Weekly news summary for January 28 to February 3
Friday, Jan. 28: Robinhood Recovers After Hitting its Lowest Level
Shares of Robinhood Markets Inc. rose almost 6% on Friday, as a broader market recovery pushes the stock from a more than 14% decline posted earlier in the session, following the brokerage’s Thursday report of a $423 million net loss for the fourth quarter.
Optimistic numbers from Apple Inc. and Visa Inc. drove US stock indices higher in the week that has seen wild swings in the markets amid concerns over quicker and more rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and geopolitical dispute between Russia and the West.
Monday, Jan. 31: Italian Yields Fall on Mattarella Re-Election
German bond yields edged higher on Monday amid investors’ increased risk appetite and inflation concerns, while Italian borrowing costs dropped as Sergio Mattarella will continue to serve as the country’s president, keeping former ECB chief Mario Draghi as prime minister.
The German 10-year government bond yield was up to -0.034%, and the Italian 10-year government bond yield was down to 1.3%, having posted its lowest since Jan. 14 of 1.282%, while the spread between the German and Italian 10-year bonds slipped to a three-week low.
Tuesday, Feb. 1: Alphabet May Integrate Blockchain Into Services
Google LLC may have begun looking into blockchain and how it could benefit the Web3 technology, as the US search giant’s parent Alphabet Inc. is reportedly planning to add blockchain tech into its products and services.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said there are some “areas of interest” in Web 3 for the firm, suggesting augmented reality (AR) and blockchain’s potential to operate computing and service layers, and adding that Google’s cloud team is studying ways to meet customer needs via blockchain-based platforms.
Wednesday, Feb. 2: Eurozone Inflation Hits New Record High in January
The eurozone inflation surged to a new record high in January, keeping inflation higher after a 5.0% increase in December and raising the possibility that the European Central Bank (ECB) will hike interest rates at an earlier date.
Data from Eurostat showed that consumer prices in the eurozone were up 5.1% year-on-year in the previous month, marking a new record high despite forecasts for a steep fall of 4.4%, while the euro gained 0.45% against the US dollar to $1.13 to hit a nine-day high following the report.
Thursday, Feb. 3: Meta Loses 20% as Facebook Daily Users Fall
Meta Platform Inc.’s stock lost over 20% after the US social media group fell short of expectations on its fourth-quarter earnings due to the impact of Apple Inc.’s privacy changes and stronger competition for users from rivals such as TikTok and YouTube.
Facebook’s daily users worldwide were down for the first time to 1.929 billion from 1.930 billion, dropping by about half a million users in the past three months of 2021, while its monthly users of 2.91 billion in the fourth quarter presented no increase from the previous quarter.
