It has been quite the week. From President Trump threatening to withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea to cannabis stocks rebounding, to high school students around the globe protesting gun control and participating in walkouts, there was never a dull moment this week. There’s a lot more that went on, though. Without further adieu, let’s take a look at what people are talking about right now.
The World This Week:
Nike (NYSE:NKE)
On Thursday, it was announced that two Nike executives have left the sneaker and sportswear behemoth. First, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Nike brand president, Trevor Edwards, resigned from his position. Why? The Beaverton, Oregon-based company reportedly started receiving complaints about inappropriate behavior in the workplace. The Wall Street Journal reported that Edwards will leave his position as Nike brand president effective immediately, and will then retire from the sportswear giant in the summer.
A couple hours later, the Wall Street Journal reported that another Nike executive had been ousted by the company. In the wake of the complaints about inappropriate workplace behavior, the Wall Street Journal reported that the vice president and GM of global categories for the company, Jayme Martin, is no longer with the retail company.
Unsurprisingly, the Nike stock suffered the consequences today. The retail stock ended the trading day trading at $65.91 on the New York Stock Exchange, which puts the stock down $0.48, or 0.72%. I think it will be important to check in on the stock throughout next week, especially on Monday, as the market will have had the weekend to think more about the scandal.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
In August of last year, a scandal surfaced in which a Google senior engineer composed a controversial memo, stating men are better suited for jobs in the technology industry. This sparked a considerable amount of backlash, and the company soon fired the engineer as his memo reportedly went against the company’s diversity efforts. Since then, Google appears to be doing everything in its power to avoid something like that from happening again.
So, it makes sense that Google announced the following yesterday: the company reportedly has no race or gender-based wage gaps. In fact, the California-based company announced that it spent $270,000 to close wage gaps. Despite announcing something significant such as this, Google ended Friday’s trading day down $16.19.
Spotify
On Thursday, during its Investor Day presentation, Spotify announced that it will be listing on the New York Stock Exchange on April 3rd. However, Spotify disclosed that it is ditching the conventional IPO for a direct listing on the exchange, which is why so many people are talking about this. Essentially, Spotify stated that it thinks it can go public without having to jump through all the hoops, which includes not having a lockup period nor intermediary bankers.
The Takeaway
Which piece of news interested you the most? Personally, I was interested the most in the news surrounding Nike Inc.
Featured Image: depositphotos/SergANTstar
