TheStreet’s J.D. Durkin brings the latest business headlines from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as markets open for trading Thursday, February 1.
Related: Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ are making a major change subscribers will hate
Full Video Transcript Below:
J.D. DURKIN: I’m J.D. Durkin – reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.
Stocks are coming off a losing session after the Fed held interest rates steady but signaled that a March rate cut was unlikely due to persistent inflation. Markets are currently pricing in a 35 percent chance of a rate cut in March.
Investors are also reacting to weekly jobless claims – 224,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week, up from 215,000 the prior week. While this figure did come in higher than expected, claims are still historically low, a sign of a sturdy labor market.
Meanwhile, investors will be keeping a close watch on earnings from major tech giants Apple, Amazon, and Meta when they release earnings after the closing bell Thursday.
In other news, Disney is taking a page out of Netflix’s book. The media and entertainment giant announced Thursday that it will begin cracking down on password sharing for its host of streaming services, Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, and Hulu.
The new rules explicitly ban sharing passwords outside of the primary household. In this case, “household” refers to the collection of devices associated with the primary address and WiFi. The official crackdown will begin March 14th.
This comes after Netflix’s wild success with the move – the streaming giant ended up seeing a massive boost in subscribers which it credited to the ban.
That’ll do it for your daily briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m J.D. Durkin with TheStreet.
