Rulers have always found it hard to accept limits on their power. When the French parliament disputed Louis XIV’s edicts in 1655, the king of France and Navarre is said to have responded: “L’état, c’est moi” (“I am the state”). The ensuing age of absolutism in France ended only with the French Revolution in 1789.Like Louis XIV, Elon Musk rejects legal constraints on his power. In defiance of a recent Delaware Chancery Court ruling that voided his $56 billion compensation agreement with Tesla TSLA, -2.18%, M ...

Airbnb Inc.’s stock bounced around in volatile extended trading Tuesday following quarterly results that eclipsed analysts’ revenue estimates and guidance. The vacation-property rentals company ABNB, -1.94% reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $349 million, or 55 cents a share, compared with net income of $319 million, or 50 cents a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Airbnb’s sales climbed 17% to $2.22 billion from $1.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet had expecte ...

Bets on risky bullish options tied to members of the “Magnificent Seven” and other market-leading technology stocks are nearing their most crowded levels in the past year, according to data from market-data firm Spotgamma. This is prompting some derivatives-market experts to warn that the broader equities market could be at risk of a pullback as Big Tech stocks, which have led the market higher over the past year, could falter following Friday’s options expiration. According to data from Amy Wu Silverman, h ...

People in the market for a new electric vehicle may be looking at a bargain of sorts, particularly if they aim to get a new Tesla. The average U.S. price of a new EV in January was $55,353, down 10.8% from January 2023, Kelley Blue Book said Tuesday. That is 3.2% higher, however, than the December average of $53,611, which was the lowest average price for an electric car in the past 12 months.“EV prices have come down significantly in the U.S. in the past year, led by price cuts at Tesla,” said Mark Strand, ...

Banks looking to attract new customers have traditionally offered things like toasters or free checks.Now Bank of America Corp. is reporting traction with its offer to waive the $20,000 minimum-balance requirement for access to its Preferred Rewards Gold Tier for employees who enroll in its Employee Banking & Investing program.Bank of America BAC, -2.13% said it has gotten about $10.5 billion in new deposits and investments from first-time and existing customers in the program, which it launched in 2020. T ...

PayPal Holdings Inc.’s latest outlook confirmed that 2024 will be another year of transition, and one analyst is moving to the sidelines on its stock after that commentary. It’s becoming “difficult to envision” growth in earnings per share at PayPal PYPL, -3.03% over the medium and long terms until two developments materialize, according to Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Kazuya Nishimura. He thinks the company will have to show “clear growth” in transaction-margin dollars and demonstrate the benefits of ...

Kroger Inc. KR, +0.95% said Tuesday it will lower prices for customers when its planned merger with Albertsons Cos. Inc. ACI, +0.33% closes, noting that it has done the same with previous deals. “We believe the way to be America’s best grocer is to provide great value by consistently lowering prices and offering more choices,” Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said in a statement. “When we do this, more customers shop with us and buy more groceries, which allows us to reinvest in even lower prices, a better shopp ...

Shopify Inc. beat profit expectations for the latest quarter and projected margin improvement for the current one, but its shares were pulling back in Tuesday’s premarket action. The company, which enables businesses to run online shops, posted fourth-quarter net income of $657 million, or 51 cents a share, whereas Shopify SHOP, -1.82% SHOP, -1.76% logged a net loss of $623 million, or 49 cents a share, in the year-before quarter. On an adjusted basis, Shopify posted 34 cents in earnings per share, up ...

Shares of Coca-Cola Co. KO, +0.24% edged up 0.4% in premarket trading after the beverage giant reported fourth-quarter profit that was in line with expectations, while revenue got a boost from increases in both price and volume. Net income slipped to $1.97 billion, or 46 cents a share, from $2.03 billion, or 47 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of 49 cents matched the FactSet consensus. Revenue grew 7.2% to $10.85 billion, to beat the FactSet c ...

Cocoa prices have reached their highest levels on record, just in time for one of the biggest chocolate-buying holidays of the year: Valentine’s Day.  “It’s all on the supply side,” said John Caruso, senior market strategist at RJO Futures, with cocoa up more than 110% year over year. “The chart has gone completely parabolic on a monthly scale” which is to say at the least, “very impressive,” he told MarketWatch.May cocoa futures CCK24, +0.66% CC00, +0.66% settled at $5,583 per metric ton on the ICE Futures ...