The Daily Chase: Netflix grows subscribers, Bitcoin halving event on track
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Here are five things you need to know this morning.
Mixed numbers at Netflix despite strong subscriber growth: Netflix earnings came out after the bell on Thursday, and the numbers for the streaming giant were mixed. First, the good: the company added more than 9 million new paying customers during the quarter, more than twice what analysts were expecting and the strongest start to a year since 2020. But outside that topline growth, the numbers look a lot weaker, as the company is advising it doesn’t expect that growth to last. Subscriber numbers have been the main metric that investors have judged the company on, but that may not be the case for much longer as starting next year, the company says it won’t even announce those numbers regularly anymore, hoping to focus more on conventional metrics like sales and profit. Investors don’t seem to like that plan as the shares lost about six per cent in aftermarket trading on Thursday, and are showing more weakness this morning.
Bitcoin halving event on track for Friday: Bitcoin is in focus today as the latest so-called halving event is slated to happen on Friday. It’s hard to pin down an exact time for it since it’s scheduled in Bitcoin’s code to happen every 210,000 blocks of transactions, but at some point Friday, or Saturday at the latest, there will be a planned reduction in the rewards that miners get for validating transactions. It’s currently at 6.25 tokens, where it has been since 2020, but once the halving happens that will fall to 3.125 per block. Functionally, it makes it harder to obtain new bitcoins which theoretically pushes up the value of the ones already in existence, as the cryptocurrency nears its end game of 21 million total tokens in circulation. We’ll have many experts on air and online today to explain what it all means for investors, including Geoff Kendrick at Standard Chartered, Matthew Hougan at Bitwise Asset Management and Lucas Matheson, the Canada country director at Coinbase, so be sure to check out our coverage throughout the day.
Taylor Swift broke Spotify – sort of: Taylor Swift dropped a new album on Thursday night (a double album depending on your perspective) and while that may not seem like a major economic event, so great is her influence that it can’t be ignored even on the business beat. Spotify had previously announced that the album had obliterated the company’s record for the most pre-saved album in its history, so perhaps it’s no surprise to discover users reported outages on the service around the time the album was released:
Facing a $1.4 billion deficit shortfall, the provincial government says its large-animal vet service will be privatized over the next three years.
Facing a $1.4 billion deficit shortfall, the provincial government says its large-animal vet service will be privatized over the next three years.
Jurors wade through daunting evidence in high-stakes Meta trial about social media risks to children
A stream of testimony and evidence has been presented in a New Mexico case exploring what Meta knew about the effects of its platforms on children.
Markets in Canada and the U.S. continued to trade lower while oil went up late morning on Friday as inflationary fears prevailed among investors.
Gold prices fell by 1.8 per cent on Friday as the dollar strengthened on a report that the United States will deploy extra troops in the Middle East, fanning concerns of higher oil prices, inflation, and with it, elevated interest rates.
Canada’s federally backed farm lender is offering financial aid to farmers, agricultural businesses and food companies hit by the spike in fertilizer and energy prices, it said on Friday.
Statistics Canada says retail sales were up 1.1 per cent at $70.7 billion in January, led by sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers.
As Qatar reels from an Iranian attack that has hobbled its giant natural gas company, its boss, who doubles as the country’s energy minister, says he had warned officials and executives of just such a danger should Iran’s own sites be hit.
Top Picks from Greg Newman, Senior Wealth Advisor & Portfolio Manager, Newman Group, ScotiaMcLeod
Dan Tobon outlines key market wildcards, including geopolitical risks, AI disruption and shifting investor sentiment.
U.S. stocks are sinking Friday as hopes wither on Wall Street for a possible cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve this year because of the war with Iran.
Pinterest CEO Bill Ready called on world leaders to ban social media for youth under 16 in a LinkedIn post on Friday.
Wall Street is stumbling toward the finish line of a fourth straight losing week on Friday, but an ease in oil prices is taking some of the pressure off stock markets worldwide.