Netflix Punished As Subscribers Don’t Increase As Much As Analysts Wanted
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is down nearly 12% this morning on the back of news that its subscriber base only increased by 670,000 instead of the 1.1 million that people wanted to see. Despite this precipitous and scary drop, the stock is still up nearly 100% since December 2017, right before it started going completely parabolic. International subscribers disappointed expectations as well, rising only 4.47 million, instead of 4.97 million. Revenue came in at $3.91 billion instead of the expected $3.94 billion. Netflix is blaming it on over-forecasting on its part. Oops.
What to do: Expect future guidance to lowball growth estimates from now on. Netflix got caught in a bit of hubris and now it’s paying for it.
Trump and Putin Meeting Drives Intelligence Leaders Into Rabid Condemnation Frenzy
The intelligence community is upset that President Trump met with President Putin of Russia in Helsinki. It was “nothing short of treasonous” according to former CIA director John Brennan. Trump’s comments at the joint press conference were also, according to Brennan, redundantly able to both “rise to, and exceed” the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors, which apparently talking with a foreign head of State amounts to. This chorus was echoed by former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who said that this was “not a golf outing” on the grounds that there must have been “a strategic purpose,” but then in the same statement said that that “I am now convinced we didn’t have [a strategic purpose],” which would put the meeting back to golf outing status, presumably. Hagel is contemplating impeachment for this. Virtually all former intelligence and defense leaders expressed universal condemnation of Trump for meeting with Putin.
Papa John’s Founder Fights Back, Accuses Laundry List of Extortion
“They wanted $6 million to make it go away,” Schnatter said during an interview with WLKY, a Kentucky CBS affiliate. “They made it pretty clear. The words were, ‘If I don’t get my [expletive] money, I’m going to bury the founder. … I’m not for sale. They tried to extort us and we held firm and they took what I said and they ran to Forbes, and Forbes printed it.”
These are the words of John Schnatter, founder and former CEO and now former Chairman of Papa John’s (NASDAQ:PZZA) concerning marketing agency Laundry List, who other companies will now probably hesitate to hire. Schnatter now believes he should not have resigned as Chairman of the Board. It looks like John Schnatter has some dirty laundry.
May May Lose Majority in British Parliament, Brexit in Doubt
United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May is facing yet another rebellion in Parliament from those in her Tory party who are anti Brexit. She included a Brexiteer clause in a customs bill that Remainers didn’t like, even thought the referendum is long since over and Brexit already passed. The bill passed through the House of Commons by only 3 votes, indicating her administration is on razor thin edge of being dissolved if she loses three more allies. What then? New elections? A new referendum?
Related Tickers: (NYSEARCA:EWU)
Musk Loses Self Control Over Spelunker He Calls “Pedo” for Saving Thai Kids, Tesla Falls
The pressure is getting to him. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk kind of lost it last when his offer for a submarine for rescuing Thai children trapped in a cave was rejected by spelunking professional Vernon Unsworth. Musk proceeded to become incensed for the rejection of his submarine advancements and called Unsworth a “pedo”, which many assume to be short for pedophile, and probably not pedagogue, nor a misspelling shorthand for podiatrist. The comment was made at the end of a tweet claiming that Musk would put together a video of the mini sub arriving at the cave without any problems, but the fact remains that the kids have been rescued and perhaps the caver and the CEO should move on to more important things now.
