CrowdStrike sinks on outage, energy sector struggles: Morning Brief
On today's episode of Morning Brief, Hosts Seana Smith and Brad Smith break down the market open and some of the biggest stories dominating the trading week. All three of the major averages (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) opened lower on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by over 0.3% at the market open. The tech-heavy indexes are being dragged down as markets react to global outages tied to a CrowdStrike (CRWD) update. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has identified the source of the disruption as a flaw in a single update for certain Microsoft (MSFT) Windows hosts. CrowdStrike's CEO says that the issue has been identified so it companies can fix the issue. Defused Cyber Deception researcher and founder Simo Kohonen emphasizes CrowdStrike's reputation as the "top number one cybersecurity company in the world" and notes that their extensive customer base amplifies the scale of this issue. He adds, "I think CrowdStrike will have a lot of conversations with their current customers and their future customers about what they're doing differently. They might take a short-term hit from it, but they're still an extremely reputable vendor." Netflix (NFLX) shares have been on the move after reporting second quarter earnings results after Thursday's market close. The streamer topped estimates and revealed it added 8 million subscribers despite missing Wall Street expectations for third quarter earnings guidance. TD Cowen managing director John Blackledge notes that management expects margins to continue to rise in the next year, and points to the growth of its ad tier: "They were pretty bullish on the long term. And also kind of on the near term. They expect the ad tier to reach critical scale by next year in all 12 of the AVoD [Advertising-based Video on Demand] markets." As the small-cap Russell 2000 (^RUT) index has climbed by nearly 200 points in the past week and a half, Carson Group Chief Market Strategist Ryan Detrick discusses why a potential rotation out of big Tech may not entirely be "shocking." "I think we expected this type of move [out of Tech]. And honestly, guys, we think it's going to continue," he says, adding, "Doesn't mean we hate tech. We're more neutral tech, but we really think these other underloved, underappreciated, and under-owned areas are probably going be pretty good the second half of this year." Finally, the energy sector is slipping as shares SunPower (SPWR) tanked around 30% on Friday morning after the company reportedly notified dealers that as of September 17, it will no longer support new leases and halt shipments. This move comes after the company announced in April that it will have to restate almost 2 years of financial results. Similarly, shares of Plug Power (PLUG) are sliding after the company announced a $200 million common stock offering. The company claims the offering is for "general corporate purposes." This post was written by Melanie Riehl
