Nike's quarterly earnings and revenue beat analyst expectations, despite many believing the company's bottom line would suffer from its decision to feature former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in its signature "Just Do It" campaign, CNBC reports.
The big picture: The company posted earnings of $0.52 per share against an expected mark of $0.46, while hauling in $9.37 billion in 4th quarter against an expectation of $9.18 billion. The company's shares were up 7.1% at market close on Friday.
Super Saturday, the final Saturday before Christmas, is expected to bring in $26 billion in retail sales this year — $2 billion more than Black Friday — according to retail advisory group Customer Growth Partners.
The big picture: The money flowing in from last-minute shoppers is expected to be a win for retail stores — not just online behemoths like Amazon. Mild winter weather and low gas prices across the country are pulling shoppers out of their homes and to the cash registers, CNBC reports.
What I'm hearing: China's top economic policymaker Liu He may be coming to D.C. for the January discussions. So far the Chinese side has not offered any detailed concessions that come close to meeting the expectations out of the Trump-Xi meeting in Argentina but that may change now that the Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC) has set the economic priorities for 2019.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average just closed out its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, finishing down nearly 7%. The stock market overall had its worst week since 2011, per the AP.
Why it matters, via Axios' Dion Rabouin: This week's market undoing has analysts and fund managers on Wall Street breaking out the 'R' word — recession. While many had sworn off such language a couple weeks ago, the looming government shutdown and crumbling global growth outlook has Wall Street talking openly about recession.
Snap Inc.'s stock fell below $5 per share Thursday, and hit its all time low of $4.85 Friday. The company went public last year at $17 per share and has gradually lost momentum since.
Why it matters: Despite dodging a bad press cycle that other data-driven ad companies faced, Snap has still failed to win over investors that are skeptical of the company's plan to grow its user base and business.
There's been a bit of correction in public tech stocks lately amid a larger market slump, and although Silicon Valley venture capitalists are telling Axios it could impact later stage companies who haven't been performing well, most founders will likely go unscathed.
The big picture: "Having a bit of air let out of the balloon could be a good thing," IVP partner Jules Maltz tells Axios. And having it happen on the private side also wouldn't be bad, adds another VC.
The U.S. is moving to ease decades of get-tough prisons policy by, among other things, beefing up training programs so that ex-convicts can get jobs.
The big picture: The First Step Act, sent to Trump on Thursday, will also reduce some sentences and give judges more sentencing flexibility. But one of the most pernicious aspects of the criminal justice system is how it has fallen short in allowing ex-convicts to make a fresh start.
