WSJ What’s News - What’s News in Markets: Tariff Trade, Robinhood’s Crypto Gains, Unilever Slides

Episode Date: February 15, 2025

How is Coca-Cola dealing with aluminum tariffs? And how are crypto’s gains benefiting Robinhood? Plus, why Unilever shares dropped. Francesca Fontana discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wealthsimple's Big Winter Bundle is our best match offer yet. Get a 2% match when you transfer over an eligible RRSP. For a $50,000 transfer, that's a $1,000 cash bonus. Enough to buy a fancy parka. A ticket to somewhere you don't need a fancy parka. Or just be responsible and top up your retirement fund. Plus, move any other eligible account and we'll give you a 1% match. Minimum $15,000 transfer.

Register by March 15th. Additional terms apply. Learn more at wealthsimple.com slash match. Hey, listeners. It's Saturday, February 15th. I'm Francesca Fontana for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week

and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. Welcome back. Hope you all are taking advantage of any post-Valentine's Day chocolate sales near you. This week started off with more tariffs from President Trump, announced on Monday, with investors largely shrugging off the risk of them igniting a trade war. But investors weren't shrugging off Wednesday's inflation readout, as the consumer price index picked up faster

than economists had expected. That deepened traders' worries that interest rates might not come down anytime soon. But the market bounced back with more political news Thursday, with Trump raising hopes of a resolution to the war in Ukraine and putting off a decision on additional tariffs on foreign goods. On a weekly basis, the Nasdaq rose 2.6%, the S&P 500 gained 1.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial

Average added less than 1%. Now while the market overall shrugged off Monday's tariff announcement, it still played a part in some big stock moves this week. For those who missed the news, or who just can't keep all the trade news straight, which I can't blame you, those levies are 25% on imports of steel and aluminum. Or aluminum, if you're from the UK. Dealer's choice. The stock market winners there were the metal producers, like Cleveland Cliffs, U.S. Steel,

and Alcoa. But those who buy metal might have to make some changes, like Coca-Cola. On Tuesday, Coke posted better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, but investors were also taking in what chief executive James Quincy had to say about aluminum prices. He said Coke is working to keep a lid, so to speak, on potential price increases by looking for ways to use less aluminum and finding different sources for it.

Coke, as you might imagine, uses a heck of a lot of aluminum soda cans and imports the material from Canada. Coke shares ended up jumping 4.7% Tuesday and ended the week with a gain of nearly 8%. Next up, we're welcoming in the crypto golden age. At least, that's the hope of many a cryptocurrency trader. And we certainly saw those hopes bolstered by Robinhood's earnings on Wednesday. Robinhood, the trading platform, posted a sharp jump in quarterly profit, helped by

a flurry of post-election activity, including trading in crypto. Robinhood's one of the big winners of the so-called Trump bump, aka the end-of-year market rally fueled by investors' expectations that the new administration would be more business-friendly. And, as we've seen, Trump is pro-crypto. Since taking office, he's signed an executive order for looser regulations for cryptocurrencies, and we've seen major cryptocurrencies surging after he won the election. So how'd the stock do?

It surged 14% on Thursday and ended the week almost 17% higher. Now I might just have an especially sweet tooth this week because first I'm talking about chocolate and now ice cream. Unilever, the consumer goods giant that makes Ben & Jerry's, Breyer's, Tolenty, a bunch of the big names in frozen treats, on Thursday confirmed its plans to spin off its ice cream business in order to simplify the company. Before it had also been considering selling the unit. And that business is a big one.

Last year, it generated sales of more than $8.6 billion, roughly 14% of Unilever's overall revenue. But, alas, investors weren't all screaming for ice cream because the announcement wasn't the only Unilever news to digest. The company also said that revenue grew less than analysts expected in the latest quarter, and it gave a subdued outlook for 2025. U.S. traded shares of Unilever fell 5.6% Thursday, and they lost an additional 1.9% on Friday.