
billion of assets and may be reached this month, the Journal
reported. Schwab's move would be the latest in a string of recent
deals by big wealth advisers and banks to buy smaller companies,
such as Goldman Sachs's agreement to buy boutique wealth manager
United Capital Financial Partners Inc. for $750 million earlier
this year.
PG&E Corp.
PG&E Corp. said Monday that it is working to repair nearly
10,000 problems it discovered throughout its electrical system as
it steps up efforts to prevent its equipment from sparking more
wildfires. A failure last year of a century-old transmission line
sparked the deadliest fire in California history. The California
utility company said that it is still working through more than
3,700 repairs, including damaged transmission towers, broken
hardware on local distribution poles and leaking transformers in
its substations. The company didn't give details on the electric
lines and substations that need work but said most of its
high-priority repairs should be completed within about three
months. PG&E shares ended 8.3% lower this week.
Gannett Co.
The USA Today publisher is nearing a deal to combine with rival
GateHouse Media, the Journal reported. The union would join the
country's two largest newspaper groups by circulation as both
grapple with a brutal environment for local media nationwide. The
two companies are discussing a cash-and-stock deal in which
GateHouse's parent would likely buy Gannett and GateHouse Chairman
and Chief Executive Mike Reed would assume the same roles at the
enlarged entity, the Journal reported. The private-equity-backed
GateHouse has a reputation for aggressively slashing expenses at
titles it acquires. Gannett shares gain more than 19% Friday.
Write to Francesca Fontana at francesca.fontana@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 19, 2019 18:59 ET (22:59 GMT)
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