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    Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Peloton, AMD, Altria, Snap and more

    A sign hangs above the entrance of a Foot Locker store on August 02, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois.
    Scott Olson | Getty Images

    Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading Wednesday.
    Foot Locker — Shares gained 4% on Wednesday after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to outperform from neutral. The retailer could see upside to expected profit in 2024 and 2025 as its strategic plan takes shape, according to the firm.

    Advanced Micro Devices — Shares of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices jumped 12.6% after the company reported earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations, according to Refinitiv. AMD also showed relative strength after competitor Intel’s disappointing quarter, analysts said.
    Snap — Shares of the social media company plunged 10.3% after the firm reported quarterly revenue that missed Wall Street’s expectations, according to Refinitiv. Snap had a rough 2022 as a slowing economy led many companies to slash their digital ad budgets. For a third straight quarter, Snap is declining to provide guidance. Its earnings did beat estimates, however.
    Match — Shares of the online dating company fell 5% on Wednesday after posting revenue for the recent quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations, according to FactSet. Match also said it is reducing its workforce by 8% globally and announced revenue guidance for the first quarter that was lighter than what analysts expected.
    Stryker — Shares rallied 9.9% after the company reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of $3 per share, above FactSet’s estimate of $2.84. Revenue also beat expectations.
    Peloton — Peloton shares popped nearly 26.5% after it announced quarterly results this morning. The company’s fiscal second-quarter revenue topped analysts’ forecasts, according to Refinitiv. The fitness company saw a jump in subscription revenue. Peloton’s net loss was also the narrowest since the fiscal fourth quarter of 2021. CEO Barry McCarthy said the results are a potential “turning point” for the company.

    Brinker International — Shares of the restaurant stock recouped its earlier losses and slid 0.5% on Wednesday, after the company beat estimates on the top and bottom lines for the fiscal second quarter. The Chili’s parent company reported 76 cents in adjusted earnings per share on $1.02 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had penciled in 52 cents per share on $992 million of revenue. However, Brinker management said on its investor call that its restaurants may have lost some market share of customer traffic during the quarter.
    Scotts Miracle-Gro — Shares gained 11.5% after the lawn and gardening products manufacturer on Wednesday posted quarterly results that reflected a narrower-than-expected loss and a beat on analysts’ estimates for revenue, according to Refinitiv.
    Altria – The cigarette and tobacco producer’s stock popped more than 5.6% on Wednesday after earnings for the recent quarter topped estimates, according to Refinitiv. Altria also revealed a $1 billion stock buyback program.
    Electronic Arts – Shares of Electronic Arts fell 9.3% a day after the company reported adjusted earnings and net bookings that missed analysts’ expectations, according to FactSet.
    — CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Yun Li, Carmen Reinicke, Michelle Fox Theobald, and Hakyung Kim contributed reporting.

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    Peloton CEO doesn’t care that equipment is losing money, sees path forward in the app

    Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy told investors he isn’t concerned that its Bikes, Treads and Rows lost money during its holiday quarter.
    McCarthy touted the company’s mobile app, which features on-demand fitness classes from Peloton instructors.
    The pricey exercise machines posted a negative gross margin for the holiday quarter, but the fitness equipment maker’s overall profit margin was positive.

    Barry McCarthy speaks during an interview with CNBC on floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), October 28, 2019.
    Brendan McDermid | Reuters

    Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy told investors Wednesday he doesn’t care that the company is losing money on its Bike, Tread and Row equipment. The business’s “path to the promised land,” he said, is its mobile app. 
    Peloton posted negative margins during the holiday quarter for its pricey connected fitness products, but McCarthy said he’s more concerned with aggregate margins, which were in the positive thanks to the company’s subscription revenue. 

    “We take a holistic view of the revenue stream and the expenses associated with both the hardware and the subscription associated with it. So from my part, I don’t particularly care about the hardware margin,” McCarthy said during the company’s earnings call. 
    “I care about it on an aggregate basis, and I care about the relationship between the lifetime value of the customer relative to the cost of acquisition,” he said.
    Peloton shares closed 26% higher Wednesday.
    In Peloton’s fiscal second quarter of 2023, ended Dec. 31, the exercise equipment company lost $42.8 million on its connected fitness products, bringing the division’s gross margin to negative 11.2%. 
    The company’s overall gross margin of 29.7% was kept afloat by the $277.9 million Peloton made from its subscription business, at a margin of 67.6%. 

