Corporate catch-up: Charting 4 big business stories

10/25/22 8:00PM

Corporate catch-up

‍The last 48 hours have been abuzz with business news — here are 4 of the biggest stories of the day:

‍Adidas: The German sportswear giant answered calls to drop Kanye West (now known as Ye), joining the list of brands that have distanced themselves from the rapper-turned-fashion-magnate after he made a number of anti-Semitic remarks on podcasts and social media. Adidas’s move was well received by the public and will come with a substantial financial cost. Some estimate that terminating the partnership will roughly halve the company’s profits for 2022 — a year that’s already seen the company plagued by slowing sales and a share price that’s fallen more than 60%.

‍Tech: It's been a tough week in big tech. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, reported its slowest growth since the pandemic, with users and brands skipping ads on YouTube. The video platform's ad revenue actually shrunk 2% year-on-year, spooking investors. Microsoft didn’t fare much better, as the company’s cloud division, Azure, missed expectations.

‍Economy-proof: Coca-Cola earnings were a rare bright spot in the busy earnings calendar yesterday, with a refreshingly positive set of numbers. The drinks conglomerate, which owns Sprite, Fanta and a number of other brands, raised prices to contend with commodity costs and shipping expenses and still saw their year-on-year revenue rise 10% last quarter. Not many products can claim to be recession-proof; Coca-Cola might be one of the few.

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JetBlue is raising its bag fees as fuel costs squeeze airlines

JetBlue will reportedly hike its bag fees, as the cost of jet fuel continues to climb amid the war in Iran. It’s the latest example of carriers finding ways to push rising costs onto travelers.

Last week, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that if fuel prices remain elevated, fares would need to rise another 20% for his airline to break even this year.

As CNBC reported, when one airline raises fees, others tend to follow.

Earlier this month, JetBlue hiked its first-quarter outlook for operating revenue per seat mile to between 5% and 7%, saying that strong Q1 demand helped “partially offset additional expenses realized from operational disruptions and rising fuel costs.” Now, the carrier appears to be making moves to further boost revenue to offset those costs.

Earlier on Monday, JetBlue rival Alaska Air lowered its Q1 profit forecast. The refining margins for the carrier’s cheapest fuel option — sourced from Singapore and representing about 20% of Alaska’s overall supply — have spiked 400% since February.

JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.