What’s News in Markets: Meaty Issues, Tech Troubles, Media Shake-Ups

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Hey, listeners. It's Saturday, November 15th. I'm Francesca Fontana for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. This week started off with a stock market rally with an end to the government shutdown in sight, pushing the Dow above 48,000 by Wednesday's close. But the optimism faded fast on Thursday, with the Dow losing almost 800 points. While we saw broad declines, tech stocks were hit particularly hard. I'll break that down in a little bit. One factor weighing on stocks was traders backing away from their bets on interest rate cuts. According to CME Group, which operates Futures and Options exchanges, the chances of a cut by the Federal Reserve next month were around 50%, and that's down from 63% on Wednesday, and about 70% a week earlier. All told, on Thursday, US stocks posted their worst day in a month. Woof. On a weekly basis, the Dow added 0.3%, the S&P 500 edged 0.1% higher, and the NASDAQ lost about half a percent. Apologies in advance if you're listening while hungry, because we are looking at two food stocks. First up is Tyson. One iconic question really sums up the situation for Tyson. Where's the beef? The American cattle shortage is taking a bite out of Tyson's profits, but chicken sales are helping offset those beef losses. In its quarterly report Monday, Tyson said its beef prices rose 17% while sales volumes fell 8%, all amid the lowest US cattle supply since the 1950s. But, while the price tags are rising on beef and pork products, Tyson said shoppers are flocking to chicken nuggets and wings. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. Tyson's shares added 2.3% on Monday and rose 2.5% for the week. Now, vegetarians and vegans, don't worry, I've got news for you too. Beyond Meat, the plant-based protein company, said during its quarterly report that the American appetite for its meat alternatives is dwindling. Beyond posted a wider quarterly loss and declining sales as demand from US customers and restaurants fell for its products, like vegetable-based burgers and sausages. To put it in perspective, its international sales fell 1% in the quarter, while its total US revenue was down 21%. And so, Beyond Meat shares sank 9% on Tuesday and for the week lost 22%.

Let's circle back to Thursday's market decline that was particularly rough for tech stocks. For instance, NVIDIA fell 3.6%, while Oracle lost 4.1%, and Tesla slid 6.6%. Now, it's not like the sector hasn't been under pressure, what with the concerns about the sky-high valuations of tech's biggest names and about the big AI arms race. But in the days before, losses in technology had been balanced out by gains elsewhere, which was how we got that Dow record close Wednesday. But on Thursday, the index couldn't keep the pace, and it was partly dragged down by shares of Walt Disney, after the company posted less than magical quarterly results, including lower-than-expected revenue. And Disney's stock ended up sliding 7.7%.

This week was a tale of two media giants. As Disney took a downward turn, Paramount Skydance was shooting for the sky. The rival entertainment giant rallied 9.8% Tuesday, after Paramount reported streaming growth in its first quarterly report since its merger with Skydance Media. And Paramount was in the news again on Friday, when The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount, Comcast and Netflix are preparing bids for Warner Bros. Discovery ahead of a November 20th deadline for first-round offers. Now, Paramount wants to buy the entire company, while Comcast and Netflix are primarily interested in Warner Bros. Movie and TV studios and HBO Max. In the meantime, Warner is still rolling ahead on its existing plans to separate its assets into two companies, unwinding much of the 2022 merger that combined Warner and Discovery. All in all, Paramount shares notched a weekly gain of 3.8%. And now you know, What's News in Markets this week. You can read about more stocks that moved on the week's news in the score, my column in the Wall Street Journal's Exchange section. Today's show was produced by Zoe Kolkin with supervising producer Jana Heron. I'm Francesca Fontana. Have a great weekend and see you next Saturday.