    While subscription revenue was effectively flat quarter over quarter, it exceeded sales from Peloton’s connected fitness products for the third quarter in a row. McCarthy told CNBC it signals a possible “turning point” for the company. 
    When asked about how the app, which features on-demand workout classes from the company’s pseudo-celebrity instructors, fits into the exercise equipment company’s overall strategy, McCarthy said his primary goal is to expand Peloton’s total market share by reaching a user base that it hasn’t been able to access before.
    The cost of the app, which doesn’t require any Peloton equipment, is $12.99 per month compared with the $44 monthly cost for the company’s all-access membership that can be used on its connected fitness equipment. 
    “I think of it as its own endgame,” McCarthy said. 

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    FedEx is laying off 10% of its officers and directors amid cooling demand

    FedEx is cutting 10% of its officers and directors.
    The corporate job cuts come as the shipping giant tries to reduce costs amid cooling consumer demand.
    Shares of FedEx were up in midday trading.

    Raj Subramaniam, FedEx Corporation, speaks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Aviation Summit in Washington, D.C. on March 5, 2020.
    Kristoffer Tripplaar | Sipa via AP Images

    FedEx is cutting more than 10% of its officers and directors, CEO Raj Subramaniam announced Wednesday, as the company slashes corporate jobs to cut costs amid cooling consumer demand.
    “Unfortunately, this was a necessary action to become a more efficient, agile organization. It is my responsibility to look critically at the business and determine where we can be stronger by better aligning the size of our network with customer demand,” Subramaniam said in a letter to FedEx team members.

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    Shares of FedEx closed over 4% higher at the end of Wednesday’s trading day.
    The layoffs come as shipping momentum slows after the Covid pandemic e-commerce boom.
    The package and shipping industry experienced a surge during the pandemic amid a spike in online consumer spending. But as inflation has shrunk consumers’ wallets, it has also eaten into FedEx’s profits. The company’s stock is off roughly 20% over the past year.
    As a result, FedEx has experienced a rough first half of its fiscal year and has sought to cut costs while also raising prices to offset slowing volume.
    After it reported a fiscal second quarter with sagging sales and profit due to global volume declines, FedEx announced it would cut $1 billion more in costs by parking planes and shutting down some of its offices. In 2022, the company reduced its U.S. and international flight time by 13% combined.

    During its second-quarter earnings call with analysts, Subramaniam outlined what he called an “aggressive and decisive plan to cut costs in fiscal 2023.” The company is aiming to cut about $3.7 billion in total during this fiscal year.
    Along with cost-cutting, FedEx’s path forward has also involved price hikes. The company raised shipping rates by 6.9%, which took effect this January, as another measure to offset a consumer slowdown. At the time, Subramaniam said he forecast a “worldwide recession.”
    FedEx rival UPS is also anticipating “a bumpy year,” according to its CFO, Brian Newman. The shipping company on Tuesday posted a revenue decline for its fourth quarter, as shipping volumes continue to dip. To counteract slowing consumer demand, UPS also raised its shipping prices by 6.9% at the end of last year.

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    Biden administration moves toward approval for major Alaska oil drilling project

    The Biden administration on Wednesday recommended a scaled-down version of a major oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska, taking a step toward approving the $8 billion Willow plan that climate groups have long condemned.
    The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management released an environmental analysis that proposes lowering the number of drilling sites from five to three under the project, which is led by ConocoPhillips, Alaska’s largest crude oil producer.
    The federal government has 30 days to issue a final decision on whether to approve the project.

    Alaskan oil extraction site.
    Lowell Georgia | Getty Images

    President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday recommended a scaled-down version of a major oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska, taking a step toward approving the $8 billion Willow plan that climate groups have long condemned.
    The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management released an environmental analysis that proposes lowering the number of drilling sites from five to three under the project, which is led by ConocoPhillips, Alaska’s largest crude oil producer.

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    5 days ago

    The Biden administration has 30 days to issue a final decision on whether to approve the Willow project in the northernmost part of the state. The Interior emphasized it could select a different option, including taking no action or postponing a ruling about permits to more than one drill site.
    The Willow project would produce about 600 million barrels of oil over 30 years and would generate around 278 million metric tons of carbon emissions, according to Interior estimates. Environmental advocates argue the plan would undermine the Biden administration’s agenda to curb fossil fuel production and say the project’s emissions would be roughly equivalent to what 66 new coal-fired power plants produce in a year.
    The Interior Department said in a statement that it has “substantial concerns” about the Willow project, including its direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and its impact to local wildlife in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve.
    Kristen Miller, executive director of the nonprofit Alaska Wilderness League, called the Willow project a “massive climate disaster” and urged the administration to reverse its decision to advance the plan.
    “Our window to act is rapidly closing to avert catastrophic climate change, and this plan only takes us one giant step closer to the edge,” Miller said. “We should be prioritizing ways to preserve this irreplaceable ecosystem, by protecting critical wildlife and subsistence resources and avoiding increased climate pollution.”

