Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. On edge
2. New Netflix focus
In an aerial view, the Netflix logo is displayed above its corporate offices on January 24, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Netflix is making a big change to its earnings routine. The company announced Thursday that it would no longer provide quarterly membership numbers or average revenue per user starting next year, saying it’s focused on revenue and operating margin. That came the same day it reported that memberships rose 16% in the first quarter, to 269.6 million, well above the 264.2 million Wall Street had expected. Netflix also beat earnings and revenue estimates for the quarter. Shares of the company fell about 6% in premarket trading Friday.
3. Big price tags
This aerial picture shows homes near the Chesapeake Bay in Centreville, Maryland, on March 4, 2024.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
Mortgage rates are at their highest level of the year, with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate now sitting around 7.5% according to Mortgage News Daily. Though mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 5% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index, affordability is weakening. Meanwhile, despite a surge in supply, March home sales dropped, largely due to rising mortgage rates. The spring housing market is moving faster and becoming more competitive, with an average home sitting on the market for just 33 days, compared with 38 days in February.
4. Ticking clock
A view shows the office of TikTok after the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app or face a ban, in Culver City, California, March 13, 2024.
Mike Blake | Reuters
TikTok more than doubled its spending on advertisements to over $4.5 million to combat a potential U.S. ban. The increase comes as Congress considers legislation that could push parent company ByteDance to divest from the social media app. TikTok has spent over $2.5 million on television ads alone since March, according to data from AdImpact. With the bill appearing to have key support in the Senate, TikTok’s boosted ad spending could be a last-ditch effort to shut down the discourse, as U.S. lawmakers say they’re concerned about whether ByteDance could protect U.S. users’ personal data from the Chinese government.
5. A new assistant
A smart phone is displaying Facebook with the Meta icon visible in the background in this photo illustration. Facebook, which was founded 20 years ago, is seen here in Brussels, Belgium, on February 4, 2024.
Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Meta started rolling out its free artificial intelligence assistant, Meta AI, across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger on Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video. The social media company also announced the launch of its newest large language model, called Meta Llama 3, which was used to build the AI assistant. Meta AI can answer questions, create animations and generate images, and it’s partnered with Google and Microsoft to provide answers from both companies’ search engines. “We believe that Meta AI is now the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use,” Zuckerberg said in the video.
And one more thing…
Taylor Swift attends the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 04, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Neilson Barnard | Getty Images
Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” Friday at midnight ET. She then surprised fans at 2 a.m. ET with news of 15 extra songs. The album features collaborations with Post Malone and Florence + the Machine.
— CNBC’s Yun Li, Natasha Turak, Sarah Whitten, Diana Olick, Brian Schwartz, Ashley Capoot and NBC News contributed to this report.
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