Walmart Index Closing Price Case Study

July 30, 2018

1. Investors Step Back From Social-Media Highfliers by Marc Vartabedian, Yoree Koh and Michael Wursthorn Summary: Shares of Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc.endured a surprise rout this week, as investors were rattled by signs that users are souring on the social-media stalwarts. Twitter said Friday that its number of monthly users dropped in the second quarter and could continue to fall as it purges fake accounts, results that echoed Facebook’s bombshell guidance Wednesday that its growth is expected to slow through the end of the year. Both companies suffered share-price declines of more than 20% after results. Facebook’s drop of over 19% on Thursday lopped more than $119 billion from its market value—the biggest single-day drop in U.S. market history. Twitter lost almost $7 billion. “We’re two for two being down 20%,” said Brent Thill, an analyst at Jefferies, adding, “It has not been a great week.”

Opinion: Investors should cut the tech sector some slack given that the sector helped lead the stock market to all time highs in 2017. It is impossible for any stock to constantly rise; there will be ups and downs, and this past week was a prime example of a down. The recent decline is probably a correction in the tech sector overall. The tech sectors is poised to have more upside throughout the year given that all the companies have great financials and great company health.

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2. Walmart Explores Its Own Streaming Service by Joe Flint, Erich Schwartzel and Sarah Nassauer Summary: Walmart Inc. is exploring a subscription video-streaming service that would seek to challenge Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. by offering programming that targets Middle America, according to people familiar with the plans. Planning is still in the early stages and Walmart hasn’t given the project a green light, the people said. But a decision to move forward could come by late summer or early fall, according to one of these people. The retail giant would be late to the subscription video-streaming business, an increasingly crowded market that also includes Hulu and AT&T Inc.’s HBO.

Opinion: Walmart is trying to compete with too many companies at the same time. First it was the acquisition of FlipKart to try and compete with Amazon, then it was the credit card partnership with Capital One, and now it's trying to compete with Netflix. In my opinion, Walmart is spreading itself too thin and they should focus on improving their retailing business because at their core they are a retailer

3. Startup Exchange IEX Still Has No Listings by Alexander Osipovich Summary: IEX Group Inc. made an ambitious effort to attract companies listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq after the 2014 publication of Michael Lewis’s best seller “Flash Boys.” The book followed IEX’s founders as they built a new exchange designed to protect investors from what they called predatory high-speed trading strategies. But so far, IEX has failed to list any companies, despite approaching hundreds over the past several years, including household names such as Amazon.com Inc., Starbucks Corp. and air carrier United Continental Holdings Inc. Some companies that considered an IEX listing have retreated, such as casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd. After the departure of founder and former Chief Executive Steve Wynn, a vocal IEX supporter, the company has indicated it is sticking with Nasdaq. Opinion: The NYSE and the Nasdaq are two powerhouses in the global financial services industry and it is some company's goals to eventually get listed on one of these two exchanges. It is very unlikely that any company will make the switch to IEX because getting listed on the Nasdaq or the NYSE, for some, is a sign that you and your company have made it.

4. Intel Serves Up an Opportunity for AMD by Dan Gallagher Summary: In the semiconductor business, very small things have a way of becoming very big problems. Take Intel Corp., which has spent years now trying to figure out how to make chips with circuitry measuring at just 10 nanometers wide. That is a tiny fraction of the width of a human hair, and is no small engineering feat. Intel has typically led the industry in such transitions—14 nanometers is the most common size now.But 10 nanometers has proven to be a bugbear. The company’s targets for shipping such chips at volume has been slipping for more than two years. It now expects to have 10-nanometer chips “on the shelves” for next year’s holiday season. Intel’s delays create a nice window for Advanced Micro Devices, Intel’s much smaller but recently resurgent rival. AMD launched a new server processor called Epyc last year, and that chip already has been gaining traction. The company said unit shipments jumped more than 50% in the second quarter from the first quarter, which had logged a similar surge. It also says a 7-nanometer version of that chip manufactured under contract by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will be shipping next year—potentially beating Intel’s 10-nanometer version by a year.