Yahoo Finance Trending tickers: Disney l Instacart l Intel l Crude oil
A look at the stocks making headlines on Wednesday
Disney (DIS)
Shares in Disney fell nearly 4% on Tuesday at market close in the US after the company announced plans to invest $60bn ($48.5bn) in theme parks and cruises over the next decade.
“We’re incredibly mindful of the financial underpinning of the company, the need to continue to grow in terms of bottom line, the need to invest wisely so that we’re increasing the returns on invested capital, and the need to maintain a balance sheet, for a variety of reasons,” Disney’s chief executive Bob Iger, said in a press statement.
“We have an ambitious growth story that is supported by a proven track record and a bold vision for the future of our parks business,” experiences and products chairman Josh D’Amaro added.
It comes after Disney’s theme parks were hit hard during the pandemic due to travel restrictions and lockdowns. However, they have been performing well since with a 13% jump in revenues to $8.3bn in the third quarter.
Read more: LIVE: FTSE rises and pound tumbles after surprise fall in UK inflation
“That’s helped to offset its profitability woes in its Disney+ streaming service as well as the struggles in studios and linear TV. The investment is part of plans outlined by returning CEO Bob Iger who came back to the helm in November having previously run the business for 15 years until 2020,” said Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor.
“Having enjoyed a strong January performance, the stock has largely been under pressure since [January], reflecting concerns about its business model,” she added.
Instacart (CART)
Following in the footsteps of Arm (ARM) and RayzeBio (RYZB) last week, Instacart's stock started trading on the Nasdaq exchange in the US yon Tuesday, with its shares climbing 43% during the session and closing up 12%.
On Monday, the company, which filed for the Initial Public Offering (IPO) as "Maplebear", priced its IPO at $30 a share, raising $660m for the grocery delivery company.
Instacart’s shares started trading at $30 on Tuesday and closed at $34.23, valuing the company at about $11bn.
Instacart is the market leader among third-party grocery delivery companies in the US, according to market research firm YipitData.
Read more: UK inflation slows unexpectedly to 6.7% ahead of interest rate decision
However, the company faces competition from others, including DoorDash (DASH) and Uber Eats (UBER). It also competes with Walmart (WMT), which offers its own delivery service.
Taking another cue from Arm, Instacart lined up big investors to support its listing, including PepsiCo Inc (PEP).
Instacart has also enlisted Norway’s Norges Bank, TCV, Sequoia, D1 Capital Partners LP and Valiant Capital Management as cornerstone investors.
Intel Corporation (INTC)
Shares in Intel declined 4.34% at market close on Tuesday in the US as the company pitched an “AI PC” at a software developer event.
A new Intel chip due in December will be able to run a generative artificial intelligence chatbot on a laptop rather than having to tap into cloud data centres for computing power, the company said.
Intel demonstrated laptops at the conference in Silicon Valley that could generate a song in the style of Taylor Swift and answer questions in a conversational style, all while disconnected from the internet, Reuters reported.
Read more: Stocks that are trending today
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said Microsoft's (MSFT) "Copilot" AI assistant will be able to run on Intel-based PCs.
"We see the AI PC as a sea change moment in tech innovation," Gelsinger said.
Executives also said the company is on track to deliver a successor chip called "Arrow Lake" next year, and that Intel's manufacturing technology will rival the best from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW).
Crude Oil Oct 23 (CL=F)
After an oil price rally in recent days, both US crude, or West Texas Intermediate, and Brent (BZ=F), were trading around 1% lower on Wednesday at about $89.90 and $93.08 a barrel respectively.
It comes as Brent surpassed $95 a barrel this week — the highest level since November 2022 — as crude reductions continue to elevate prices.
Craig Erlam, senior market analyst, OANDA, said: “At a time when central banks are starting to see the light at the end of the inflation tunnel, $100+ oil will be incredibly unwelcome and unhelpful. I'm not sure there's much economic sense in tipping the global economy into recession if OPEC+ persevered with these cuts, which makes me question how high the price will go and how sustainable it will be.”
Meanwhile, China's latest stimulus measures have also added to the bullish sentiment among traders.
Read more: Oil prices close in on $100: Will it reverse inflation progress?
The latest API inventory data showed a sharp drop in crude stocks. Crude inventories fell by 5.25 million barrels last week, twice as much as analysts had anticipated.
Distillate stocks also fell by a quarter of a million barrels.
Despite oil prices falling, they are still well supported and hovering around the $90 level which policymakers will be watching closely as a sustained surge in crude could fuel inflation and at the same time depress corporate profit margins and squeeze consumers’ disposable income.
“If they (oil prices) go high and stay high then that could feed into higher headline inflation rates once more and leave policymakers with a problem, if they need to keep raising rates while the economy is slowing,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, noted ahead of the Bank of England’s interest rate decision on Thursday and the Federal Reserve rate decision later on Wedneday.
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