• Tesla plans 3 to 1 stock split later this August: Electric vehicles manufacturer’s – Tesla’s – stock price increased from week’s low of 840 to over 900 on Friday on the news, that company is planning to pay a “dividend” of two new stocks to its shareholders as a part of 3 to 1 stock split action. The move will cause stock price to slash in value by factor of three while total shares outstanding to be tripled. This will bring share price from 900 to about 300 area making stock more accessible for retail investors. That may amount to little more than cutting the pizza into more slices, but individual investors often chow down on bite-sized pie. One study found that stocks announcing splits typically beat the market by 16 percentage points over the next 12 months. Small investors matter for Tesla. About 46% of shares available for trading are held by noninstitutional investors. The comparable number for, say, Alphabet is 15%.
  • The Walt Disney Company beats earnings estimates: Walt Disney reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings this week, and investors were pleasantly surprised by several items of note. The result has been a jump in the stock, moving shares up about 13% for the week as of midday Friday. That has brought gains in Disney over the last month to nearly 30%. Many Disney watchers have been focused on what the company would say about its Disney+ streaming service. Those subscriptions grew more than expected, but that wasn’t all that pushed investors into buying the stock. The company’s theme park segment saw revenue soar 70% year over year in its second quarter. Overall revenue grew 26% year over year in the quarter and 28% over the last nine months. On the company’s conference call with investors, CEO Bob Chapek called the performance of its domestic theme parks “outstanding.” Internationally, Disney’s parks are all now open, so there could be more promising results to come for investors. Many investors were more focused on the streaming services, especially after some other providers like Netflix have seen growth declining. But Disney added more than 14 million subscribers just for its Disney+ offering since the previous quarter. That brings Disney’s total paid subscribers to over 221 million including ESPN+ and Hulu services. That’s now more than Netflix reported as of June 30.
  • Bed Bath & Beyond up by 30% last week: stock rallied this week, rising 30% through Thursday trading compared to a 1.5% increase in the wider market. Although, shares are still down nearly 30% since the start of 2022. Bed Bath & Beyond didn’t announce any news that might have sent the stock higher. In fact, its last operating update contained plenty of negative signs about the business. Sales dropped by more than 20% in the selling period that ended in late May, helping precipitate a sharp drop in profitability. Bed Bath & Beyond reported an operating loss of $339 million compared to a loss of $72 million a year ago. Yet investors chose to send shares higher this week, mainly as interest flooded back to several meme stocks. Bed Bath & Beyond has joined peers like AMC Entertainment Holdings in experiencing large price swings, this week in the positive direction. While volatility might produce additional stock price spikes similar to what investors saw this week, sharp declines are just as likely.


Stocks rallied after data showed signs that inflation, while still elevated on an annualized basis, had started to slow, supporting the view that the rise in consumer prices may have peaked. Federal Reserve officials reiterated that the central bank still had work to do in taming inflation, but the market still appeared to lower its expectations for a 75-basis-point rate hike in September. All the sectors in the S&P 500 advanced, led by energy stocks. Consumer staples lagged. Overall S&P 500 index rose by 2.99% for the week, Dow Jones Index rose by 2.69%, and NASDAQ index rose by 2.70% for the same period.