WEBVTT - Dollar General Raises FY Outlook, Paramount Skydance and WBD Feud, Meta Jumps on Resource Cuts

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.

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<v Speaker 2>The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves

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<v Speaker 2>in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Carol Messer along with Alexis Christophers in for Tim

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<v Speaker 1>on this Thursday. Let's take look at some stocks in

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<v Speaker 1>the move today, and with us is Bloomberg News Equities

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<v Speaker 1>reporter at Alexandra Semenova alex Retailers. They've been front and center

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<v Speaker 1>for the last couple of weeks reporting earnings. Dollar General

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<v Speaker 1>at today, and.

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<v Speaker 3>We're learning something about the macro picture with this stock,

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<v Speaker 3>that consumers are hunting for bargain, so perhaps they're not

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<v Speaker 3>doing as well as we're hearing at the headline level.

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<v Speaker 3>Dollar General raised its full year outlook, a showing that

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<v Speaker 3>value focused retailers are doing very well as people are

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<v Speaker 3>looking for cheaper items. Their stock is rallying about twelve

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<v Speaker 3>percent right now, so good for the company, but a

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<v Speaker 3>sign that perhaps people are struggling with still very high costs.

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<v Speaker 1>I think it's interest to you when you're looking for

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<v Speaker 1>value and good deals at Dollar General, exactly.

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<v Speaker 4>Dollar Tree yesterday came out with very good earnings and

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<v Speaker 4>raised guidance and aren't they seeing higher income earners?

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<v Speaker 2>They are?

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And there another company that is kind of telling

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<v Speaker 3>us something is Walmart. There was a really good point

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<v Speaker 3>made today by Jim Paulson, veteran strategists. He said that

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<v Speaker 3>when Walmart outperforms global luxury retailers, that's a sign that

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<v Speaker 3>typically US consumption is not doing very well, and typically

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<v Speaker 3>it proceeds slower GDP growth. So perhaps some of these

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<v Speaker 3>low income focused names are a sign that maybe the

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<v Speaker 3>economy is in.

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<v Speaker 4>A little bit of Trump Tea leaves there.

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<v Speaker 1>Exactly, all right, So Dollar General DG down twelve percent.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm just taking a look at Walmart.

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<v Speaker 4>It's flat today.

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<v Speaker 1>But yeah, it's interesting to see that. In terms of

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<v Speaker 1>the narrative, I want to go media.

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<v Speaker 4>I mean, this bidding war for Warner Brothers Discovery is

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<v Speaker 4>getting confusing, it's getting ugly. Paramount sky Dance now has

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<v Speaker 4>something to say. They're accusing them right of not playing fair.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, alex is getting ugly, is right, it's really contentious now. Paramount,

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<v Speaker 3>one of the buyers buying for Warner Brothers, accused it

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<v Speaker 3>of failing to conduct a fair auction. They sent a

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<v Speaker 3>letter to CEO David Zaslov, saying that the company is

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<v Speaker 3>not acting in shareholders best interests. Look at the stock today,

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<v Speaker 3>it's down about one percent. In a response, Warner Brothers

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<v Speaker 3>said it had shared the Paramount letter with its board.

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<v Speaker 3>As we know, it has been officially put on sale

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<v Speaker 3>in October after receiving an offer from p Paramount. It

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<v Speaker 3>also has interest from Netflix, it has interest from comcasts.

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<v Speaker 3>So it's been really heated and people are.

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<v Speaker 4>And some are saying the Netflix is now the front

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<v Speaker 4>runner and mostly cash, but we don't know for how

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<v Speaker 4>much it apparently it is for the Paramount.

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<v Speaker 3>See. Yeah, but apparently Paramount clearly disappointed here. They feel

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<v Speaker 3>like they're not getting a.

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<v Speaker 1>Fair when you brought up to you, like on our

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<v Speaker 1>morning call, like do we know what the prices are?

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<v Speaker 1>We don't know completely.

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<v Speaker 4>There second numbers out, I mean, sixty billion was like

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<v Speaker 4>the last thing I saw publicly, So it's going to

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<v Speaker 4>be you would think worth of sixty billion exactly.

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<v Speaker 3>It's changing every day. And also point out that Paramount

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<v Speaker 3>is the only one of them that is actually trying

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<v Speaker 3>to take over the entire company, so it wants to

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<v Speaker 3>buy it's CNN exactly.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, let's remind everybody Warner Brothers Discovery right now is

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<v Speaker 1>a sixty billion dollar market cap company.

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<v Speaker 4>So they're looking for a little premium. Give them some

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<v Speaker 4>premium paramount. Also raised the breakup fee to five billion

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<v Speaker 4>dollars from a billion, so they're basically saying, look, we

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<v Speaker 4>think we're going to get regulatory approval if you guys

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<v Speaker 4>choose us.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, lots of big numbers.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, all right, MENA certainly a company we've been talking

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<v Speaker 1>about a lot today and it's higher.

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<v Speaker 3>This one is interesting because, as we know, Facebook rebranded

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<v Speaker 3>to be meta platforms, and here they are saying that

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<v Speaker 3>they're going to cut resources for building out the so

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<v Speaker 3>called metaverse that hasn't served them well. Where Zuckerberg seems

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<v Speaker 3>to want to scale back on this business endeavor. He

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<v Speaker 3>once framed this as the future of the company. It

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<v Speaker 3>was all about the metaverse, and then we kind of

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<v Speaker 3>stopped hearing about it in the last few years. Executives

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<v Speaker 3>are a parent only a considering potential budget cuts of

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<v Speaker 3>as high as thirty percent for this part of the business,

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<v Speaker 3>and they could see layoffs as soon as January. Apparently,

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<v Speaker 3>these discussions were had in a closed meeting at Mark

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<v Speaker 3>Zuckerberg's compound in Hawaii as they were deciding budget plans.

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<v Speaker 1>You're going to have a meeting, why not do it there?

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<v Speaker 3>I mean sign me up investors feels a little Yeah,

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<v Speaker 3>investors clearly like the news. Do The stock is up

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<v Speaker 3>three point five percent right now.

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<v Speaker 1>Got to say an incredible scoop and exclusive by our

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<v Speaker 1>own Kurt Wagner.

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<v Speaker 3>It's incredibly good story. But it's something we talked.

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<v Speaker 1>About too that you know, investors in analysts have kind

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<v Speaker 1>of wanted this.

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<v Speaker 3>So it's the companies say, maybe really generating much for them, So.

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<v Speaker 4>It's anything they thought it was a drag on resources.

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<v Speaker 4>But I guess in a coup for Meta yesterday they

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<v Speaker 4>stole away an Apple design exec. Right.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's another interesting to see some of the hiring

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<v Speaker 3>going on between these Mac seven companies just poaching talent.

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