    More from CNBC Climate:

    Proponents of the Willow project, including the state’s congressional delegation and some Alaska Native tribal governments, say the plan would create more than 2,500 jobs for the Alaska residents, deliver up to $17 billion in revenue for the federal government and boost the country’s domestic energy security.
    ConocoPhillips said in a statement that it “welcomes and continues to review” the government’s environmental analysis and said the decision “represents a major milestone in the permitting process.”
    “We believe Willow will benefit local communities and enhance American energy security while producing oil in an environmentally and socially responsible manner,” Erec Isaacson, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, said in a statement.
    Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia and the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the administration’s decision to advance the project is an “important step towards reestablishing American energy independence and strengthening American energy security.”
    “Alaska has a robust history of contributing to American energy security and this project will position them to continue that legacy,” Manchin said in a statement.

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    Saudi Aramco backs Brooklyn-based startup turning ammonia into fuel

    Clean Start

    In the race to find cleaner fuels, the heavy duty transportation sector is woefully behind because batteries don’t have enough juice to power trucks and ships. Enter ammonia. New technology and new companies are working on turning ammonia into hydrogen to power tractors, trucks and even ships.
    The heavy duty trucking industry alone accounts for almost a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Emissions from shipping increased nearly 10% from 2012 to 2018, according to the International Maritime Organization. Ships release nearly 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, which is about equal to the annual carbon outputs of Texas and California combined.

    So companies like Man Energy Solutions, Wartsila, and Amogy, a startup based in Brooklyn, are working on ammonia-based alternatives.
    “Our proprietary technology enables bringing efficient and effective conversion of ammonia to hydrogen so that you can use that process onboard in the vehicle to produce hydrogen, and then use that produced hydrogen to run the vehicle using the fuel cell,” explained co-founder and CEO Seonghoon Woo.
    The technology enables the on-board “cracking” (or decomposition) of ammonia into hydrogen, which is then sent into a fuel cell to power a vehicle. Liquid ammonia’s energy density is approximately three times greater than compressed hydrogen.
    Amogy just tested its technology on a semi-truck, and has already made it work on a John Deere tractor as well as a drone. The next step toward clean shipping is a tugboat.
    “We are partnering a lot with industry stakeholders in shipping and heavy manufacturing in heavy industries. So certainly the collaboration is the key to scale the new technology like ours, to really scale it and also penetrate to the market,” said Woo.

    One of Amogy’s investors, Saudi Aramco, is the largest petroleum producer in the world, but sees ammonia as part of its future.
    “It really opens up new markets for hydrogen through the ammonia low-carbon vector, which we are betting on as a favorable way of transporting hydrogen,” said Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, chief technology officer at Saudi Aramco.
    “It’s going to be a growing market in a carbon-constrained world. Such products are going to be more valuable, and the market for that and demand is going to rise, so we see this as very positive from our shareholders perspective,” he added.
    In addition to Saudi Aramco, Amogy is backed by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, AP Ventures, SK Innovation and DCVC. The startup has raised $70 million so far.
    CNBC producer Lisa Rizzolo contributed to this piece.

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    2022 was the ‘real year of the Great Resignation,’ says economist

    About 50.5 million people quit their jobs in 2022, besting the prior record set in 2021, according to the federal JOLTS report.
    The pandemic-era trend of elevated voluntary departures came to be known as the Great Resignation.
    Most people quit to take new jobs, not to leave the workforce altogether. Ample job prospects, higher wages and remote work helped fuel the trend.

    andresr | E+ | Getty Images

    More than 50 million workers quit their jobs in 2022, according to federal data, breaking a record set the year prior and demonstrating the resilience of a hot labor market characterized by ample job opportunity.
    The trend of workers voluntarily leaving their jobs began in early 2021, as the U.S. economy emerged from its pandemic-era hibernation and job openings soared to historic highs.

    But while quitting a job “was the 2021 story, 2022 was the real year of the Great Resignation,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.
    More from Personal Finance:U.S. unemployment system still plagued by delaysDespite layoffs, tech jobs are still hot in 2023Long Covid has an ‘underappreciated’ role in labor shortage
    Competition spurred employers to raise wages at their fastest pace in decades — especially for new hires who had switched jobs — while remote work expanded opportunities from local to national markets.
    The trend of elevated quitting came to be known as the Great Resignation. Beyonce song lyrics riffed on quitting and the stress of a 9-to-5 workday. Americans turned to the social media site TikTok to post “Quit-Toks,” and to Reddit forums to share stories about quitting and resignation text messages to bosses.
    About 50.5 million people quit their jobs in 2022, beating out the 47.8 million in 2021, according to Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data issued Wednesday.

