📈 Media Giants Go Solo

Good morning.

⚡ The Fast Five → Amazon launches slew of new AI devices, IBM completes acquisition of HashiCorp, Moderna stock tumbles, Meta seeks to raise $35B for data center, Fox, Disney and WBD plan to go it alone in sports streaming

🔎 Market Trends → S&P 500 ends down as Nvidia tumbles following report; US Futures Stabilize Ahead of PCE Inflation Data

And now…

⏱️ Your 5-minute briefing for Friday, February 28, 2025:

MARKET BRIEF
Before the Open

Pre-Market

Fear & Greed

Markets in Review

Tech Slump Weighs on Markets as Tariffs Loom

The Nasdaq plunged 2.8% to 18,544.4, while the S&P 500 slid 1.6% to 5,861.6. The Dow dropped a modest 0.5% to 43,239.5 as investors digested a sharp pullback in Nvidia (NVDA) and mounting tariff concerns. Technology led the declines, while energy stocks gained.

The Big Picture:

Markets hit turbulence as Nvidia's post-earnings sell-off rippled through tech stocks and Trump reaffirmed his tariff plans on Mexico, Canada, and China. The semiconductor leader’s Q4 results beat expectations, but the smallest revenue beat in two years left investors unimpressed.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy grew at a 2.3% annualized pace in Q4, per updated BEA data, though inflation came in hotter than previously estimated. Pending home sales hit an all-time low, while jobless claims rose, raising questions about economic resilience.

Treasury yields were mixed: The 2-year yield fell 2.3 basis points to 4.051%, while the 10-year ticked up 1.7 basis points to 4.266%. WTI crude jumped 2.2% to $70.11 per barrel as Trump revoked Chevron’s (CVX) license in Venezuela, stirring supply concerns.

Market Movers:

• Nvidia (NVDA) tanked 8.5%, the worst Dow performer, as investors shrugged at solid Q4 results that lacked a major upside surprise.

• Salesforce (CRM) slid 4%, its Q4 revenue failing to meet Wall Street's expectations.

• Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) jumped 4.8%, despite a wider-than-expected loss, as subscriber growth bolstered confidence.

• Chevron (CVX) rose 1%, leading energy stocks as Trump's Venezuela policy shift spurred speculation over tighter oil supply.

What They’re Saying:

"Nvidia’s revenue beat was the smallest in two years—investors who’ve grown accustomed to blowout numbers saw this as underwhelming," Deutsche Bank noted.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Events

• Today: Bureau of Economic Analysis - Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index m/m - 8:30am

• Why You Should Care: It's the Federal Reserve's primary inflation measure. Inflation is important to currency valuation because rising prices lead the central bank to raise interest rates out of respect for their inflation containment mandate.

Earnings Reports

• Today: Pearson, fuboTV, Sphere Entertainment Co., Chart Industries

• Monday: Okta, GitLab, Plug Power, Dave, California Resources Corporation, Burford Capital

MARKET BRIEF
Leading News

Sports Streaming's New Playbook: Media Giants Call Solo Audibles

Why it matters:

As Fox (FOXA), Disney (DIS), and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) abandon their joint Venu sports streaming venture, each company is unveiling distinct strategies that could reshape how you consume—and invest in—sports content.

Zoom Out:

The collapse of Venu before it even launched represents both market reality check and opportunity. Media giants are now forced to confront the streaming landscape's fundamental economics rather than rely on collective muscle.

This strategic pivot comes as cord-cutting accelerates (nearly 50 million U.S. households now exist outside traditional bundles) and sports rights costs continue their skyward trajectory, compelling each company to make more disciplined investment decisions.

Key Insights:

• Disney's doubling down on its standalone ESPN streaming service launching this fall—potentially incorporating user-generated content to court younger demographics, a demographic that traditional sports broadcasting has struggled to capture.

• Warner Bros. Discovery reversed course by including sports in standard Max subscriptions at no additional cost—a potential subscriber growth catalyst that sacrifices short-term revenue for long-term platform viability.

• Fox makes the most dramatic shift, hiring former Venu chief Pete Distad to spearhead its first serious streaming foray, while maintaining its "financially hard-nosed view" toward acquiring only sports rights with demonstrable ROI potential.

Market Pulse:

"We don't need any more sports anywhere in the world in order to support our business. We buy sports if we think it would enhance our business," says WBD CEO David Zaslav, signaling a more disciplined approach to wildly escalating sports rights costs.

Bull’s Take:

Media companies embracing individual streaming strategies creates clearer investment theses: Disney leverages ESPN's brand power, WBD builds Max's value proposition, and Fox finally enters the digital arena with focused sports/news offerings. For investors, this unbundling creates more transparent opportunities to bet on execution rather than consortium complexity.

Headlines

• Dell sees its backlog swell as big AI deals come through (link)

• Amazon has a ‘slew of AI devices’ coming, hardware chief says (link)

• AEP, Transource to invest $1.7 billion in power grid upgrades to meet rising demand (link)

• IBM Completes Acquisition of HashiCorp, Creates Comprehensive, End-to-End Hybrid Cloud Platform (link)

• Moderna’s stock stumbles on report HHS is reviewing $590 million award for bird-flu vaccine (link)

• Meta in talks to raise $35 billion for data center financing led by Apollo, Bloomberg News reports (link)

CRYPTO
Fear & Greed

Headlines

• Crypto losses explode to $1.53 billion in February following record Bybit hack: Immunefi (link)

• Metaplanet Seeks to Raise Over $13M From Bond Sale to Buy More Bitcoin (link)

• SEC Staff Says Memecoins Like Collectibles Not Securities (link)

DAILY SHARE
On the Socials