Welcome to MarketBites! Here's all you need to know about yesterday's market news.

“Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without." 

- Joseph Wood Krutch

MARKET PERFORMANCE

PORTFOLIO MANAGER COMMENTARY

The stock market experienced a broad-based selloff on Wednesday with all major indices declining. This follows a volatile session the day before where all three indexes closed higher. Fed governor Christopher Waller stated that the central bank will need to keep monetary policy restrictive for a few years to control inflation.

Shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company, slipped by over 7% after the company held an event to promote its new AI chatbot, Bard, which will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, Microsoft held its own event to showcase new AI technologies for its Bing search engine, which will allow for more conversational responses to users. Despite increased competition from Microsoft, analysts believe Google's AI technology is "at least as good" as its competition, due to its years of AI investment and unparalleled scale.

Disney reported its first-quarter earnings for 2023 with CEO Bob Iger back at the helm. The company is seeking a "significant transformation" by reducing expenses and putting creative power back into the hands of its content creators. Disney beat expectations with earnings per share of 99 cents and revenue of $23.51 billion. The direct-to-consumer business posted an operating loss of $1.05 billion, while theme parks saw a 21% increase in revenue to $8.7 billion. Disney+ had 161.1 million subscribers, with a recent price hike causing a loss of around 2.4 million subscribers, which was lower than expected.

Uber and CVS Health both saw a rise in their stock prices after reporting increases in revenue and earnings last quarter. Manchester United saw a 9% jump in its stock price after a report of potential bids from Qatari investors.

In overseas trading, markets were mixed with the Stoxx Europe 600 rising 0.3% and Asian indexes finishing mostly lower. Turkey's stock exchange suspended trading after a steep three-day selloff triggered by earthquakes that have resulted in over 11,000 deaths.

CHART OF THE DAY

Florida is facing its smallest orange crop in nearly 90 years due to a freeze, two hurricanes, and citrus disease. The state is expected to produce just 18 million 90-pound boxes of oranges, which is less than half the size of last year's poor crop and a 93% decline from Florida's peak output in 1998. The measly crop is driving up the prices of frozen concentrate orange-juice futures to near records and not-from-concentrate juice prices are fetching more than $10 a gallon. High prices may encourage growers to invest in protecting trees from Asian citrus psyllids, but long-term trends show that production will continue declining due to citrus greening.

WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING

• Google slumps as Microsoft rolls out ChatGPT for Bing - read here
• Netflix begins password sharing crackdown - read here
• Fed Governor warns that interest rates can keep rising - read here