But a little company in the U.K. with 25 employees has been sending things into space for over a decade.
Sent Into Space, the WSJ noted today, makes a business out of sending "stuff" into "space" (at 110,000 feet, it's technically just the stratosphere, but the pictures will fool you).
Details: A chicken nugget, Jameson whiskey, a wedding dress, and a meat-and-potato pie have all taken the trip, per the report.
Um, why? It's fueled some pretty good marketing campaigns. And why not?
Between the lines: There are no rockets involved. A polyethylene balloon takes the object up for its photo shoot before descending back down to Earth.
A single trip can cost between a few thousand dollars to "hundreds of thousands," per the WSJ.
Shares in Disney spiked more than 7% in post-close trading after lifting its fiscal year 2024 earnings guidance and announcing a strategic partnership with Epic Games that will supercharge its foray into gaming.
Why it matters: Disney is under enormous pressure to prove to investors that its strategy is working.
Disney said on Wednesday it's buying a $1.5 billion stake in Fortnite maker Epic Games, placing a big bet on the gaming sector.
Details: Disney said the investment will provide consumers the opportunity to "play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and more."
Disney announced the deal just after releasing Q1 earnings.
What they're saying: "Disney was one of the first companies to believe in the potential of bringing their worlds together with ours in Fortnite, and they use Unreal Engine across their portfolio," said Tim Sweeney, CEO and founder, Epic Games.
New York Community Bancorp,a midsized New York lender, once looked like a winner of the regional banking crisis of 2023. Now it's in trouble.
Why it matters: The bank's shares have been plunging over the past week — and with more than $100 billion of assets, NYCB is big and important enough that its failure, were it to happen, would reverberate nationally and even internationally.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission isn't done cracking down on crypto lending — it announced a $3 million in fines against TradeStation over its lending program today.
Why it matters: Offering customers yield for allowing a third party to lend out their cryptoassets was a popular product in the blockchain business, but then many of the companies offering it fell apart in 2022.
Toyota expects to notch an annual profit of more than $30 billion when its fiscal year closes in March, it said Tuesday.
Why it matters: That would be a record profit for the Japanese car giant, suggesting its decision to emphasize gas-hybrid vehicles, rather than fully electric models, is paying off.
Meta stock hit a high above $485 per share on Friday. That's a jump of more than 23% from where it closed on Thursday before the company reported earnings and announced its first-ever dividend.
Why it matters: Dividends are a form of financial engineering. They don't change anything fundamental about a company's size or profitability — and yet they can have an enormous effect on its valuation.
A coalition of large banking and business trade groups filed suit this week against their regulators over updates to a housing law meant to promote lending to low-income Americans.
Why it matters: Banks have gotten more aggressive in challenging Biden-era regulations and regulators.
