WSJ Your Money Briefing - What’s News in Markets: FuboTV Scores, Vaccine Bets, Insurers Stumble

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

What drove FuboTV’s gains? And how are bird-flu worries affecting vaccine makers? Plus, why did insurance shares drop? Host Francesca Fontana discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the ne...ws that drove them. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 With TD Direct Investing, new and existing clients could get 1% cash back. Great! That's 1% closer to being part of the 1%. Maybe, but definitely 100% closer to getting 1% cash back with TD Direct Investing. Conditions apply. Offer ends January 31, 2025. Visit td.com slash DI Offer to learn more. Hey, listeners. It's Saturday, January 11th. I'm Francesca Fontana for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Market, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. We had another short trading week this week, with markets closed Thursday for our national day of mourning in honor of former president Jimmy Carter. But during the four trading
Starting point is 00:00:56 sessions we did have, there was plenty of action. Primarily, we saw the markets react to the devastating wildfires that broke out on Tuesday in Los Angeles and have wreaked havoc across the region. In the case of this kind of natural disaster, we can see investors' concerns affecting stocks like the local utilities, such as Southern California Electric Company, Edison International. And there are the home and auto insurance stocks like Allstate, AIG, and others. Their shares fell on Friday as analysts estimate that the devastation will cost insurers billions of dollars. On Friday, we also got the December jobs report, which topped expectations. Way more jobs were
Starting point is 00:01:35 created than anticipated, which suggests that the labor market has recovered and it might even be gaining steam. As we've discussed before on this podcast, the jobs report is an important consideration for the Federal Reserve and for traders' guesses as to where interest rates are headed. So now, investors are pricing in just one rate cut this year. All three major indexes, the Dow, the S&P 500, and 1.9% and the NASDAQ lost more than 2%. Now first up, let's talk Fubo. That's F-U-B-O.
Starting point is 00:02:16 FuboTV, the sports streamer that announced a big deal with Disney at the start of the week. So Disney agreed to combine its Hulu Plus Live TV streaming service with Fubo. It's a deal that will also end pending litigation between them. Now full disclosure, I am NOT a big sports guy myself, though I do tune into some hockey now and again, but I have been keeping up on the Fubo Disney drama because there has been drama. Beef even. Quick play-by-play. Last year, Disney's ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox Corp. say they're creating a joint streaming service, a supergroup of live sports, named VENU.
Starting point is 00:02:57 Venu? Venu? No, it's pronounced Venu. Then, Fubo sued all three companies to try and block the venture. It alleges that Disney at all wouldn't let Fubo carry a small bundle of sports-focused channels that the big three partners wanted to include in venue.
Starting point is 00:03:15 The judge comes in with a preliminary injunction, blocking the watch. And now Disney and Fubo are mending fences slash joining forces. And on Friday, Disney, Fox, and Warner Brothers called off their big venture. No more venue. Quick side note, Fox and Wall Street Journal parent
Starting point is 00:03:31 News Corp share common ownership. So, how big a win was this week for Fubo stock? Well, it was huge. On Monday, Fubo TV shares surged 251%. The stock then added a relatively modest 7.9% to that on Tuesday and made some smaller moves lower Wednesday and Friday. Next up, let's talk about vaccines. No, not for COVID like we're all used to hearing about.
Starting point is 00:03:59 No, this time for the H5N1 bird flu. And we're going to talk about the biotech firms that are making these shots, like Moderna and Novavax. Specifically, they're developing experimental vaccines against pandemic influenza, including this avian strain that has infected more than 60 people in the US in the past year. So on Monday, US health officials confirmed the first American death caused by this flu, which put these stocks into focus
Starting point is 00:04:25 because this death could spur more federal funding for the vaccine's development. Moderna's efforts are part of a $176 million federal contract that it received last year. It could also prompt purchase orders up the shots, that is, if the vaccines succeed in testing and are authorized by regulators. As a result, Moderna shares jumped more than 11.5% on Tuesday, and Novavax gained 10.9%.
Starting point is 00:04:52 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 is produced by Pierre Bienamé, with supervising producer Taliar Bell. I'm Francesca Fontana, have a great weekend, and see you next Saturday!

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