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Francesca Fontana: Listeners, today is Saturday, March 2nd. I'm Francesca Fontana from the Wall Street Journal. And here's the market news, our take on this week's biggest stock moves and the news that drove them. Let's begin. Happy belated Leap Day, everyone. Bonus Day gave the stock market a chance to extend February's gains. Looking at past probabilities, it was actually more likely that this year's leap day would not end in an uptick. Both the S&P 500 and Dow have posted losses on the last three leap days the market has been open. But this year is different. No, all three of his major indexes finished in the green this year, with the Nasdaq breaking his first record in more than two years. Additionally, the S&P and Nasdaq both posted his best February since 2015. Now, check back with me in four years and see if you can keep up your Leap Day streak. Now, for those of you listening to this when you're hungry, I apologize in advance. Because we're talking about pizza stocks, specifically Domino's Pizza. The big takeaway from Monday's quarterly report was that customers' appetite for Domino's Pizza is growing. The company posted better-than-expected profits thanks to both strong deliveries and sales execution. And, of course, it's his Quote, Unquote, Urgent Pizza, Get 1 Free promotion where you can get a second pizza with a big purchase. One problem is that you have to join Domino's Pizza's rewards program. The campaign was a huge hit, and the company's CEO said increased benefit registrations were responsible for such strong results. I have prepared some numbers. The program gained 3 million new active members in the fourth quarter to end 2023, bringing the total number of active members to 33 million. So Wall Street was pretty happy with Domino's Pizza's performance, and the quarterly dividend hike certainly didn't hurt. The stock rose nearly 6% on Monday, but only gave back some of that gain for the rest of the week. And now I'm hungry. look? This week we also had big news from Viking Therapeutics. If you're not a big fan of biotech or pharmaceutical stocks, the name may not be familiar to you, but you've probably heard of weight loss drugs. I mean, everyone has seen the Ozempic commercial, right? So now his two big players in weight loss are Eli his Lily and Novo his Nordisk. But Viking has emerged as a new competitor after announcing positive research results for its obesity drug. Now, I'm no scientist, but what's surprising is that basically a mid-term study showed that Viking's drug helped patients lose up to 14.7% of their weight after 13 weeks of treatment. Ta. So it appeared to work more effectively than similar drugs from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. However, it is important to note that Viking will need to replicate the results in another large study before bringing it to market. Still, the results are good news for the drug's prospects. And perhaps even better news for Viking stock. The company's stock more than doubled on Tuesday, rising 121%. With such an outlandish move, it's no surprise that some of that enthusiasm faded later in the week, but the Vikings kept most of those gains. Now, if this new drug hits the market, I'd like to see if I can come up with a catchier song, like the Ozempic jingle. And I was going to sing it and I'm going to make sure you guys have this song stuck in your head all day long. you're welcome. Let's end with spirit. And it's not a low-cost airline, it's Spirit AeroSystems, which makes airplane bodies. Now, regular listeners, you already know what I'm talking about. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Boeing is in talks to buy Spirit. The two companies have been in trouble recently thanks to quality issues with the 737 MAX, which has taken a significant toll on Boeing's stock price, which has fallen about 20% since the January 5 Alaska Airlines accident in which a door plug exploded. I tried my best. -Flying on a Boeing airplane. It's my literal nightmare. But Spirit stock hasn't fared so well, considering the company has been struggling financially for years. At this time in 2019, the company's stock price was around $100. And before Friday morning's news, the stock was trading below $30. So, what did the stock price do with this potential deal floating around? Boeing may not have reacted to the news much, or maybe it was just a comparison to Spirit. Boeing stock ended Friday down nearly 2%, while Spirit rose 15%. So there may be clearer skies in store for Spirit. So there you have it, this week's market news. You can read about other stocks that moved on the news this week in my column “The Score” in the Wall Street Journal's currency section. To find out what's next week, check out his WSJ Take On the Week wherever you get your podcasts. I am Francesca his Fontana. Have a great weekend! See you next Saturday.
