meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
WSJ Your Money Briefing

What’s News in Markets: Darden’s Discount Boost, KBR Climbs, Buffett’s Picks Gain

WSJ Your Money Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

News, Business News

3.81.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2024

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How are discounts boosting Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants? And how did an activist investor lift government contractor KBR? Plus, why did Berkshire Hathaway’s bets boost three companies? Host Karen Langley discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

exchanges the goldman sacks podcast featuring exchanges on the forces driving the markets and the economy

0:07.4

exchanges between the leading minds at goldman sacks new episodes every week listen now

0:14.2

hey listeners it's saturday december 21st i I'm Karen Langley for the Wall Street Journal,

0:24.2

and this is What's News and Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them.

0:30.6

Let's get to it. This week turned into a rocky one for markets. Things started out steadily enough.

0:37.0

Then came Wednesday, when the Federal Reserve

0:39.5

signaled it might keep interest rates higher than next year than investors had expected. This was not

0:45.5

music to investors' ears. The Dow tumbled more than 1,100 points while the Russell 2000 lost

0:52.0

4.4%. That made Wednesday the worst day in two and a half years for the Russell in index of smaller publicly traded companies.

1:01.0

Investors had been thinking that additional rate cuts next year would help stocks keep powering higher,

1:07.0

so learning that the central bank may make fewer cuts than expected was an unpleasant surprise.

1:13.0

While stocks climbed Friday, they still ended the week lower.

1:17.0

The S&P 500 fell 2% for the week, while the Dow lost 2.3% and the NASDAQ dropped 1.8%.

1:32.8

With the holidays coming up, it's a big time for eating, but this week, food-related stocks were telling different tales. Shares of Darden restaurants, the owner of Olive Garden,

1:38.7

soared almost 15% on Thursday to an all-time high. That was after Darden had better than expected sales last

1:45.9

quarter. With consumers still cringing at higher prices after all that inflation, Darden has been

1:52.0

prominently advertising its value meals and ran its Olive Garden unlimited pasta deal for longer than last

1:58.6

year. Things didn't go so well for Franks fry maker Lamb Weston.

2:03.3

Shares plunged 20% Thursday after the company replaced its CEO and cut its full year guidance

2:10.0

for a second straight quarter. High prices of restaurants have cut into demand for the company's

2:15.2

fries and other products. For the week, Darden's shares rose 13%

2:19.9

while Lamb Weston's lost 22%. Government contractor KBR's shares jumped nearly 4% Thursday after the Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Wall Street Journal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Wall Street Journal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.