Most days, being a Disney shareholder feels like “Treasure Planet.” Thursday was more like Frozen.
The world’s most valuable entertainment company had bad news on Wednesday night. The company lost around 300,000 streaming subscribers in North America and also slumped internationally as customers in India left, disappointed at the loss of streaming rights to a cricket league.
The stock was the worst performer in the S&P 500, falling 8.7% and helping push the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 222 points, or 0.66%. However, as Heard on the Street’s Dan Gallagher writes, CEO Bob Iger’s focus on profitability rather than judgment is ultimately the right move. Disney could raise prices even more, with the U.S. Disney+ premium plan costing 45% less per month than Netflix’s top offering and 31% less than HBO Max’s premium offering.
Tech stocks ended on a much more positive note on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.18%. The standout was Google parent Alphabet, which rose 4.1% for the day after rising a similar amount on Wednesday. The spark was an optimistic assessment of its chances of defending its search realm against intrusion from Microsoft’s Bing, which uses generative AI.
One area of the technology universe that didn’t shine was electric vehicles. Polestar Automotive shares fell 12.5% after the company lowered its outlook for 2023. Other EV startups like Lucid and Fisker are also in trouble. Relatively standout is Rivian, which reiterated its outlook, but even its shares are “extremely risky,” says Heard on the Street’s Stephen Wilmot.
Speaking of risky, some regional banks continued their crush on Thursday. PacWest Bancorp shares fell nearly 23%. It lost a large chunk of its deposits last week.
This analysis comes from the journal’s Heard on the Street team. Subscribe to the free daily afternoon newsletter here.