Fast Money Blog- 8/12/22

There's some good news to start your weekend!

Overall the U.S. stock market is retracing, as S&P 500 corporation revenues have been growing exponentially. Below are two positive highlights that you should know about:

1. On Wednesday, August 10th, The Walt Disney Company (DIS) reported their Q3 2022 earnings. Total top-line revenue came in at $21.5 billion, up 26% year-over-year.

Here’s how the top two Walt Disney revenue streams broke down:

The Disney Parks, Experiences and Products revenue for the quarter increased to $7.3 billion, a growth of more than 70% year-over-year. Although the number of theme park visitors were down year-over-year due to high gas prices, Disney charged each visitor more per person for items like food, water, souvenirs and parking. On their quarterly income statement Disney refers to this as customer per capita spending.

In the Direct to Consumer segment (which includes Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+), revenue for the quarter grew 19% year-over-year to $5.1 billion.

The company reported that their Disney+ streaming service added 14.4 million new subscribers for a total of 152.1 million Disney + subscribers.

At the end of the third quarter, Hulu had 46.2 million subscribers and ESPN+ had 22.8 million. Combined, Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+ have over 221 million streaming subscribers, beating Netflix's recently reported 220 million subscribers.

How was Disney was able to beat Netflix on subscriber growth?

They partnered with companies like AT&T and Verizon, giving out free trial subscriptions, after which, automatically charging your Disney+ subscriptions through said cell phone providers.

Ironically Wall Street has not sufficiently rewarded Disney by driving the stock price higher.

2. This week the stock market reacted positively as as new CPI (Consumer Price Index) data released on Tuesday, Aug. 9th showed that inflation eased slightly in July. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest CPI figures reflected a year-over-year increase of 8.5% in July, down from 9.1% posted in June.

There are times when the growth and decline of the U.S. stock market are affected by external economic issues, such as the ones we have currently lived through. Remember successful investing requires patience.

Looking forward, I do see the stock market rising overall during the next 6 months.

Have a great weekend.

Stay open, stay positive!

Tyrone Jackson