STOCK MARKET UPDATES: GDP falls short, Facebook jumps, Amazon earnings

Gap, owner of Old Navy and Banana Republic, confirmed it will cut 1,800 workers in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In March, the retailer said “it planned to take actions to further simplify and optimize its operating model and structure, including actions such as increasing spans of control and decreasing management layers to improve quality and speed of decision making, as well as creating a consistent organizational structure across all four brands focused on elevating its product and customer experience.”

The cuts, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, will impact “headquartered and upper field workforce”, the filing detailed.

The battle between Disney and Governor Ron DeSantis is getting even uglier in the latest twist over the entertainment giant’s presence in Florida.

Facebook parent Meta saw shares jump 11% in pre-market trading after the social media giant reported its first sales rise in about a year. Revenues hit $28.6 billion a 3% rise and ahead of expectations.

The U.S. economy
 rose 1.1% in the first quarter, falling short of estimates, in a sign that a slowdown is underway. 

It is also a big pullback from the fourth quarter’s 2.6% rise and the third quarter’s 3.2% increase, according to the final estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  

The read may present a conundrum for the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell, who frequently touts being data dependent, heading into next week’s May meeting. 

Goods for March rose 3.2%, the first increase in three months, blowing past expectations of just 0.7% growth. However, March retail sales data released last week indicated the consumer has dialed back spending, falling 1%, excluding autos, sales slipped 0.8%. More current data, consumer confidence, as tracked by the Conference Board, slipped to a 9-month low in April. 

Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk hob-knobbed on Capitol Hill Wednesday meeting with a key lawmaker.

The U.S. economy faced headwinds in the first quarter according to an advance read on gross domestic product.