Discover CEO's Sudden Departure

Today is Tuesday, August 15, 2023.

The Early Bird Index today is 57.57.

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Discover CEO's Sudden Departure

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) Chief Executive Officer Roger Hochschild suddenly resigned on Monday, causing shares to drop by 4.87% in after-hours trading.

Details: John Owen, a member of the board, will serve as interim CEO and President. Hochschild will serve in an advisory role until the end of the year. The company is now searching for a permanent CEO.

Quote: “The Board and Roger have agreed that now is the right time to transition leadership.” - Tom Maheras, chair of the board.

Stock Price: Discover Financial is up over 5% this year, but is down 14% in the last 30 days.

Final Thoughts: The CEO’s resignation was sudden and odd. Discover Financial did not disclose any details now about the departure. A few weeks ago, the company posted disappointing financial results.

Notables

Notable Earnings Today: Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU), IHS Holding (NYSE: IHS), Tencent Music (NYSE: TME), H & R Block (NYSE: HRB), Sea Limited (NYSE: SE), Agilent (NYSE: A), On (NYSE: ONON), Coherent (NYSE: COHR), Paysafe (NYSE: PSFE), CAVA Group (NYSE: CAVA), Mercury Systems (Nasdaq: MRCY), Terran Orbital (NYSE: LLAP), Elbit Systems (Nasdaq: ESLT), HUYA (NYSE: HUYA), Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH), dLocal (Nasdaq: DLO), Stride (NYSE: LRN), Jack Henry & Associates (Nasdaq: JKHY).

Notable IPOs Today: SRM Entertainment, Inc. Common Stock (Nasdaq: SRM), Sacks Parente Golf, Inc. Common Stock (Nasdaq: SPGC), VinFast Auto Ltd. Ordinary Shares (Nasdaq: VFS), 99 Acquisition Group Inc. Unit (Nasdaq: NNAGU), Tema Oncology ETF (Nasdaq: CANC).

Notable Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns Ending Today: EmailACheck (StartEngine), Heroic Public Benefit Corporation (Wefunder), Timeless Spirits and Drinks (Seed At The Table), Hercules Mulligan (StartEngine).

Notable Economic Events Today: Retail Sales / Core Retail Sales (8:30 a.m. ET), Import Price Index / Export Price Index (8:30 a.m. ET), NY Empire State Manufacturing Index (8:30 a.m. ET), Business Inventories (10:00 a.m. ET), Retail Inventories Ex Auto (10:00 a.m. ET), TIC Net Long-Term Transactions (4:00 p.m. ET), API Weekly Crude Oil Stock (4:30 p.m. ET).

Hedera's Federal Reserve Deal

Photo by Shubham Dhage / Unsplash

As most cryptocurrencies stayed flat on Monday, the price of Hedera soared over 7% thanks to a new partnership.

Details: On Monday, the U.S. Federal Reserve added Dropp, Hedera’s micropayment solution, to its platform called FedNow. Dropp allows merchants to get paid in digital currencies.

Price: Hedera’s price has nearly doubled since the start of 2023.

Final Thoughts: This is a major integration for Hedera because it serves as another example of how its technology can be used in a practical setting. But as an investment, Hedera is still subject to all of the volatile concerns associated with altcoins.

Getty Faces ‘Challenging Environment’

Shares of Getty Images Holdings (NYSE: GETY) plummeted by 14.29% in after-hours trading on Monday after the visual media company posted disappointing financial results.

Financials: Getty Images reported a loss of one cent per share in the past quarter and revenue of $225.6 million; both were below estimates.

Final Thoughts: The company, which is down 20% this year, lowered its guidance for the rest of the year due to “a more challenging environment.” Although it has been a bad year for Getty investors, the company has received proposals to get acquired. If that happened, the stock could jump.

The Average Joe (Sponsored)

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Trends to Watch

Another Amazon Exit: Amazon’s Leader on Alexa, Echo and Other Devices Plans to Leave (The Wall Street Journal)

No Place Like Home(builders): Buffett’s Berkshire Cuts Activision, Unveils Homebuilder Bet (Bloomberg)

Interesting Strategy: Should Bitcoin investors consider stockpiling (AMBCrypto)

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