What Paramount’s Earnings Report Could Tell Us About the State of Streaming

02/25/24 • 21 min

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This week, we’re looking ahead to Paramount Global’s earnings report. The company that includes TV, movies, and streaming, has been taking it on the chin from investors. Its stock has lost more than 50% of its value in the past year, so Wednesday’s report could be pivotal. Recently much of the talk about Paramount has been as an acquisition target — for media executive Byron Allen to Skydance Media CEO David Ellison. Michael Morris, senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities, joins us to share what this week’s earnings report from Paramount could tell us about what’s coming next — for streaming, for entertainment and for media conglomerates on Wall Street. Then, we turn our attention to the upcoming personal consumption expenditures report, or PCE. The report is slated to be released on Thursday and with stocks looking priced for perfection these days, we’ll unpack what investors need to know to be ready. WSJ market reporters Gunjan Banerji and Sam Goldfarb join for a roundtable discussion on what the report means for the markets. Lastly, we’re celebrating the extra day this month with Mark Maurer, reporter for WSJ’s CFO Journal publication. Mark shares how chief financial officers at some of the largest companies, like Chipotle, Walmart, and Delta Airlines, are getting investors ready for leap day.

Previous Episode

ARK Invest's Cathie Wood: AI Boom is Real, But Still Selling Nvidia

Chipmaker Nvidia is having a strong start to the year. The company is currently the best performing stock in the S&P 500 for 2024 and the third-largest company in the U.S., with a value of about $1.8 trillion. But how are investors feeling about Nvidia’s success? Ahead of the company’s earnings report later this week, we’re speaking with Cathie Wood, CEO and chief investment officer of ARK Invest, who recently went from a buyer to a seller of Nvidia stock. Cathie shares insight into that decision and what she’s most looking forward to from this week’s report. You can hear an extended conversation with Cathie Wood - plus other exclusive content - on WSJ SPECIAL ACCESS. Available on Spotify and Apple Podcast. Then, we’re turning our attention to Thursday’s existing home sales report from the National Association of Realtors. Few markets have been as impacted by inflation as the housing market. With mortgage rates touching the highest level in 23 years in October, we bring on WSJ housing reporter, Nicole Friedman, to discuss what that means for potential homebuyers and sellers. Lastly, we keep Nicole around to discuss inflation and how it’s shifted homeowners to focusing less on selling and more on renovating their homes. We’ll also be looking out for signs that prices are rising again in the earnings reports we’re expecting this week from Walmart and Home Depot.

(Correction: Nvidia is the third-largest company in the U.S. An earlier version of this podcast incorrectly said it was the fourth-largest. (Corrected on Feb. 20)

Next Episode

What This Week’s Jobs Reports Could Tell Us About the State of the Consumer

This week, we’re expecting the JOLTS and nonfarm payrolls reports. With inflation still holding above the Fed’s target and some weakness in the latest durable goods and retail sales reports, February’s nonfarm payrolls report will carry some extra weight. Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist, Liz Ann Sonders and their chief fixed income strategist, Kathy Jones, join us for a discussion about how the market is anticipating these reports, especially the jobs report– which will be the week's marquee data point. We’ll also be looking to see what these reports tell us about the state of the consumer. Then, ahead of Target and Costco’s earnings results, WSJ reporter Sarah Nassauer joins to talk about how those reports may show us how shoppers are balancing wants and needs. And with Super Tuesday fast approaching we’ll hear from Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, about how this election can move the markets and what the likely presidential rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden means for investors.

Further Reading

Hotter-Than-Expected Inflation Clouds Rate-Cut Outlook

Nasdaq Approaches Its Record High

U.S. Shoppers Cut Back in January

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