Francesca Fontana
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
First, let's talk Intel. Two of its chip-making rivals are eyeing deals that would break the storied company in two. The Wall Street Journal reported last weekend that Broadcom has been looking at Intel's chip design and marketing business, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has its eye on controlling some or all of Intel's chip plants.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
And that's according to people familiar with the matter. Now, Broadcom and TSMC aren't working together, and the talks are preliminary and largely informal. But the end result could be a breakup of Intel. And if you're asking, how did Intel go from global leader, totally dominating the chip business for decades, to an acquisition target?
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
Well, its recent struggles include manufacturing setbacks, a costly turnaround strategy, and AI missteps. And you might remember that this isn't the first time Intel was sought after. Last September, the Journal reported that Qualcomm had made a takeover approach to the company.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
And investors were clearly excited about the dual deal possibilities this week, because Intel shares surged 16% on Tuesday. And while the stock came back down to earth later in the week, it still notched a weekly gain of 5.3%. Now let's circle back to Walmart. Retail giant, leading American grocer, used to be big on smiley faces, remember that old logo?
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
Well, Walmart investors weren't smiling at the company's latest quarterly report. Deal-seeking shoppers boosted shares last year, but this year it might be a different story. Wal-Mart postete einen starken Profit und Revenue für die Weihnachtszeit, aber es gab weniger als erwartetes Wachstum für die kommende Jahrhunderte.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
Dies schlug die Investoren ab und hatte Ripple-Effekte auf dem Markt am Montag, weil es einige Glauben auf die Stärke des US-Konsumenten gab. Wal-Mart-Ausgaben fielen am Montag um 6,5 Prozent und verringerten am Freitag weiter, endet mit einem wöchentlichen Verlust von 8,9 Prozent. Let's talk about love. You know, Valentine's Day is over, it's done.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
And so maybe it's fitting that one of the biggest losers of the week was dating app company Bumble. Now Bumble's been trying to turn itself around, but late Tuesday the company forecast lower than expected earnings in the first quarter, disappointing investors. And it's not the only online dating stock that hasn't been so lucky in love lately.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
Earlier this month, Rival Match, which owns Tinder, Hinge and Okie Cupid, replaced its top executive, posted a drop in fourth quarter earnings and forecast sales below expectations. Now Bumble said it's got a plan to attract more users and improve its monetization strategy and it's going to wind down two of its dating apps.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
Fruits, with a Z, you know how cool stuff gets spelled, and official, which is spelled normally. But that did little to stop the freefall, as Bumble shares lost a whopping 30% Wednesday, and on the week lost 38%. 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.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
Hey Listeners, it's Saturday, February 22nd. 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. Kicking off another four-day trading week, Tuesday started on a high note, with the S&P 500 notching its second record high close of 2025.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
Today's show was produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé, with supervising producer Talia Arbel. I'm Francesca Fontana. Have a great weekend and don't forget to email me whether you're feeling bullish or bearish about the stock market. I'll see you next Saturday.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
But investors are still cautious, with talk of tariffs and warm inflation. And I found this really interesting. Per the latest survey from the American Association of Individual Investors, bearishness among individual traders... The percentage who expect stock prices to fall over the next six months reached about 47% for the week ending February 12th. That's the highest since November 2023. Woof.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Intel Spikes, Walmart Slides, Bumble Fumbles
And I'm curious to know what you think. So please email me at francesca.fontana at wsj.com. I am really looking forward to hearing your two cents. All right, back to the week. Am Donnerstag riefen Walmarts Steuern auf den Index-Paraden, wir kommen zurück zu dem, und die Gloom lag mit Fridays Verlusten. Am Wochenende fielen die Dow und der Nasdaq alle 2,5 %, während der S&P 500 1,7 % fiel.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
Now let's circle back to NVIDIA, the poster child of the AI boom. Like I mentioned, NVIDIA also delivered some solid earnings, but investors weren't so ready to celebrate. After the market closed Wednesday, NVIDIA posted sharply rising sales and profit in its latest quarter, and the company said it brought in $11 billion of revenue from its new Blackwell artificial intelligence chips.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
The results showed that spending on NVIDIA's chips is continuing to soar, despite all the jitters about the outlook for the AI boom that have been moving through the stock market. You may recall that in January, the threat of competition to U.S. dominance from Chinese AI developer DeepSeek rattled investors.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
Analysts blame the stock's fall on narrower profit margins and worry about NVIDIA's sales in China. NVIDIA shares dropped 8.5% on Thursday and on a weekly basis lost about 7.2%. 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.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
Today's show was produced by Zoe Kolkin and Anthony Bansi with supervising producer Talia Arbel. I'm Francesca Fontana. Have a great weekend. And don't forget, you can email me your thoughts on the market at francesca.fontana at wsj.com. I'll see you next Saturday.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
But trade drama, continued inflation, and AI competition fears did not do us any favors in February.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
Hey, listeners. It's Saturday, March 1st. 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. To refresh our memories, stocks logged gains for January and a strong start to 2025.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
This week, for instance, NVIDIA's positive results still managed to cause a sell-off, and we had more tariff threats from President Trump and retaliation threats from China, not to mention the tense meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after which stocks wobbled before they recovered late Friday afternoon.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
All in all, the three major indexes ended the week mixed, and for the month of February, the S&P 500 and the Dow each fell about 1.5%, while the Nasdaq dropped nearly 4%. We got some fresh earnings reports this week, including from Home Depot, the home improvement giant. Even the less handy among us certainly know the orange logo.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
Home Depot delivered a better-than-expected quarter, beating Wall Street's expectations for quarterly sales and profit, and the company said it's increasing its quarterly dividend to $2.30 a share.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
Home Depot said that demand was strong for things like appliances, building materials, and lumber, but weaker for projects like kitchen and bathroom remodels, you know, the kind of big purchases that a lot of us might typically use financing for, like a credit card or a personal loan.
WSJ What’s News
What’s News in Markets: Home Depot Delivers, Nvidia Wobbles
And the company sees higher interest rates continuing to strain people's wallets when it comes to big-ticket purchases. And, as a result, it offered cautious guidance. Home Depot shares rallied 2.8% on Tuesday and notched a weekly gain of 2.9%. We also got positive quarterly results this week from Home Depot rival Lowe's, with the blue logo, not orange, and its shares rose too.