Investor’s Brief 06.05.25: Trump tariffs hit film production,TG盗号软件API接口 Netflix shares fall

May 6, 2025  09:36

Among companies with a capitalization of at least $10 billion, the biggest gainer last week was the language learning American platform Duolingo, whose shares rose 27.39% over the past business week. The price of one share reached $486.42. Next is Tenet Healthcare Corporation. Shares of this American healthcare company rose 21.38% over the past business week, reaching $148.03. The top three are completed by Carrier Global Corporation, which offers heating and cooling solutions, with a 19.10% increase. The price of one share of this company is $71.53.

The top three largest-cap companies with the biggest losses last week start off with Block. The fintech services company’s share price fell 19.90% in a week and is now at $46.53. Next is Lineage. The stock price of this warehousing and logistics services company fell 18.99% to $45.28. This top three finishes with Becton, Dickinson and Company. The stock price of this medical equipment and instruments manufacturer fell 17.70% to $168.78.

Wall Street closed higher last week, buoyed by a better-than-expected jobs report and renewed hopes for an easing of trade tensions with China. For the week, the S&P 500 rose 2.9%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 3.43%. All three indexes rose for the ninth straight day on Friday.

Wall Street's gains last week were driven by strong performance from major tech companies. Microsoft and Meta were particularly notable, with quarterly earnings reports giving investors confidence in the return on investment in artificial intelligence (AI). After the issuing of these reports, Microsoft shares rose 7.6 percent, primarily due to the upbeat forecasts for its Azure cloud business. Meta rose 4.2 percent, thanks to better-than-expected ad revenue.

US markets are facing a new test this week amid new tariffs imposed by Donald Trump. The US president announced late last week that he will impose a 100 percent tariff on films produced outside the US. The country’s stock futures fell sharply on Monday. In early trading, Netflix fell 4.7 percent, Amazon fell 1.5 percent, and Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery lost more than 2 percent.

Despite last week’s market growth, investor caution remains high. US stock funds saw outflows for the third straight week. In the week that ended on April 30, investors pulled $15.56 billion from US stock funds, the largest weekly outflow since last December. Bond funds fared slightly better, posting modest inflows for the second straight week.

Warren Buffett has announced that he is stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which he has led for nearly 60 years. Buffett, 94, the most successful investor in the US and one of the richest people in the world, will remain as president of the company, but he will hand over the role of CEO to Greg Abel. Investors reacted quickly to the news, with Berkshire Hathaway shares down 2 percent in early trading on Monday.

Apple shares fell 5 percent on Friday after CEO Tim Cook announced the company will cut its share buyback program by $10 billion and that Apple now faces an additional $900 million in costs due to the ongoing US-China trade war.

Amazon shares also fell as much as 5% after disappointing first-quarter revenue figures for the company's cloud services business. The company's Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit reported quarterly revenue growth of 16.9%, below expectations for 17.4% growth. This was AWS's slowest growth rate in the past five quarters.

The shares of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, rose 3 percent on Friday after the company reported ad revenue rose 8.5 percent in the first quarter, beating estimates. This has somewhat alleviated investor concerns about the effectiveness of digital advertising and AI spending.

On April 29, five public auctions for the placement of Armenian government bonds were held. The total amount of the placement was 100 billion drams, and the total amount of submitted offers was 221.488 billion drams.

On May 5, a total of 5 billion drams of government bonds were placed on the stock market of Armenia, and they will be redeemed on May 4, 2026. The respective public auction had four participants, and the total amount of submitted offers was 17.677 billion drams. The weighted average price of the placed government bonds was 92.4157 drams, and the yield was 8.1389 percent.

New jobs data showed that the US labor market remains stable despite growing economic uncertainty. In April, American employers added 177,000 new jobs, more than expected, and the unemployment rate remained at 4.2%. Also, wages grew by 3.8%. This gives the US Federal Reserve time. Until now, markets had expected the next cut in the refinancing rate to be in June, but after the strong jobs report, most investors believe that it will happen in July.

The US manufacturing sector contracted for the second straight month in April, as new tariffs have increased costs and disrupted supply chains. The latest data from the Institute for Supply Management showed the manufacturing index fell to 48.7, with any reading below 50 indicating contraction. This means US factories and plants, which account for about 10% of the economy, are struggling to keep up with the pace of growth. However, new orders improved slightly from March, suggesting that some demand remains.

The US economy has entered a recession for the first time in three years. According to the Department of Commerce data, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.3% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. This fall was largely driven by businesses rushing to import goods before new tariffs were imposed. Economists expect the economy to recover slightly next quarter, but many warn that continued trade tensions could lead to stagflation, a slowdown in economic growth and rising prices.

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