- The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly exceeded 40,000 points for the first time.
- Walmart shares soared after the retailer said it was benefiting from people choosing groceries over quick-service restaurants.
- Wayfair opens its first brick-and-mortar store.
Here are the most important news items investors need to start their trading day:
Lord, Lord, the Dow hit $40,000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly exceeded $40,000 for the first time, but ended the day with a slight decline back to $39,869.38. Still, the intraday high is the culmination of a bull market that began in October 2022. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also ended the day lower after setting new records. “This result is a testament to the power of capital formation, innovation, profit growth and economic resilience,” said John Lynch, chief investment officer at Comerica Wealth Management. Follow live market updates.
Customers shop at a Walmart Supercenter in Hallandale Beach, Florida on February 20, 2024.
Joe Radle | Getty Images
Walmart stock rose about 7% to a record high on Thursday after the company beat Wall Street’s quarterly sales and earnings estimates. The company’s chief financial officer said this is partly because customers are turning to Walmart’s grocery aisles for cheaper meals than at quick-service restaurants. “Eating out is about 4.3 times more expensive than eating at home,” he said. “And it’s benefiting our business.” But former Walmart US CEO Bill Simon told CNBC’s “Fast Money” that wealthy customers are driving beats. and warned that it may be difficult to retain customers.
February 28, 2024, in the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments on the legality of “bump stocks,” a simple device that allows semiautomatic guns to fire automatically.
Mandel Gunn | AFP | Getty Images
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding structure is legal. The ruling protects authorities that receive funding from the Federal Reserve from the possibility of the death penalty. Congress created the CFPB in response to the 2008 financial crisis to enforce consumer protection laws and ensure a fair market for consumer financial products and services. It also allowed the CFPB to withdraw funds from the Federal Reserve to avoid relying on annual appropriations from Congress and protect itself from political pressure. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the 7-2 majority opinion.
Adobe XD apps on a laptop in Brooklyn, New York, USA, on Friday, July 28, 2023.
Gabby Jones Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cloud-based design tools company Figma has announced that it will allow current investors, including current and former employees, to sell their shares in a tender offer. The proposal values ​​the company at $12.5 billion, a 25% increase from the company’s valuation when it raised funds in 2021. But that falls short of the $20 million Adobe had offered in its 2022 acquisition plan before the deal fell apart due to federal scrutiny. . Tech companies like Google, Oracle, and Salesforce use Figma’s software, and Microsoft also spends millions of dollars a year deploying it.
Wayfair store in Wilmette, Illinois.
Provided by: Wayfair
Online home goods retailer Wayfair is taking a new approach by opening brick-and-mortar stores. This follows a string of other digitally native companies that have turned to physical locations for growth, including Warby Parker, Figs, Glossier, and Everlane. The 150,000-square-foot Wayfair megastore in suburban Chicago will sell a variety of home goods, from furniture to electronics to decorative items. The move also comes as new retail store openings have outpaced closings over the past few years, leading to warnings that stores could disappear in a reversal of the so-called retail apocalypse.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Hung, Melissa Repko, Stephanie Landsman, Kevin Browninger, Dan Mangan, Hayden Field, Deirdre Botha and Gabriel Fontrouge contributed to this report.
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Correction: Bill Simon is the former CEO of Walmart. A previous version of this article misstated his title.