    Workers were confident about job prospects

    The vast majority of people who quit their jobs do so to take other opportunities — not to leave the workforce altogether, labor economists said.
    Quits are therefore a barometer of employee optimism about their ability to find new work.  
    Employers hired a record 76.4 million people and laid off the fewest on record, 16.8 million, in 2022, according to JOLTS data.
    “Workers are clearly confident about their prospects as they continue to quit their old jobs at high rates,” said Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab.

    However, there are signs that exuberance may be somewhat fading.
    Nearly 4.1 million people quit their jobs in December, according to JOLTS data. While still historically high and little changed from November, the figure is down by 423,000 people from the monthly peak a year before in November 2021.
    “It’s slowing down a little bit,” Pollak said. But December’s number is “still hugely elevated” relative to the 2.6 million pre-pandemic average, she added.
    The layoff rate inched up slightly in December, though has remained below its pre-pandemic all-time low for 22 straight months, Bunker said.

    Wage growth also shows some signs of moderating. For example, job switchers saw an average 7.7% pay increase in December — down from a peak 8.5% in July 2022 though still well above any pre-pandemic point in the last 25 years, according to Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta data.
    Meanwhile, job openings and hires increased in December.
    The labor market will likely cool as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates in an aim to slow the economy and further throttle back inflation. But the job market continues to look strong, for now.
    “The labor market moderated through the year, but employers and workers remained confident and optimistic,” Bunker said, adding: “The labor market has been and looks to be a solid foundation for U.S. economic growth.”

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    DraftKings cuts 140 jobs as part of reorganization

    Sports-betting giant Draft Kings is cutting 140 jobs in a reorganization.
    The eliminated roles equal about 3.5% of the company’s workforce.
    Earlier this week, DraftKings and Molson Coors announced a partnership related to their Super Bowl ad.

    The entrance from the elevators, designed to resemble a tunnel entering a stadium, is pictured at the DraftKings office in Boston.
    David L. Ryan | The Boston Globe via Getty Images

    DraftKings is eliminating 140 jobs, or about 3.5% of its workforce, as part of a reorganization.
    The stock rose about 3% on Thursday.

    The sports betting giant said it is increasingly focused on making its operations more efficient.
    “We are constantly evaluating our teams to ensure they are best positioned to meet our company goals in 2023 and beyond,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
    DraftKings said it’s shifting investment from business-to-business into mobile developments. Affected segments include engineering and talent acquisition.
    DraftKings also said roles are being eliminated in the U.S and internationally, but primarily in its Europe, Middle East and Africa segment.
    The company plans to report 2022 fourth quarter results on Feb. 16.
    Earlier this week, DraftKings and Molson Coors announced a partnership related to their Super Bowl ad.

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    Rivian to lay off 6% of its workforce as EV price war concerns grow

    Rivian’s CEO told employees that the company will lay off 6% of its workforce as it works to conserve cash.
    The electric truck maker’s move follows EV price cuts by rivals Tesla and Ford.
    Rivian said the cuts will not affect workers at its Illinois factory.

    Workers inspect a Rivian R1T electric vehicle (EV) pickup truck on the assembly line at the company’s manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois, US., on Monday, April 11, 2022.
    Jamie Kelter Davis | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Electric truck maker Rivian Automotive said it is laying off 6% of its workforce in a bid to conserve cash as it braces for a possible industry-wide price war.
    In an email to employees that was seen by CNBC, CEO RJ Scaringe said improving the company’s operating efficiency must be a “core objective.” The company is focusing on ramping up production of its R1 trucks and the EDV delivery vans it builds for Amazon, as well as on development of its upcoming smaller R2 vehicle platform.

    Scaringe said that the cuts would not affect manufacturing jobs at Rivian’s factory in Illinois.
    Rivian went public via a successful initial offering in late 2021, raising nearly $12 billion. But the California-based automaker’s shares have lost nearly 90% of their value since, leading the company to rethink its expansion plans as it works toward profitability. Recent price cuts by Tesla and Ford Motor have led to concerns that other automakers may be forced to reduce prices on EVs amid growing competition in the space.
    Rivian had about $13.8 billion in cash remaining as of the end of September, after posting losses of $5 billion through the first three quarters of 2022. The company said last month that it fell slightly short of its goal of producing 25,000 vehicles in 2022.
    Rivian will report its fourth-quarter and full-year results after the U.S. markets close Feb. 28.
    Details of Scaringe’s email were first reported by Reuters. The company has about 14,000 employees.

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